MIT has been named to Times Higher Education’s 2024 World’s Best Universities list, reports Cecilia Rodriguez for Forbes. “The largest edition of the World University Rankings 2024 includes 1,904 universities—up from 1,799 last year—from 108 countries and regions, assessing research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators covering their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalization,” writes Rodriguez.
Peter Mui ’82 founded FixIt Clinic, a nonprofit which hosts “community events where volunteer fixers are matched with those in need of a repair,” reports Veronique Greenwood for The Boston Globe. “To Mui, now a hardware and software engineer in Berkeley, Calif., throwaway culture encourages a devaluing of our own lives,” writes Greenwood. “It took hours to earn the money to buy something. If someone fails to even look for a repair, how little must that time mean, in the end?”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have “genetically engineered bacteria to efficiently turn plastic waste into useful chemicals,” reports Aristos Georgiou for Newsweek. MIT Prof. James Collins and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Prof. Ting Lu explain that they see two potential applications for their work. "In the former case, plastic waste collected from oceans and landfills would be transported to a facility where it would be bioprocessed with engineered microbes,” they note. “In our latter scenario, these microbes could be deployed directly in lands or oceans to bio-transform plastic debris in situ.”
Researchers from Atlantic Quantum, an MIT startup building quantum computers, have published new research showing “the architecture of the circuits underlying its quantum computer produces far fewer errors than the industry standard,” reports Rashi Shrivastava for Forbes.
MIT researchers are leading three missions over the next decade to characterize Venus’ atmosphere for habitability, reports Bruce Dorminey for Forbes. “Understanding Venus is key to understanding exo-earths,” writes Dorminey.
STAT reporter Annalisa Merelli writes that the 2023 Lasker Award has been given to Prof. James Fujimoto, research affiliate Eric Swanson SM ’84 and David Huang PhD ’93 for their work advancing the diagnosis of eye disease. Fujimoto, Swanson and Huang developed “optical coherence tomography (OCT) — the first noninvasive technology allowing doctors to see high-resolution images of the retina.”
Prof. James Fujimoto, research affiliate Eric Swanson SM ’84 and David Huang PhD ’93 have won a Lasker Award for their work inventing optical coherence tomography, which can “detect conditions like macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy earlier than previous methods, preventing blindness,” reports Noah Weiland and Cade Metz for The New York Times. “O.C.T. now is commonly used in ophthalmology offices, where the patient simply rests a chin and forehead against an instrument for a brief scan,” write Weiland and Metz. “The method, invented in 1991, offers a staggering amount of detail about the retina.”
Prof. James Fujimoto, research affiliate Eric Swanson SM ’84 and David Huang PhD ’93 have been honored with the Lasker Award for their work for their work inventing “imaging technology that revolutionized how ophthalmologists diagnose diseases of the eye," reports Jonathan Saltzman for The Boston Globe. The scientists were recognized for developing “optical coherence tomography, or OCT, the first technology that enabled doctors to see a two- and three-dimensional cross-sectional image of the retina,” Saltzman explains. “This painless scan takes less than 10 minutes, and is now the standard of care for diagnosing retina diseases.”
7 News spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new implantable device that could provide diabetes patients with insulin without using injections. “What we’ve been able to show is that with a minimally invasive implant that is sitting just under the skin, we’ve actually been able to sort of achieve a diabetic reversal,” explains Research Scientist Siddharth Krishnan.
Dan Stack PhD ’20 speaks with TechCrunch reporter Tim De Chant about his startup Electrified Thermal Solutions, which is developing electrified firebricks to help decarbonize building materials.
Maria Telleria ’08, SM’10, PhD ’13 speaks with Forbes contributor Stuart Anderson about her experience immigrating to the U.S. as a teenager, earning her PhD at MIT, and co-founding a company. “I don’t think I would have had these opportunities if I could not have come to the United States,” said Telleria. “I think it helped me grow by being exposed to two cultures. When you have had to think in two different ways, I think it makes you better understand other people and why they’re different. Coming to America has been an amazing opportunity.”
Gizmodo reporter Ed Cara writes that MIT researchers have developed a new implantable device that can produce its own supply of insulin for up to a month. The team envisions that the device could “eventually be used for other medical conditions dependent on a regular supply of externally produced proteins, such as certain forms of anemia treated with erythropoietin,” writes Cara.
MIT was named to the number two spot in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the top universities, reports WBZ.
MIT has been ranked one of the top universities in the world by U.S. News & World Report, writes Emily Sweeney for The Boston Globe. Sweeney writes that the ranking “looked at approximately 1,500 colleges and universities and evaluated them on 19 measures of academic quality — this year changing its methodology to put more emphasis on social mobility and the outcomes of graduating students.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson spotlights Form Energy, an MIT startup that will produce long-duration batteries using an electrochemical reaction that turns iron into rust and back again. Patterson notes that the goal at Form Energy was to “develop batteries that were cheap, didn’t catch fire, didn’t need scarce and costly metals like cobalt and lithium, and could produce electricity for a long time.”