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Bringing the benefits of in-person collaboration to the virtual world

The startup Spatial uses an augmented reality platform to make people feel like they’re working side by side.

July 10, 2020

Have power drill, will travel. MIT student Sreya Vangara is completing her research into testing superconductors for a fusion tokamak at home.

At home with fusion research

Hundreds of miles from campus, Sreya Vangara recalibrates her approach to laboratory research and other MIT commitments.

July 8, 2020

MIT economist David Autor has produced a new study showing that Blacks and Hispanics are particularly affected by the decline in middle-class urban jobs in recent decades.

The urban job escalator has stopped moving

Study shows cities have stopped providing middle-class work in recent decades — especially for Black and Latino workers.

July 8, 2020

MIT physicists have observed that LIGO’s 40-kilogram mirrors can move in response to tiny quantum effects. In this photo, a LIGO optics technician inspects one of LIGO’s mirrors.

Quantum fluctuations can jiggle objects on the human scale

Study shows LIGO’s 40-kilogram mirrors can move in response to tiny quantum effects, revealing the “spooky popcorn of the universe.”

July 1, 2020

A virtual "datathon" organized by MIT to bring fresh insights to the Covid-19 pandemic drew 300 participants and 44 mentors from around the world. Here, mentors who volunteered to judge the final projects meet on Zoom to select the top 10 projects.

What is the Covid-19 data tsunami telling policymakers?

A global team of researchers searches for insights during a weeklong virtual “datathon.”

July 1, 2020

Using a new kind of microscope that closely tracks every movement, researchers seeking to study how organisms coordinate movement behaviors compiled a compendium of 100 reference postures that encompass the range of typical C. elegans poses.

How worms move: Dopamine helps nematodes coordinate motor behaviors

To spy on worms for days on end, Picower Institute scientists invent a new open-source microscopy platform.

June 30, 2020

A newly-published study co-authored by MIT professor Christopher Palmer shows that quantitative easing helped consumers substantially during the last big economic downturn.

Helping consumers in a crisis

“Quantitative easing” program let households spend more during the last recession. Could it work again?

June 25, 2020

The startup ClosedLoop.ai, co-founded by an MIT alumnus, is using a platform of AI models to help hospitals make predictions based on their patient data.

Bringing the predictive power of artificial intelligence to health care

The startup ClosedLoop has created a platform of predictive models to help organizations improve patient care.

June 18, 2020

Over 100 experts participated in Trust CoLab, an innovative online exercise that developed a set of alternative scenarios about the future of medicine and health care. The exercise identified one potential development that quickly became quite salient: the prospect of global pandemic leading to drastic changes in health care practices.

Trust or consequences

More than 100 experts identify four scenarios that could shape people’s health between now and 2040.

June 18, 2020

Letter regarding MIT's initial decisions about the fall

June 17, 2020

CHIME, pictured here, consists of four large antennas, each about the size and shape of a snowboarding half-pipe, and is designed with no moving parts. Rather than swiveling to focus on different parts of the sky, CHIME stares fixedly at the entire sky, looking for fast radio burst sources across the universe.

Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

Signal from 500 million light years away is the first periodic pattern of radio bursts detected.

June 17, 2020

Physics graduate student Danielle Frostig awaits the lifting of travel restrictions to mount a astronomical instrument she helped develop on the Magellan Telescope in Las Campanas, Chile.

Capturing stardust

Danielle Frostig, a physics graduate student, is developing an instrument to study how the heaviest elements in the universe are produced.

June 12, 2020

A new study led by an MIT professor shows that areas in the U.S. introducing R&D tax credits experience a 20 percent rise in high-quality new-firm-formation over a 10-year period.

State-level R&D tax credits spur growth of new businesses

Study also finds tax breaks for general business investment have slightly negative effect on innovation.

June 12, 2020

Map shows the potential reductions in overall greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, state by state, that could be achieved by policies emphasizing the use of stiffer road surfaces. The greatest potential gains are seen across the southern part of the country.

Stiffer roadways could improve truck fuel efficiency

Study finds simple changes in road resurfacing practices could improve gas mileage for heavy vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

June 11, 2020

MIT researchers have published a study examining which types of businesses should be open or closed during the Covid-19 crisis. Vital forms of commerce that are relatively uncrowded and produce fewer health risks fare the best in the study; less significant types of businesses that generate crowds perform worse.

Which businesses should be open?

In light of Covid-19, an MIT study looks at tradeoffs between economic value and public health, across different types of retail.