Physics

For Li, the study of both literature and physics is based in a deep aesthetic appreciation of the universe and the human condition. “Physics and literature both search for explanations to the universe around us, one through mathematics and experimentation, the other, through words. The fact that there's some fundamental truth that can be explained through human language is incredible to me.”

Spenser’s "Faerie Queene" as a modern visual comic

Junior Ivy Li, a literature and physics major, adapts a legendary work and innovates in an enduring literary tradition.

March 7, 2019

By tuning size, illumination angle, and curvature, MIT engineers can produce brilliant colors, in patterns they can predict, in otherwise transparent droplets.

Engineers make clear droplets produce iridescent colors

Optical effect could be harnessed for light displays, litmus tests, and makeup products.

February 27, 2019

Photo of MIT Building 10 lit up at night

QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 11 subjects for 2019

Institute ranks within the top 2 in 17 of 48 subject areas.

February 26, 2019

Members of the the PSFC's High-Energy-Density Physics division gather in their Accelerator Facility, part of the new Center of Excellence.

Plasma Science and Fusion Center leads new Center of Excellence

Award will support educational and research efforts in high-energy-density physics at MIT and four academic research partners.

February 25, 2019

MIT physicists have calculated the pressure distribution inside a proton for the first time. They found the proton’s high-pressure core pushes out, while the surrounding region pushes inward.

Physicists calculate proton’s pressure distribution for first time

The particle’s core withstands pressures higher than those inside a neutron star, according to a new study.

February 22, 2019

Left to right: Nikhil Agarwal, Daniel Harlow, Andrew Lawrie, and Yufei Zhao are MIT’s 2019 Sloan Research Fellows.

Four from MIT named 2019 Sloan Research Fellows

Nikhil Agarwal, Daniel Harlow, Andrew Lawrie, and Yufei Zhao receive early-career fellowships.

February 21, 2019

MIT physicists find quarks move slower in atoms with more pairs of protons and neutrons.

Study of quark speeds finds a solution for a 35-year physics mystery

Number of proton-neutron pairs determine how fast the particles move, results suggest.

February 20, 2019

The 2018 Bose Research Fellows (standing) pose for a photo with (seated, l-r) President L. Rafael Reif, Judy Bose, and Provost Martin Schmidt.

Bose grants for 2018 fund research at the frontier of discovery

The prestigious awards are supporting five innovative projects that challenge established norms and have the potential to be world-changing.

February 11, 2019

$Experiments on ultra-thin copper-oxide ceramic superconductors performed by MIT researchers showed an unexpected disorderly, or “glassy,” arrangement of electrons, known as a “Wigner glass.” At left, “Fourier space,” or momentum space, shows the diffraction data that proved the tendency of the charge ripples to align in any direction, while the image at right displays the random placem...$

Surprising electronic disorder in a copper oxide-based ceramic

MIT researchers use resonant X-ray scattering measurements to reveal unexpected “Wigner glass” in desirable superconducting material.

January 28, 2019

Richard "Dick" Lyon, acoustics expert and professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, dies at 89

Leading expert in acoustics, vibration, and machine dynamics served on the Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty for 32 years.

January 24, 2019

Dennis Whyte, director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

MIT continues progress toward practical fusion energy

In series of talks, researchers describe major effort to address climate change through carbon-free power.

January 24, 2019

William Oliver says government research funding will have to be augmented with commercialization of quantum computing, and that will require trained scientists and engineers.

Q&A: The talent shortage in quantum computing

William Oliver says a lack of available quantum scientists and engineers may be an inhibitor of the technology’s growth.

January 23, 2019

Robert Simcoe will assume his post as director of MIT Kavli Institute on Jan. 16.

Robert Simcoe named director of MIT Kavli Institute

An expert in instrumentation and early universe observations, Simcoe succeeds Jacqueline Hewitt as head of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

January 10, 2019

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a radio telescope designed to answer major questions in astrophysics and cosmology, including the phenomena of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), fleeting and intense radio bursts with an unknown origin. The telescope is located in the mountains of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley at the NRC’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory.

Revolutionary radio telescope detects bevy of fast radio bursts

Researchers use CHIME telescope to detect fast radio bursts at low frequencies and a second repeating burst.

January 9, 2019

Achieving goals in the lab and on the pitch

Senior Anthony Badea, a physics major and varsity soccer player, investigates the beginnings of the universe.