Mathematical technique quickly tunes next-generation lenses
“Metasurfaces” that manipulate light at tiny scales could find uses in cellphone lenses, smart-car sensors, and optical fibers.
MIT team places second in 2019 NASA BIG Idea Challenge
Multilevel Mars greenhouse could provide food to sustain astronauts for several years.
Merging machine learning and the life sciences
Through computing, senior and Marshall Scholar Anna Sappington seeks answers to biological questions.
Steering fusion’s “D-turn”
Research scientist Alessandro Marinoni shows that reversing traditional plasma shaping provides greater stability for fusion reactions.
Twelve MIT students accept 2019 Fulbright Fellowships
Grantees will spend the 2019-2020 academic year pursuing research and teaching opportunities abroad.
How we make complex decisions
Neuroscientists identify a brain circuit that helps break decisions down into smaller pieces.
The kilo is dead. Long live the kilo!
An old artifact kept in a vault outside Paris is no longer the standard for the kilogram. Now, nature itself provides the definition.
Norman Phillips, former meteorology department head, dies at 95
A theoretical meteorology pioneer, Phillips showed that numerical models could predict weather and developed the first general circulation model of Earth’s climate.
Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir
“Being capable of thinking quantitatively — it’s the single most important thing,” says the former NFL lineman.
Leaving room for a little improvisation
At the piano and in the lab, double major Tony Zhang is driven by curiosity and creativity.
Tropical Pacific is major player in global ocean heat transport
Region dominates the transfer of heat from the equator to the poles in both hemispheres, challenging the "great conveyor belt" model.
How a declining environment affects populations
Study finds that competition between bacterial species can be upended when conditions deteriorate.
Measuring chromosome imbalance could clarify cancer prognosis
A study of prostate cancer finds “aneuploid” tumors are more likely to be lethal than tumors with normal chromosome numbers.
Ashwin Sah, Megan Yamoah, and Steven Truong named 2019-20 Goldwater Scholars
Three MIT undergraduates honored for their academic achievements.
Recreating ancient minerals
New research demonstrates how to make the rock dolomite, preserving fine microbial textures in marine environments and solving the dolomite problem.