Prof. Giovanni Traverso and his lab are developing “a transdermal patch that could provide women with long-term contraception,” reports The Boston Globe Editorial Board. “The lab is also developing probiotic medications to treat abnormalities in the vaginal microbiome, a condition associated with risks including painful infection and premature birth.”
Strand Therapeutics, co-founded Jake Becraft PhD '19, has developed a programmable drug that could one day shrink tumors in cancer patients, reports Amy Feldman for Forbes. “It shocked even us,” says Becraft. “You hope something happens, but you don’t expect to see a huge response because these patients have already proven to have cancers so resistant to treatment.”
Lila Snyder SM '96, PhD '98, CEO of Bose, speaks with Forbes reporter Don Yaeger about her academic and professional career. “The framework that I liked to use when I was earlier in my career was at least once a week to do something uncomfortable,” says Snyder. “Ask to meet someone, ask someone for feedback, raise your hand to do something. Do something that makes you feel a little bit anxious and a little bit uncomfortable.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with Newsweek reporter Alexis Kayser about how new AI tools are implemented in health care settings. “You need to know how to safely bring it into the [health care] system," says Barzilay. "There is a new science, which is the science of implementation."
Prof. Kerri Cahoy takes Bloomberg Wall Street Week host David Westin on an out-of-this-world journey into how a college internship inspired her research on space and satellites, why she loves the challenge of satellite engineering, and what she sees in store for the future of the field. “There is a lot of joy and pride and skill building and challenge in the field,” says Cahoy. “That’s one of the reasons why I love it."
Researchers at MIT have developed a new tool, called Meschers, that allows users to create detailed computer representations of mathematically impossible objects, reports Gayoung Lee for Gizmodo. “In addition to creating aesthetically quirky objects,” Lee explains, “Meschers could eventually assist in research across geometry, thermodynamics, and even art and architecture."
Prof. Kerri Cahoy speaks with Bloomberg Wall Street Week reporter David Westin about advancements in low earth satellites. “It is very exciting to see it growing like this," says Cahoy. "To see remote access without terrestrial infrastructure needed, that is a very interesting and exciting growth area."
Researchers at MIT have found that “tropical forests populated with a diversity of seed-dispersing animals can accumulate carbon up to four times as fast as fragmented forests where these animals are absent or their movement is restricted,” reports James Dinneen for New Scientist. “This shows a linkage between animal biodiversity loss and a process that exacerbates climate change,” says research scientist Evan Fricke. “We’re losing the regrowth potential of tropical forests.”
Leah Ellis, a former MIT postdoc and co-founder of MIT startup Sublime Systems, speaks with Nature reporter Emma Ulker about the company’s mission to reduce carbon emissions from cement production, how her work with co-founder Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang helped inspire her entrepreneurial journey, and her philosophy as a science entrepreneur. “At Sublime, we are tackling a hard problem — pun intended — because the cement industry is one of the most difficult to approach, owing to its sheer scale,” explains Ellis. “The motivation for our work is that change in cement-making technology has a significant impact — it’s really only once in a millennium that you get to rethink such a foundational and monumental building material.”
Researchers at MIT have uncovered a variety of obstacles of AI in software development, reports Rob Wile for NBC News. They have found “the main obstacles come when AI programs are asked to develop code at scale, or with more complex logic,” writes Wile.
Prof. Emeritus Donald Sadoway speaks with Forbes reporter Neil Winton about the development of solid-state batteries and the future of electric vehicles. “Yes, in 2035 the U.S. the automobile market will be roughly the same as today, but by then the massive demand for electricity from computers, AI and EVs will combine to demand more electricity than the grid can supply,” says Sadoway.
Rizwan Virk '92 speaks with Boston Globe reporter Brian Bergstein about his book “The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics, and Eastern Mystics All Agree We Are in a Video Game.” Bergstein writes: “The book came out in 2019, but an updated version is being released this week to account for developments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.”
Researchers at MIT are working to advance our understanding of acute Lyme disease and long Covid, reports Brianna Abbott for The Wall Street Journal. “What we’re trying to do is measure everything,” said Principal Scientist Michal Caspi Tal. “I want to find a way to give people hope.”
Interesting Engineering reporter Saoirse Kerrigan spotlights a number of MIT research projects from the past decade. MIT has “long been a hub of innovation and ingenuity across multiple industries and disciplines,” writes Kerrigan. “Every year, the school’s best and brightest debut projects that push the boundaries of science and technology. From vehicles and furniture to exciting new breakthroughs in electricity generation, the school’s projects have tackled an impressive variety of subjects.”
Researchers at MIT have created “a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it,” a development that could “significantly speed up the 3D-printing process,” reports Andrew Corselli for Tech Briefs. Graduate student Nicholas Diaco explains that this new method “allows us in a single 3D print, to create structures that either dissolve or don't dissolve away. That lets us automate the most difficult and most expensive step of 3D printing, which is removing support materials after the printing is done.”