Physics

“I fell in love with physics,” says senior Zachary Hulcher. “I appreciate light bouncing off a mirror, and smoke billowing up, and light going through it in a different way. … The small things I took for granted when I didn’t understand them, I appreciate now. Everything is just a little prettier.”

From football to physics

Zachary Hulcher, Marshall Scholar and offensive lineman, will study high-energy physics in the U.K.

February 27, 2017

Seven MIT researchers win 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships

Faculty from four MIT departments among 126 selected from across the U.S. and Canada.

February 21, 2017

Letter to the MIT community regarding the death of Mildred Dresselhaus

February 21, 2017

Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, a pioneer in the electronic properties of materials, dies at 86

“Queen of carbon science” and recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Science led US scientific community, promoted women in STEM.

February 21, 2017

MIT Pappalardo Fellow in physics Itamar Kimchi studies unusual behavior of electrons in transition metal oxides. Frustration of electrons in some materials at extremely low temperatures can force them to abandon their preference for classical magnetic states and instead enter unusual states of collective quantum superposition.

Motivated by the thrill of discovery

Itamar Kimchi studies the physics underlying unusual behavior of electrons in compounds such as transition metal oxides.

February 14, 2017

This composite image shows powerful radio jets from the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy in the Phoenix Cluster inflating huge "bubbles" in the hot, ionized gas surrounding the galaxy. The cavities inside the blue region were imaged by NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory. Hugging the outside of these bubbles, ALMA discovered an unexpected trove of cold gas, the fuel for star formatio...

Self-made stars

Astronomers observe black hole producing cold, star-making fuel from hot plasma jets and bubbles.

February 14, 2017

"Dedicated, smart people [can] contribute so much to our nation, but also to making the world a better place."

Featured video: Tackling science and technology together

MIT faculty reflect on why international collaboration benefits science, engineering, and technology for all.

February 13, 2017

Physicists from MIT, the University of Vienna, and elsewhere have presented a strong demonstration of quantum entanglement even when vulnerability to the freedom-of-choice loophole is significantly restricted.

Stars align in test supporting “spooky action at a distance”

Physicists address loophole in tests of Bell’s inequality, using 600-year-old starlight.

February 6, 2017

MIT professor of physics Senthil Todadri seeks to understand unusual metals that defy the textbook description. “We’ve been making slow but steady progress, not just I, myself, but the community as a whole, but I would really like that progress to accelerate,” he says.

Faculty highlight: Senthil Todadri

A quest to understand superconductivity leads MIT theoretical physicist Senthil Todadri to discoveries about new magnetic materials called quantum spin liquids.

February 6, 2017

Celebrating Pauline Morrow Austin, a founder of radar meteorology

MIT faculty, friends, and family gathered to remember Austin's life and commemorate her contributions to science with the unveiling of an exhibit in EAPS.

January 31, 2017