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Not taking anything away from this very novel work, but MIT definitely has a well oiled PR apparatus to publicize their research. This is a good thing from the perspective of science advocacy and outreach. But it is less good from the perspective of other researchers working in similar areas whose work can get eclipsed this way.

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This is definitely a deceptive practice. Claiming this was developed by MIT is kind of like claiming that the theory of relativity was developed by the Swiss patent office. MIT is just the place where the researchers were working. To add insult to injury, the names of the researchers are withheld until the 6th (!) paragraph of the article.

Thats not an accurate analogy at all. These researchers presumably utilized MIT resources extensively while being paid by MIT specifically to conduct research in addition to other duties. Without MIT or a similar host institution their ability to conduct research such as this would have been severely constrained.

In fairness a better title would be "MIT researchers turn Wi-Fi...", and it would definitely have been good to mention the researchers' names earlier.

The startup world is similarly situated.

Those who are good at getting their voices heard triumph in "unfair ways," except those who don't misunderstand the totality necessary to have good work shine.

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