June 27, 2025

The Download: how to clean up AI data centers, and weight-loss drugs’ side effects

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This battery recycling company is now cleaning up AI data centers In a sandy industrial lot outside Reno, Nevada, rows of battery packs that once propelled electric vehicles are now powering a small…

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The man who reinvented the hammer

February 25, 2025
A trip to Walmart. An aging German shepherd. A cheap disposable camera. These are just a few of the seemingly mundane things that have sparked the relentlessly imaginative mind of Kurt Schroder ’90, leading to some of his groundbreaking inventions. “I just can’t stop doing it,” he says, with a chuckle and a tiny trace…

An environmentally friendly alternative to plastic microbeads

February 25, 2025
The tiny beads added to some cleansers and cosmetics are one source of the long-­lasting microplastics that threaten the environment. But MIT researchers have found a way to address the problem at its source: replacing them with polymers that break down into harmless sugars and amino acids. Particles of this polymer could also be used…

Tiny tubes wrap around brain cells

February 25, 2025
Wearable devices like smart watches and fitness trackers help us measure and learn from physical functions such as heart rates and sleep stages. Now MIT researchers have developed a tiny equivalent for individual brain cells. These soft, battery-free wireless devices, actuated with light, are designed to wrap around different parts of neurons, such as axons…

Perplexity launches $50M seed and pre-seed VC fund

February 25, 2025

Perplexity, the developer of an AI-powered search engine, is raising a $50 million seed and pre-seed investment fund, CNBC reported. Although the majority of the capital is coming from limited partners, Perplexity is using some of the capital it raised for the company’s growth to anchor the fund.  Perplexity has reportedly raised $500 million at […]

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Anthropic’s Claude AI is playing Pokémon on Twitch — slowly

February 25, 2025

On Tuesday afternoon, Anthropic launched Claude Plays Pokémon on Twitch, a live stream of Anthropic’s newest AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, playing a game of Pokémon Red. It’s become a fascinating experiment of sorts, showcasing the capabilities of today’s AI tech and people’s reactions to them. AI researchers have used all sorts of video games, […]

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Turning a seaweed crisis into an energy opportunity

February 25, 2025
In 2019, Legena Henry, SM ’10, and the students in her renewable energy course at the University of the West Indies in Barbados wondered how to help their island stop using fossil fuel by 2030. Their first thought was to emulate Brazil—home to the world’s largest fleet of cars that run on sugar-based ethanol. But the small…

Michael ’87 and Kathleen Schoen

February 25, 2025
As an undergraduate, Michael Schoen ’87 found that joining his fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, and participating in team sports helped him make the most of his years at MIT. “MIT changed my life,” says Schoen, who played on rugby and varsity soccer teams. “But without athletics and my fraternity, I’m not sure I’d have gotten through…

Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson steps down

February 25, 2025

Lucid Motors is changing CEOs for the first time in nearly six years. The company announced Tuesday that Peter Rawlinson is stepping down from the CEO and CTO roles that he’s held since before the company went public. Lucid appointed its chief operating officer Marc Winterhoff as its interim CEO. Rawlinson will serve as “strategic […]

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