Riccardo Comin, two MIT alumni named 2025 Moore Experimental Physics Investigators
MIT physicist seeks to use award to study magnetoelectric multiferroics that could lead to energy-efficient storage devices.
Department
Physics
MIT physicists improve the precision of atomic clocks
A new method turns down quantum noise that obscures the “ticking” of atoms, and could enable stable, transportable atomic clocks.
MIT-affiliated physicists win McMillan Award for discovery of exotic electronic state
Jiaqi Cai and Zhengguang Lu independently discovered that electrons can become fractions of themselves.
MIT joins in constructing the Giant Magellan Telescope
The major public-private partnership is expected to strengthen MIT research and US leadership in astronomy and engineering.
Could a primordial black hole’s last burst explain a mysteriously energetic neutrino?
If a new proposal by MIT physicists bears out, the recent detection of a record-setting neutrino could be the first evidence of elusive Hawking radiation.
Physicists devise an idea for lasers that shoot beams of neutrinos
Super-cooling radioactive atoms could produce a laser-like neutrino beam, offering a new way to study these ghostly particles — and possibly a new form of communication.
Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, influential physicist who forged new paths to understanding the universe, dies at 92
The longtime MIT professor shared a Nobel Prize for his role in developing the LIGO observatory and detecting gravitational waves.
Astronomers detect the brightest fast radio burst of all time
The dazzling “RBFLOAT” radio burst, originating in a nearby galaxy, offers the clearest view yet of the environment around these mysterious flashes.
Materials Research Laboratory: Driving interdisciplinary materials research at MIT
The MRL helps bring together academia, government, and industry to accelerate innovation in sustainability, energy, and advanced materials.
Professor John Joannopoulos, photonics pioneer and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies director, dies at 78
Over 50 years at MIT, the condensed-matter physicist led the development of photonic crystals, translating discoveries into wide-ranging applications in energy, medicine, and defense.
Planets without water could still produce certain liquids, a new study finds
Lab experiments show “ionic liquids” can form through common planetary processes and might be capable of supporting life even on waterless planets.
Ultrasmall optical devices rewrite the rules of light manipulation
Nanophotonic devices developed at MIT are compact, efficient, reprogrammable, adaptive, and able to dynamically respond to external inputs.
Famous double-slit experiment holds up when stripped to its quantum essentials
MIT physicists confirm that, like Superman, light has two identities that are impossible to see at once.
Astronomers discover star-shredding black holes hiding in dusty galaxies
Unlike active galaxies that constantly pull in surrounding material, these black holes lie dormant, waking briefly to feast on a passing star.
Professor Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, highly influential atomic physicist, dies at 92
The “godfather of Bose-Einstein condensation” and MIT faculty member for 37 years led research into atomic, molecular, and optical physics that led to GPS and quantum computing.