MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Scientists and science lovers gathered to celebrate the “quirky aspects of science” at the 2024 Ig Nobel award ceremony held at MIT, reports Ari Daniel for NPR. “We honor some remarkable individuals and groups,” says Marc Abrahams, founder and organizer of the Ig Nobel event and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research. “Every Ig Nobel prize winner has done something that first makes people laugh, and then makes them think.”

Research Scientist Josh Bendavid PhD '13 and his colleagues have “produced a new value for the W boson mass,” a "fundamental particle that is crucial for processes like nuclear decay and setting the mass of the Higgs boson,” reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. The result is in line with predictions made in the standard model of particle physics. “The standard model survives for the moment,” said Bendavid of the findings. 

WBUR’s Erin Trahan highlights how the MIT Museum will be presenting selections from the Woods Hole Film Festival with “monthly titles that broadly encompass ‘science on screen.’” Trahan notes that on “Oct. 26, the MIT Glass Lab co-presents a documentary about a master Italian glass blower, ‘Sono Lino.’ Erik Demaine, MIT professor of computer science, and Peter Houk, MIT instructor and artistic director of the Glass Lab, will introduce the film.”

MIT researchers have developed a new filtration material capable of removing PFAS and heavy metals from water while possessing “antimicrobial properties that prevent the filters from becoming fouled over time,” reports Sujita Sinha for Interesting Engineering. “By combining silk and cellulose and using a method that aligns the silk molecules into nanofibrils, [the researchers] created a hybrid material with unique properties perfect for water filtration,” explains Sinha. 

Jeff Karp, an affiliate faculty member with the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, speaks with NBC Boston 10 reporter Renée Onque about the “pendulum lifestyle” – a new outlook on work-life balance detailed in Karp’s book “LIT: Life Ignition Tools.” "We hear these things from others, [like] trust in the process [and] balance is so important, we need more balance, it's the ultimate goal," says Karp. "It ends up being very frustrating and can lead to anxiety, because we're constantly feeling like we're not in balance. There's a state we should be in [and] we're never in that state."

MIT scientists have “observed and captured images of a rare ‘edge state’ in ultracold atoms,” reports Rupendra Brahambhatt for Interesting Engineering. “Using these findings, they can learn to achieve and harness the edge states of electrons in different materials,” notes Brahambhatt. “This breakthrough in the field of quantum physics could lead to the discovery of practically infinite energy sources.”

A new chatbot developed by MIT researchers aimed at persuading individuals to stop believing unfounded conspiracy theories has made “significant and long-lasting progress at changing people’s convictions,” reports Teddy Rosenbluth for The New York Times. The chatbot, dubbed DebunkBot, challenges the “widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories.” Professor David Rand explains: “It is the facts and evidence themselves that are really doing the work here.”

Los Angeles Times reporter Rosanna Xia spotlights Prof. Susan Solomon’s new book, “Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again,” as a hopeful remedy to climate anxiety. “An atmospheric chemist at MIT whose research was key to healing the giant gaping hole in our ozone layer, Solomon gives us much-needed inspiration — and some tangible ways forward,” explains Xia. 

Graduate student Zoe Fisher speaks with Yusuf Khan of The Wall Street Journal’s  about what inspired her to pursue a career in nuclear engineering, noting that being able to fight climate change firsthand is one of the key reasons she wanted to make a career in nuclear.. “It’s a cool thing to study that is going to have a lot of broader impacts,” Fisher says.

Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner spotlights Prof. Mitchel Resnick, Prof. Neil Gershenfeld, and the late Prof. Emeritus Woodie Flowers and their work developing programs that “get kids excited about, and more proficient in, STEM.” Kirsner underscores: “Each of the initiatives brings some of the hands-on problem solving, messiness, and collaborative prototyping elements of MIT’s culture into the wider world. And they’ve all had a big impact on the way kids learn about technology.”