• Jan. 30, 2016
    A team from MIT took top honors Saturday at a competition at Texas A&M University to design the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation concept dreamed up by Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk...
  • Jan. 21, 2016
    If you’ve ever blown up a balloon or pulled at a pair of pantyhose, you may have noticed that the more the material stretches, the more transparent it becomes. It’s a simple enough observation: the...
  • Jan. 9, 2016
    Traditional light bulbs, thought to be well on their way to oblivion, may receive a reprieve thanks to a technological breakthrough. Incandescent lighting and its warm, familiar glow is well over a...
  • Jan. 6, 2016
    According to Forbes magazine, their fifth annual 30 Under 30 lists showcase “America’s most important young entrepreneurs, creative leaders and brightest stars” who are less than than 30 years old....
  • Jan. 3, 2016
    With the unstable cost of petroleum perpetually threatening to shoot upwards, and its potentially devastating effects on the environment waiting anxiously in the wings, many people are hopeful that...
  • Jan. 3, 2016
    It’s 1991. The first-ever web site is published, gas costs an average of $1.12 per gallon, and Jennifer Rumsey, SM ’98, walks into the office of John Wall, SB, SM ‘75, ScD ‘78, then Vice President of...
  • Jan. 3, 2016
    Professor John Heywood is one of the most recognizable and highly regarded names in internal combustion engines. His work with Professor James Fay and Professor James Keck in the MIT Sloan Automotive...
  • Jan. 2, 2016
    A joyride. A cruise. A flight to your next vacation or a drive to see your family. Or just simply getting from point A to point B. Whatever the reason, there are few people who don’t appreciate a...
  • Oct. 5, 2015
    The surface of a single cell contains hundreds of tiny pores, or ion channels, each of which is a portal for specific ions. Ion channels are typically about 1 nanometer wide; by maintaining the right...
  • May. 5, 2015
    Detailed new field studies, laboratory experiments, and simulations of the largest known “internal waves” in the Earth’s oceans — phenomena that play a key role in mixing ocean waters, greatly...
  • Apr. 10, 2015
    How can sustainable consumption in U.S. cities be fostered? Can the ocean floor be mined in an ecologically benign way? What are the health risks associated with the mining of rare metals used in...
  • Mar. 24, 2015
    Researchers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a new kind of solar cell that combines two different layers of sunlight-absorbing material in order to harvest a broader range of the sun’s...
  • Feb. 26, 2015
    The blue-rayed limpet is a tiny mollusk that lives in kelp beds along the coasts of Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. These diminutive organisms — as small as a...
  • Feb. 4, 2015
    As the world’s population sprints toward larger and larger numbers, concerns about water scarcity follow closely behind. There are already disproportionate levels of water to need — especially in...
  • Feb. 3, 2015
    Acoustic-gravity waves — a special type of sound wave that can cut through the deep ocean at the speed of sound — can be generated by underwater earthquakes, explosions, and landslides, as well as by...
  • Jan. 14, 2015
    Ever notice an earthy smell in the air after a light rain? Now scientists at MIT believe they may have identified the mechanism that releases this aroma, as well as other aerosols, into the...
  • Jan. 14, 2015
    Grace Young ’14 had been scuba diving in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for more than three hours when the weight of her gear began taking its toll. Young was resting her head on the...
  • Jan. 13, 2015
    One day in the 1990s, as he was riding home from high school in São Paulo, Tonio Buonassisi looked out the bus window at the Brazilian city’s long lines of traffic, and its smoggy haze. In that...
  • Dec. 15, 2014
      Professor Steven Dubowsky Professor Steven Dubowsky received his bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his MS and ScD degrees from Columbia University. He is currently in...
  • Dec. 13, 2014
    You’ve probably heard of MechE alum and Associate Professor Hugh Herr (SM ’93), head of the Biomechatronics group at MIT Media Lab. The TED Talk he gave earlier this year sparked a flurry of media...

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