February 5, 2025

Supersonic planes are inching toward takeoff. That could be a problem.

Boom Supersonic broke the sound barrier in a test flight of its XB-1 jet last week, marking an early step in a potential return for supersonic commercial flight. The small aircraft reached a top speed of Mach 1.122 (roughly 750 miles per hour) in a flight over southern California and exceeded the speed of sound…

Technology

Harnessing MIT’s collective power

October 22, 2024
One of the things I’ve come to value deeply about the MIT community is the near-universal willingness to name a problem, measure it, design a solution, and keep iterating until it’s right. It’s an approach that has worked for a long time, and it’s one we’ll continue to rely on. As we step into the…

Arvola Chan ’74, SM ’76, EE ’78, PhD ’80

October 22, 2024
“I spent 10 years at MIT, earning four degrees in electrical engineering and computer science,” says Arvola Chan ’74, SM ’76, EE ’78, PhD ’80. “I was a beneficiary of scholarships through my undergraduate years and research assistantships through my graduate years, so I’m forever grateful.” As planned-giving chair for the Class of 1974 50th…

The Download: beyond freezing food, and AI mediation

October 22, 2024
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. How refrigeration ruined fresh food Three-quarters of everything in the average American diet passes through the cold chain—the network of warehouses, shipping containers, trucks, display cases, and domestic fridges that keep meat, milk,…

Would you trust AI to mediate an argument?

October 22, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. I’ve recently been feeling heartbroken. A very close friend recently cut off contact with me. I don’t really understand why, and my attempts at fixing the situation have backfired. Situations like…

How refrigeration ruined fresh food

October 22, 2024
Before you buy orange juice, it probably waited, for as long as two years, in a two-story, stainless-steel tank filled with 265,000 gallons of viscous brown slush. It’s orange juice, but with its water and volatile flavor molecules burned off. The result is a simple syrup six times more sugary than juice and devoid of…

Investing in AI to build next-generation infrastructure

October 21, 2024
The demand for new and improved infrastructure across the world is not being met. The Asian Development Bank has estimated that in Asia alone, roughly $1.7 trillion needs to be invested annually through to 2030 just to sustain economic growth and offset the effects of climate change. Globally, that figure has been put at $15…

These companies are creating food out of thin air

October 21, 2024
Dried cells—it’s what’s for dinner. At least that’s what a new crop of biotech startups, armed with carbon-guzzling bacteria and plenty of capital, are hoping to convince us. Their claims sound too good to be true: They say they can make food out of thin air. But that’s exactly how certain soil-dwelling bacteria work. In…

The Download: food from thin air, and finding new materials

October 21, 2024
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. These companies are creating food out of thin air A new crop of biotech startups, armed with carbon-guzzling bacteria and plenty of capital, are promising something that seems too good to be true.…

Azalea: a science-fiction story

October 19, 2024
“This is simply a question of right and wrong.” “You can’t deny the costs, though. You keep saying that just one more year of taxes will solve— “We’re not solving—we’re mitigating!” “Then what’s the point?” The shrill back-and-forth fills the kitchen, where Xia is busy making breakfast, some kind of awful cricket-protein smoothie with kale.…