The gift: Kindness goes viral with Steve Hartman
Steve Hartman visited Professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi to explore the science behind whether a single act of kindness can change the world.
Full story via CBS News
Trio wins Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on quantum dots, utilized in electronics and medical imaging
“The motivation really is the essential science. A basic understanding, the curiosity of ‘how does the world work?’” said Professor Moungi Bawendi of the inspiration for his research on quantum dots, for which he was co-awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Full story via the Associated Press
How MIT’s all-women leadership team plans to alter science for the higher
President Sally Kornbluth, Provost Cynthia Barnhart, and Chancellor Melissa Nobles emphasized the importance of representation for girls and underrepresented groups in STEM.
Full story via Radio Boston
MIT via community college? Transfer students discover a latest path to a level
Undergraduate Subin Kim shared his experience transferring from community college to MIT through the Transfer Scholars Network, which is geared toward helping community college students discover a path to four-year universities.
Full story via the Christian Science Monitor
MIT president Sally Kornbluth doesn’t think we are able to hit the pause button on AI
President Kornbluth discussed the long run of AI, ethics in science, and climate change with columnist Shirley Leung on her latest “Say More” podcast. “I view [the climate crisis] as an existential issue to the extent that if we don’t take motion there, all of the various, many other things that we’re working on, not that they’ll be irrelevant, but they’ll pale as compared,” Kornbluth said.
Full story via The Boston Globe
It’s the tip of a world as we realize it
Astronomers from MIT, Harvard University, Caltech and elsewhere spotted a dying star swallowing a big planet. Postdoc Kishalay De explained that: “Finding an event like this really puts all the theories which were on the market to probably the most stringent tests possible. It really opens up this complete latest field of research.”
Full story via The Latest York Times
Frontiers of AI
Hey, Alexa, what should students find out about AI?
The Day of AI is a program developed by the MIT RAISE initiative geared toward introducing and teaching K-12 students about AI. “We would like students to learn, responsible users and informed, responsible designers of those technologies,” said Professor Cynthia Breazeal, dean of digital learning at MIT.
Full story via The Latest York Times
AI tipping point
4 faculty members from across MIT — Professors Song Han, Simon Johnson, Yoon Kim and Rosalind Picard — described the opportunities and risks posed by the rapid advancements in the sector of AI.
Full story via Curiosity Stream
A glance into the long run of AI at MIT’s robotics laboratory
Professor Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, discussed the long run of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning, emphasizing the importance of balancing the event of recent technologies with the necessity to ensure they’re deployed in a way that advantages humanity.
Full story via Mashable
Health care providers say artificial intelligence could transform medicine
Professor Regina Barzilay spoke about her work developing latest AI systems that could possibly be used to assist diagnose breast and lung cancer before the cancers are detectable to the human eye.
Full story via Chronicle
Is AI coming to your job? Tech experts weigh in: “They don’t replace human labor”
Professor David Autor discussed how the rise of artificial intelligence could change the standard of jobs available.
Full story via CBS News
Big tech is bad. Big AI will probably be worse.
Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson made the case that “moderately than machine intelligence, what we want is ‘machine usefulness,’ which emphasizes the power of computers to enhance human capabilities.”
Full story via The Latest York Times
Engineering excitement
MIT’s 3D-printed hearts could pump latest life into customized treatments
MIT engineers developed a method for 3D printing a soft, flexible, custom-designed replica of a patient’s heart.
Full story via WBUR
Mystery of why Roman buildings have survived so long has been unraveled, scientists say
Scientists from MIT and other institutions discovered that ancient Romans used lime clasts when manufacturing concrete, giving the fabric self-healing properties.
Full story via CNN
Probably the most interesting startup in America is in Massachusetts. You’ve probably never heard of it.
VulcanForms, an MIT startup, is on the “vanguard of a push to rework 3D printing from a distinct segment technology — best known for new-product prototyping and art-class experimentation — into an industrial force.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Catalyzing climate innovations
Can Boston’s energy innovators save the world?
reporter Rowan Jacobsen spotlighted how MIT faculty, students, and alumni are leading the charge in clean energy startups. “In the case of game-changing breakthroughs in energy, three letters keep surfacing repeatedly: MIT,” writes Jacobsen.
Full story via Boston Magazine
MIT research could possibly be game changer in combating water shortages
MIT researchers discovered that a typical hydrogel utilized in cosmetic creams, industrial coatings, and pharmaceutical capsules can absorb moisture from the atmosphere at the same time as the temperature rises. “For a planet that’s getting hotter, this could possibly be a game-changing discovery.”
Full story via NBC Boston
Energy-storing concrete could form foundations for solar-powered homes
MIT engineers uncovered a latest way of making an energy supercapacitor by combining cement, carbon black, and water that might sooner or later be used to power homes or electric vehicles.
Full story via Latest Scientist
MIT researchers tackle key query of EV adoption: When to charge?
MIT scientists found that delayed charging and strategic placement of EV charging stations could help reduce additional energy demands brought on by more widespread EV adoption.
Full story via Fast Company
Constructing higher buildings
Professor John Fernández examined methods to reduce the climate footprints of homes and office buildings, recommending creating airtight structures, switching to cleaner heating sources, using more environmentally friendly constructing materials, and retrofitting existing homes and offices.
Full story via The Latest York Times
They’re constructing an “ice penetrator” on a hillside in Westford
Researchers from MIT’s Haystack Observatory built an “ice penetrator,” a tool designed to watch the changing conditions of sea ice.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Healing health solutions
How Boston is thrashing cancer
MIT researchers are developing drug-delivery nanoparticles geared toward targeting cancer cells without disturbing healthy cells. Essentially, the nanoparticles are “engineered for selectivity,” explained Professor Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
Full story via Boston Magazine
A latest antibiotic, discovered with artificial intelligence, may defeat a dangerous superbug
Using a machine-learning algorithm, researchers from MIT discovered a style of antibiotic that’s effective against a specific strain of drug-resistant bacteria.
Full story via CNN
To detect breast cancer sooner, an MIT professor designs an ultrasound bra
MIT researchers designed a wearable ultrasound device that attaches to a bra and could possibly be used to detect early-stage breast tumors.
Full story via STAT
The search for a switch to activate hunger
An ingestible pill developed by MIT scientists can raise levels of hormones to assist increase appetite and reduce nausea in patients with gastroparesis.
Full story via Wired
Here’s methods to use dreams for creative inspiration
MIT scientists found that the sooner stages of sleep are key to sparking creativity and that folks will be guided to dream about specific topics, further boosting creativity.
Full story via Scientific American
Astounding art
An AI opera from 1987 reboots for a latest generation
Professor Tod Machover discussed the restaging of his opera “VALIS” at MIT, which featured a man-made intelligence-assisted musical instrument developed by Nina Masuelli ’23.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Surfacing the stories hidden in migration data
Associate Professor Sarah Williams discussed the Civic Data Design Lab’s “Motivational Tapestry,” a big woven art piece that uses data from the United Nations World Food Program to visually represent the person motivations of 1,624 Central Americans who’ve migrated to the U.S.
Full story via Metropolis
Augmented reality-infused production of Wagner’s “Parsifal” opens Bayreuth Festival
Professor Jay Scheib’s augmented reality-infused production of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” brought “fantastical images” to audience members.
Full story via the Associated Press
Understanding our universe
Latest image reveals violent events near a supermassive black hole
Scientists captured a latest image of M87*, the black hole at the middle of the Messier 87 galaxy, showing the “launching point of a colossal jet of high-energy particles shooting outward into space.”
Full story via Reuters
Gravitational waves: A latest universe
MIT researchers Lisa Barsotti, Deep Chatterjee, and Victoria Xu explored how advances in gravitational wave detection are enabling a greater understanding of the universe.
Full story via Curiosity Stream
Nergis Mavalvala helped detect the primary gravitational wave. Her work doesn’t stop there
Professor Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the School of Science, discussed her work trying to find gravitational waves, the importance of skepticism in scientific research, and why she enjoys working with young people.
Full story via Wired
Hitting the books
“The Transcendent Brain” review: Beyond ones and zeroes
In his book “The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality within the Age of Science,” Alan Lightman, a professor of the practice of humanities, displayed his gift for “distilling complex ideas and emotions to their shiny essence.”
Full story via The Wall Street Journal
What happens when CEOs treat employees higher? Corporations (and employees) win.
Professor of the practice Zeynep Ton published a book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” and is “on a mission to alter how company leaders think, and the way they treat their employees.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Find out how to wage war on conspiracy theories
Professor Adam Berinsky’s book, “Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and Find out how to Fight it,” examined “attitudes toward each politics and health, each of that are undermined by distrust and misinformation in ways in which cause harm to each individuals and society.”
Full story via Politico
What it takes for Mexican coders to cross the cultural border with Silicon Valley
Assistant Professor Héctor Beltrán discussed his latest book, “Code Work: Hacking across the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands,” which explores the culture of hackathons and entrepreneurship in Mexico.
Full story via Marketplace
Cultivating community
The Indigenous rocketeer
Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year student at MIT, discussed her work leading MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket team on the 2023 First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition.
Full story via Nature
“You totally got this,” YouTube star and former NASA engineer Mark Rober tells MIT graduates
During his Commencement address at MIT, Mark Rober urged graduates to embrace their accomplishments and boldly face any challenges they encounter.
Full story via The Boston Globe
MIT Juggling Club going strong after half century
After almost 50 years, the MIT Juggling Club, which was founded in 1975 after which merged with a unicycle club, is the oldest drop-in juggling club in continuous operation and still welcomes any aspiring jugglers to return toss a ball (or three) into the air.
Full story via Cambridge Day
Volpe Transportation Center opens as a part of $750 million deal between MIT and feds
The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Kendall Square was the primary constructing to open in MIT’s redevelopment of the 14-acre Volpe site that can ultimately include “research labs, retail, inexpensive housing, and open space, with the goal of not only encouraging innovation, but in addition enhancing the encircling community.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Sparking conversation
The longer term of AI innovation and the role of academics in shaping it
Professor Daniela Rus emphasized the central role universities play in fostering innovation and the importance of ensuring universities have the computing resources mandatory to assist tackle major global challenges.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Moving the needle on supply chain sustainability
Professor Yossi Sheffi examined several strategies firms could use to assist improve supply chain sustainability, including redesigning last-mile deliveries, influencing consumer decisions and incentivizing returnable containers.
Full story via The Hill
Expelled from the mountain top?
Sylvester James Gates Jr. ’73, PhD ’77 made the case that “diverse learning environments expose students to a broader range of perspectives, enhance education, and inculcate creativity and modern habits of mind.”
Full story via Science
Marketing magic of “Barbie” movie has lessons for girls’s sports
MIT Sloan Lecturer Shira Springer explored how the success of the “Barbie” movie could possibly be applied to women’s sports.
Full story via Sports Business Journal
We’re already paying for universal health care. Why don’t we’ve it?
Professor Amy Finkelstein asserted that the answer to medical health insurance reform within the U.S. is “universal coverage that’s automatic, free and basic.”
Full story via The Latest York Times
The web could possibly be so good. Really.
Professor Deb Roy described how “latest sorts of social networks will be designed for constructive communication — for listening, dialogue, deliberation, and mediation — and so they can actually work.”
Full story via The Atlantic
Fostering educational excellence
MIT students give legendary linear algebra professor standing ovation in last lecture
After 63 years of teaching and over 10 million views of his online lectures, Professor Gilbert Strang received a standing ovation after his last lecture on linear algebra. “I’m so grateful to everyone who likes linear algebra and sees its importance. So many universities (and even high schools) now appreciate how beautiful it’s and the way precious it’s,” said Strang.
Full story via USA Today
“Brave Behind Bars”: Reshaping the lives of inmates through coding classes
Graduate students Martin Nisser and Marisa Gaetz co-founded Brave Behind Bars, a program designed to offer incarcerated individuals with coding and digital literacy skills to raised prepare them for all times after prison.
Full story via MSNBC
Melrose TikTok user “Ms. Nuclear Energy” teaching about nuclear power through social media
Graduate student Kaylee Cunningham discussed her work using social media to assist educate and inform the general public about nuclear energy.
Full story via CBS Boston