Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

09/03/2026

Each year, farmers around the world spend $80 billion on pesticides for their crops. Now, Robigo is equipping naturally occurring microbes with more potent pest-fighting capabilities. https://news.mit.edu/2026/robigo-gives-farmers-more-sustainable-way-protect-crops-0903

09/02/2026

In a new Boston Globe Opinion essay, MIT President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif calls for a simple, globally understood “moral floor” for AI: principles that keep people in ultimate control and prohibit deception, harm, exploitation, and evasion of human oversight.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly autonomous, we need a simple set of rules that everyone — not just technologists and lawyers — can understand.

09/01/2026

MIT engineers are making it easier to learn how to operate earth movers with a new training interface. Instead of using joysticks, the team has designed a more intuitive controller, which itself resembles a miniature excavator’s arm and bucket. Trainees grasp the device and use their arm and hand to make it move the way an excavator does. https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-engineers-design-better-controller-operating-construction-diggers-0820

08/31/2026

A new kind of aircraft departs an MIT classroom and arrives at an Ohio factory: Electra’s hybrid, fixed-wing aircraft, which grew out of a class project, could make travel easier for passengers taking shorter trips. https://news.mit.edu/2026/electra-aircraft-departs-mit-classroom-and-arrives-at-ohio-factory-0825

08/27/2026

Dubbed “bifur-circuits,” these interactive building blocks could be used to develop reconfigurable robotic grippers or customized assistive devices. https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-engineers-create-system-for-building-shape-changing-smart-devices-0827

08/26/2026

“If their DNA could be retrained, maybe microbes could deliver nitrogen directly to wheat, corn, and other crops when it’s most needed.”

Chris Voigt is helping turn that idea into reality by engineering microbes to work harder and smarter.

Read his story: https://curiositymission.org/stories/pivot/

08/26/2026

MIT researchers find that activity in the brain’s language network is nearly identical in young and old people. https://news.mit.edu/2026/language-skills-stay-strong-older-adults-even-while-other-cognitive-abilities-decline-0824

08/25/2026

What does it cost to attend MIT? Here’s how our financial aid program helps make an MIT education accessible. https://sfs.mit.edu/

Graphics: Jocelyn Mao/MIT
Photos: Gretchen Ertl

08/24/2026

MIT researchers have engineered bacteria that can function as transistors, allowing them to create “living circuit boards” like those in the image. https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-engineers-connect-bacteria-to-create-living-transistors-0817

08/23/2026

Physicists watch a material’s electrons assemble, and reassemble, into coexisting phases: The study could help scientists understand how superconductivity and other more complex phenomena emerge in quantum materials. https://news.mit.edu/2026/physicists-watch-materials-electrons-assemble-reassemble-coexisting-phases-0807