Government’s invisible hand in developing countries
Political scientist Noah Nathan’s new book, “The Scarce State,” explores the deep impact government can have even when it is seemingly absent.
Study: AI models fail to reproduce human judgements about rule violations
Models trained using common data-collection techniques judge rule violations more harshly than humans would, researchers report.
Success at the intersection of technology and finance
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin visits MIT, discusses how technology will continue to transform trading and investing.
Inaugural J-WAFS Grand Challenge aims to develop enhanced crop variants and move them from lab to land
Matt Shoulders will lead an interdisciplinary team to improve RuBisCO — the photosynthesis enzyme thought to be the holy grail for improving agricultural yield.
Chemists’ technique reveals whether antibodies neutralize SARS-CoV-2
The method could enable a rapid test to determine whether individuals are producing antibodies that help protect against Covid-19.
Using reflections to see the world from new points of view
A new computer vision system turns any shiny object into a camera of sorts, enabling an observer to see around corners or beyond obstructions.
Advocating for science budget and policy
MIT’s Science Policy Initiative sends students and postdocs to Capitol Hill to advocate for continued and increased federal support for scientific research.
Training machines to learn more like humans do
Researchers identify a property that helps computer vision models learn to represent the visual world in a more stable, predictable way.
US and UAE governments highlight early warning system for climate resilience
One of MIT’s five Climate Grand Challenges flagship projects, the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet project will pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
An unprecedented view of gene regulation
MIT engineers’ new technique analyzes the 3D organization of the genome at a resolution 100 times higher than before.
Researchers create a tool for accurately simulating complex systems
The system they developed eliminates a source of bias in simulations, leading to improved algorithms that can boost the performance of applications.
Scientists discover how mutations in a language gene produce speech deficits
Faulty versions of the Foxp2 gene disrupt neurons’ ability to form synapses in brain regions involved in speech, a new study shows.
Researchers develop novel AI-based estimator for manufacturing medicine
A collaborative research team from the MIT-Takeda Program combined physics and machine learning to characterize rough particle surfaces in pharmaceutical pills and powders.
In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.
Open-source platform simulates wildlife for soft robotics designers
SoftZoo is a soft robot co-design platform that can test optimal shapes and sizes for robotic performance in different environments.