Prof. Matthias Michel speaks to Nature’s Amanda Heidt about our understanding of human consciousness. “People are often troubled by the fact that our understanding [of consciousness] remains somewhat vague,” says Michel. “However, it’s very important to note that definitions in the history of science come at the end of the scientific process, not at the beginning. I’d argue we’re now in the thick of it, which is an exciting place to be.”
In an interview with Nature’s David Adam, Prof. Carlo Ratti discusses design elements he believes architects should focus on in the age of AI, emphasizing how citizens, not algorithms, should be the architects of the future. “One important thing that AI can do is show us on a large scale where a city fails people. Combining the computer vision used to identify problems with public images gives us the chance to do something about them,” Ratti explains. He adds: “Many of the best ideas about cities have come from people disagreeing with one another in the same room—from cafes to council chambers. If algorithms learn what people like and simply give us more of it, or if software agents start negotiating with other agents on our behalf, we could lose those encounters.”
Research Scientist Judah Cohen speaks to USA Today’s Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver about the potential impacts of the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), currently disrupting the polar vortex, that “could eventually lead to an outbreak of frigid air across much of the United States at some point over the next few months.” “Usually it takes two weeks (but recently it seems to take much longer) for the impacts of the SSW to impact our weather, so that puts it as early as late November but more likely in December and could even be delayed until January,” says Cohen. “The last El Niño in 2023-24 featured two SSWs and it was a very mild winter in the eastern U.S. and may have even been record mild. In short lots of uncertainty!”
CSAIL researchers have discovered that a large frontier AI model can, without any specialized training, understand and fine-tune another AI model’s capabilities, reports Fortune’s Jeremy Kah. The research “could be a big breakthrough in interpretability—our ability to understand the internal ‘thought’ processes of large language models,” writes Kah. “That’s critical because interpretability is one of the ways we are hoping to keep AI agents under human control.”
William D. Nordhaus PhD ’67, a “Yale economist and Nobel laureate who tabulated the economic wreckage of carbon emissions and influenced climate policy across several presidential administrations,” has died at 85, reports The New York Times’ Lydia DePillis. Nordhaus developed a model over decades, “to balance climate change’s long-term damage with the costs required to contain it,” that has “underpinned dozens of regulations around the world aimed at limiting fossil fuels and seeded the ground for a new field of research that bridges the gap between economics and earth science,” writes DePillis.
MIT researchers have “examined how improvements to existing transmission infrastructure could increase electricity delivery without relying entirely on expensive and time-consuming construction of new lines,” reports The Daily Tribune’s Carl Magadia. The researchers “examined three technologies: dynamic line ratings, which adjust power-line capacity based on real-time weather; advanced power flow controls, which redirect electricity away from congested lines; and topology optimization, which improves electricity distribution by reconfiguring grid connections,” notes Magadia.
Prof. John Urschel speaks to The New Yorker’s Rivka Galchen about AI being used as a tool for teaching and research in the field of mathematics. “I would say what I call the more scientist approach [to new technology] is being focused on trying to push the frontier of things as far as we can as quickly as we can,” says Urschel. “And the artist perspective is, ‘let me do something beautiful and enjoyable and manipulate these things,’ and the act of doing this is really, you know, a joyful thing.”
Prof. Christopher Knittel joins the Climate One podcast to discuss energy policy and his research on the costs associated with homeowners implementing rooftop solar. “Rooftop solar is raising people's rates,” says Knittel. We should continue to “subsidize rooftop solar in a way that's not regressive, that is not leaning harder on those homes that cannot install solar.” Thinking about: “what is the best, most efficient, and [the] fairest way to make that [equity] happen.”
Prof. Catherine Tucker and her colleagues published a report that reveals neighborhood disparities in access to and use of digital government services, writes Kaitlyn Levinson for Route Fifty. “Higher-income neighborhoods are more likely to submit multiple enforcement requests simultaneously via the app, leading to faster resolution when complaints are geographically concentrated and, consequently, to unequal neighborhood outcomes,” the report reads. “This underscores the need for policymakers to consider the broader social effects of digital civic tools and ensure they do not exacerbate existing inequalities.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu joins Bloomberg’s “Mishal Husain Show” to discuss his latest book, “What Happened to Liberal Democracy: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity,” as it relates to democracy in the age of AI and social media. “The thing that gives me hope is that humans are very adaptable,” says Acemoglu. “People, even in this polarized world, have a deep sense of fairness, around [which] we can come together. There are so many shared moral values between the different sides of the aisle in the U.K., [and] the U.S. Polarization, bad leadership [and] social media have obscured them.”
In a conversation with Slate’s Shirin Ali, Prof. Charles Stewart III, director of MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab, discusses a framework to help voters “see important red flags in the hours immediately following Election Day,” detailed in his new paper “The Day After: Threats and Guardrails in the 2026 Election.” “After Election Day, that’s where we’re thinking about getting the final count in,” says Stewart. “We shift into the formal process of canvassing the vote, certifying it, and making sure that we’ve named the winners.”
An analysis by Prof. Charles Stewart III, director of MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab, found that requests for mail-in ballots were down in Georgia, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin earlier this month, reports Patrick Marley, Leslie Shapiro and Laura Meckler for The Washington Post. “Those five states can be more fully analyzed than others because they provide data showing how voting patterns compare with the same stage of the election cycle in 2022,” note Marley, Shapiro and Meckler. “In data collected four weeks before Election Day, requests were down most sharply in Georgia — by 50 percent compared with the same point in 2022.”
BIOSENTER, a soft, snake-like robot developed by MIT researchers, could autonomously snap photos, administer drugs, and take small biopsy samples within cramped and difficult to reach areas of the body such as the small intestine, writes Mack DeGeurin for Popular Science. “BIOSENTER has four inflatable chambers arranged along either side of its tubular body. These chambers inflate and deflate in alternating combinations, which is how it moves [forward] and bends to change directions,” explains DeGeurin. “Keeping with the snake theme, the robot’s exterior is fitted with a textured, scale-like coating that improves its traction.”
MIT researchers have developed BIOSENTER, a soft robot inspired by the movement of snakes, “designed to navigate the twists and turns of the small intestine [that] could perform real-time imaging, deliver drugs, and take biopsies deep within the digestive tract,” reports Inside Precision Medicine. “The robot’s tube-like body contains four inflatable chambers that can expand or contract in different combinations, allowing the robot to move forward and bend in different directions. A hollow central channel allows the robot to carry endoscopic tools, including a camera for imaging, a fluid sprayer for drug delivery, and clips for collecting tissue samples or removing small polyps.”
Undergraduate student Melody Chen, a former MIT Research Science Institute Scholar, has been named in the 2026 class of U.S. Presidential Scholars, writes Forbes’ Michael T. Nietzel. “This year’s group consists of 161 outstanding high school seniors, who were selected for their accomplishments in academics, the arts, and career and technical education fields as well as for commitments to community service and leadership,” notes Nietzel. “Being named a U.S. Presidential Scholar is considered one of the nation’s most prestigious academic awards for high school graduates.”