Legal scholar Martha Minow delivered this fall’s Compton Lecture at MIT on Thursday, examining the civic foundations of democracy — and describing how artificial intelligence is undermining it, but could be used to help reinforce traditional U.S. governance. “It’s not a good time for democracy or constitutionalism,” said Minow, who is [...]

At the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) 75th Anniversary Symposium, speakers celebrated the school’s value and contributions, while exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming many aspects of teaching, research, and society.The symposium was held Sept. 24-25 in the Linde Music Building’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall. Scholars, [...]

Keep your most-used apps accessible with this new feature. [...]

The PHP Project provides instructions to stop further RCE exploits in limited settings. [...]

A new AI-based tool identifies potential microRNA binding sites across circular RNA molecules, including regions conventional linear sequence analysis can miss, advancing research into gene regulation. [...]

Chemically modified sugars form carbon materials with tunable nanopores or layered nanostructures, eliminating conventional templates and offering a simpler route to materials for batteries and catalysis. [...]

MIT engineers have built a paper-thin swimming robot powered by living muscle cells that respond to flashes of light, allowing it to swim and steer through water. The breakthrough could pave the way for tiny, self-healing biological robots capable of exploring fragile environments that ordinary machines cannot safely navigate. [...]

Researchers have solved a long-standing challenge in understanding how tiny defects in materials like diamond and silicon carbide behave when exposed to light. Their new computational method revealed a surprisingly important energy-loss mechanism in silicon carbide that scientists had previously underestimated. The finding helps explain a mystery that has puzzled [...]

Cambridge researchers have created a groundbreaking $10 optical sensor that delivers the precision of laboratory equipment in a device small enough for wearable technology. It identified foods, plastics, and medicines with 100% accuracy in tests and demonstrated the ability to monitor blood glucose, alcohol, and other health markers without invasive [...]

The next competitive advantage in enterprise AI has less to do with which model you choose than with what you build around it. That’s an important shift. For the past several years, much of the AI conversation has centered on model capability: bigger models, better reasoning, larger context windows, higher benchmark [...]

As a child, you likely saw a few Disney movies depicting inanimate objects, such as clocks, cups, and toys, as interactive companions to humans — an act of pure magic, seemingly. But scientists at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are now doing something similar: transforming stationary items into self-aware [...]

A scalable AI system requires a strong foundation. Data, engineering, platforms, operating models, and governance must converge to work as one. This session from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Future conference explores what it takes to build that foundation in a highly regulated environment and how a responsible, trustworthy implementation can [...]

A bio-inspired tactile system stops a robot locally within 2.2 milliseconds, then classifies the contact to decide whether the stop should remain engaged. [...]

An electrically driven molecular machine spins in a controllable direction, increasing conductivity up to 100-fold and opening possibilities for future molecular electronics. [...]

Unlike narrated audiobooks from Audible and other providers, the audiobooks created with Virtual Voice in Kindle+ will instead be narrated by AI. [...]

PowerToys is one of my favorite free Windows utilities. With more than 30 tools, it offers something for everyone from beginners to power users. Here’s what’s new for mousing. [...]

Researchers have developed a revolutionary microscope that uses an incredibly powerful laser to make previously invisible cellular structures easier to see. The technology dramatically improves image clarity, allowing scientists to examine small proteins that conventional electron microscopes struggle to capture. It could eventually reveal how tiny molecular machines interact inside [...]

NASA’s Curiosity rover has revealed a spectacular new view of mysterious, wind-carved cliffs on Mars that may hold evidence of ancient volcanic activity. With the rover approaching these unusual formations, scientists hope to uncover the secrets behind their strange appearance in 2027. [...]

Researchers analyzing nearly 150,000 Reddit posts uncovered unexpected symptom reports linked by users to unapproved versions of retatrutide, including increased appetite, sleep disturbances, and elevated heart rates. The findings differ from clinical trial results and highlight how AI could help identify potential drug safety signals that warrant further investigation. [...]

Scientists have cracked a 178-year-old mystery surrounding a train delayed by a solar storm, revealing that the famous incident happened in 1848 rather than 1841. The discovery rewrites the early history of space weather and highlights a threat that still endangers modern power grids, satellites, and communication systems. [...]

Generative AI can create masterpieces in seconds, but a new analysis reveals it breaks the crucial link between making art and personal growth. Hebrew University's Amit Zoran argues that the future of creativity belongs to human discovery and perspective rather than automated digital output. [...]

Imagine your company just discovered electricity. At first only a few machines run on it, and nobody worries about efficiency — consumption is low and the value is obvious. But once electricity becomes infrastructure, every process depends on it, and the question changes from “can we use it?” to “how [...]

The current narrative around artificial intelligence in the workplace is largely driven by Silicon Valley. But treating the tech sector as an island misses the actual trends in technology adoption–tech is just the first industry in line. As generative AI and automation tools mature, the shifts currently reshaping software engineering and [...]

Despite millions of years of evolution, the development of the human fetus remains a complex process that is vulnerable to genetic, environmental, and metabolic disruptions. These disruptions could result in developmental abnormalities, starting with one of the first organs to begin developing in the fetus that continues to develop after [...]

A new study reveals that people draw a surprisingly sharp line between human consciousness and artificial intelligence, even when both behave identically. Researchers found that participants considered even the most responsive AI less conscious than the least responsive human. Yet when asked about "awareness" instead, people judged humans and AI [...]