MIT in the media: 2023 in review

MIT community members made headlines with key research advances and their efforts to tackle pressing challenges.

MIT News • mit
Dec. 21, 2023 ~18 min

UK government facing legal action for failing to tackle climate change – but it could backfire

Can we avoid dangerous climate change by taking government to court?

Irene Lorenzoni, Professor of Society and Environmental Change, University of East Anglia • conversation
Dec. 20, 2023 ~6 min


When authoritative sources hold onto bad data: A legal scholar explains the need for government databases to retract information

Theranos was dissolved years ago, and its CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, is in prison, but the company’s patents based on bad science live on – a stark example of the persistence of faulty information.

Janet Freilich, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University • conversation
Dec. 14, 2023 ~8 min

Electric arc furnaces: the technology poised to make British steelmaking more sustainable

Electric arc furnaces can use up to 100% scrap steel as its raw material, resulting in a significant reduction in emissions.

Becky Waldram, Materials Scientist and SUSTAIN Impact & Engagement Manager, Swansea University • conversation
Dec. 1, 2023 ~7 min

OpenAI is a nonprofit-corporate hybrid: A management expert explains how this model works − and how it fueled the tumult around CEO Sam Altman's short-lived ouster

The board is supposed to stop OpenAI from veering from its mission of building technology that benefits humanity.

Alnoor Ebrahim, Professor of Management, Tufts University • conversation
Nov. 30, 2023 ~10 min

Maine voters don't like their electric utilities, but they balked at paying billions to buy them out

Power companies can be publicly or privately owned and may report to corporate boards, local governments or co-op members. But there’s no one best way to deliver electricity reliably and affordably.

Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida • conversation
Nov. 9, 2023 ~10 min

Let the community work it out: Throwback to early internet days could fix social media's crisis of legitimacy

In the days of online bulletin board systems, community members decided what was acceptable. Reviving that approach to content moderation offers Big Tech a path to legitimacy as public spaces.

Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci, Research Fellow, Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, UMass Amherst • conversation
Oct. 24, 2023 ~10 min

Gangsters are the villains in 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' but the biggest thief of Native American wealth was the US government

The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.

Torivio Fodder, Indigenous Governance Program Manager and Professor of Practice, University of Arizona • conversation
Oct. 16, 2023 ~10 min


Climate change is a fiscal disaster for local governments − our study shows how it's testing communities in Florida

A new study of Florida’s fiscal vulnerability to climate change finds that flooding directly threatens many local tax bases.

William Butler, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University • conversation
Oct. 5, 2023 ~11 min

Climate change is about to play a big role in government purchases – with vast implications for the US economy

The Biden administration directed agencies to consider the cost of greenhouse gas emissions in their future purchasing and budget decisions. An example shows just how much is at stake.

Lauren Gifford, Associate Director of the Soil Carbon Solutions Center, Colorado State University • conversation
Oct. 3, 2023 ~8 min

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