MIT in press: Exploring how curiosity-driven science is a key ingredient to America’s success | MIT News

Over the past 80 years, America’s bold, ongoing investment in scientific research, and discoveries, ideas and innovations from it made America a world leader. National leadership in science has been essential to our shared prosperity and national security, and has brought real benefits to all Americans.

June 16, American science released a special section, “The Young American Scientists,” celebrating early-career scientists involved in scientific research, and featuring comments from MIT faculty about why they continue to be so dedicated to curiosity-driven science, showing that their hard work and dedication are making Americans safer, healthier, and more prosperous. Among the profiles in this section are many MIT faculty, students, and alumni, who share their advice for young scientists and their reasons for optimism in uncertain times.

President Sally Kornbluth emphasizes the importance of curiosity-driven research, noting that discovery is “part of our American DNA and has been of great benefit to the citizens of this country and the world.” He adds, “what is needed is a renewed commitment to public investment in American science. Even if I were not the leader of a leading scientific institution, I would say this. Investing in American science is not a gamble; if you look back in time, there is no question about the benefits.”

Professor Robert Langer added: “What American science has done in the last 50, 100 years has been remarkable.”

American science notes that at MIT, that commitment to discovery is reflected in programs like Curiosity on a Mission and the Generative AI Impact Consortium, which aim to find “solutions to real-world problems in a way that benefits society.” “On the other hand, we are in a time, technologically, where things could not be more exciting [and] our science [could not be] cutting-edge. “At the same time, we’ve never seen a situation where people feel uncertain about the continued funding of science, especially when it comes to basic science discoveries that fuel the economy and will fuel societal impact a decade or two from now,” said Kornbluth.

The first sparks

Witnessing a discovery can spark a lifelong fascination with science. After the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, Prof. Alan Lightman was “fascinated by the idea of ​​building a rocket” of his own. In his essay “My Scientific Childhood,” Lightman describes how these early scientific memories and experiments shaped him to become a consummate writer and physicist.

“Now more than ever, when a large part of the world, including the US, has lost its moral compass, leading to dog-dog thinking, we need science combined with literature, philosophy, history and art. We must not only find the physical world but also our humanity,” writes Lightman.

Similarly, Prof. John Urschel, a former NFL player, emphasizes the importance of collaboration and having diverse interests.

“A lot of good research happens when people are able to use tools, techniques and insights from different areas, disciplines and even fields. I hope we can encourage promising young scientists to establish strong, broad domains and to constantly communicate with those outside their fields,” said Urschel.

Invention and acquisition

American science highlights students and alumni who want to make the world a better place by doing everything from researching neurodegenerative disease to powering our future.

At MIT, Visiting Scientist Alice Stanton developed miBrain, a 3D tissue model of the human brain, to help scientists develop personalized treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Stanton developed a smaller version of the miBrain, a brain-on-a-chip, to better test treatments.

Stanton notes that “the road to effective treatment is long and bumpy,” coupled with federal funding cuts. “When we have someone we love sick, we want treatment—we want something to cure him, it doesn’t come out of the air,” he explained.

Bob Mumgaard PhD ’08, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems works to sell fusion power. “Whether it’s in areas like fusion—or in drugs designed for diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s or [the creation of] things we never thought possible—our ability to use new tools to tackle some of these big and meaty problems is really exciting,” Mumgaard emphasized.

Graduate student Alex Zhang tackles context decay: the phenomenon where AI language models degrade as they generate more information. To solve this problem, Zhang develops recursive linguistic models (RLMs) that allow the model to work with itself to re-analyze logic.

“The types of research I want to work on are things that I think should be shared for the benefit of people as a whole,” said Zhang.

Benefits of scientific collaboration

What happens when scientific disciplines join forces at MIT?

Professor Emery Brown highlighted the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (HEALS), noting that the effort brings together scientists and engineers from diverse backgrounds to address the most pressing health challenges of our time.

Brown explains that with the support of President Kornbluth, HEALS encourages “academics to look more broadly at solving health care problems.

MIT alumna Lucy Jones PhD ’81, known for her work to improve public safety during earthquakes and for creating America’s first earthquake machine called the Great ShakeOut, shared the need for collaboration in developing scientific solutions to address real-world problems.

“Solutions must be made collaboratively, which means spending time with policymakers,” said Jones.

Jones also shares how advances in computer science helped keep Americans across the country safe when the earth began to shake.

“My first year in grad school, I studied paper seismograms. Now everything is computerized. We used to do field deployments; now we have permanent networks. We’re starting to use fiber-optic cables as seismometers,” Jones said. “Computers have changed everything, including science.”

The state of American science

Within the profiles, interviewees were asked what needs to change in American science right now. Many expressed concern about the organization’s funding.

“I am fortunate to work with extraordinary students and postdocs, but the infrastructure that allows them to do their best work is under real pressure: financial instability at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, the uncertainty of immigration for international scientists and the collapse of public trust in technology,” said Prof. Feng Zhang.

Zhang has developed CRISPR-based genome editing tools, which can increase our understanding of human diseases and lead to new treatments. “We can lose our lead quickly if we don’t protect our new ecosystem,” he said.

A positive development includes the progress that Professor Alan Guth has seen in space science.

“With new techniques, we are able to analyze, make sense of what we see,” said Guth. “A lot of progress has been made along those lines, so in terms of the physics of the field, I think things are going well. But for me, the real issue is the prospects for future funding.”

Langer shares his faith in the strength and resilience of American science and the new ecosystem.

Langer says: “I look at the history of American innovation and education over the last 250 years, and it has been spectacular. “There have been many times when there have been setbacks. We’ve had world wars, you know, we’ve had depressions, and people continue to persevere and continue to learn. They continue to discover and they continue to innovate. So that gives me a lot of hope. This is not a bad time by any means.”