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The integrated science of learning — now emerging as a significant field of research — will be the core of MITili (pronounced “mightily”), a cross-disciplinary, Institute-wide initiative to foster rigorous quantitative and qualitative research on how people learn.

New initiatives accelerate learning research and its applications

Gabrieli, Belcher, Sarma leading new efforts to understand learning, improve it at all levels of education.

February 2, 2016

Images produced by the researchers show the molecular structure of different samples of kerogen and reveal the significant structural differences between "mature" kerogens, at top, and "immature" kerogens, at bottom.

Structure of kerogen revealed

Nanopores may be trapping oil and gas in the ancient hydrocarbon instead of allowing them to flow.

February 1, 2016

Marcia McNutt, editor-in-chief of the journal Science

Symposium calls for science-based climate action

Experts examine how MIT can be most effective in addressing climate-change issues.

January 29, 2016

This diagram demonstrates the simplified results that can be obtained by using quantum analysis on enormous, complex sets of data. Shown here are the connections between different regions of the brain in a control subject (left) and a subject under the influence of the psychedelic compound psilocybin (right). This demonstrates a dramatic increase in connectivity, which explains some of the drug’...

A new quantum approach to big data

System for handling massive digital datasets could make impossibly complex problems solvable.

January 25, 2016

New finding may explain heat loss in fusion reactors

Solving a longstanding mystery, MIT experiments reveal two forms of turbulence interacting.

January 21, 2016

This diagram shows how an electrical voltage can be used to modify the oxygen concentration, and therefore the phase and structure, of strontium cobaltites. Pumping oxygen in and out transforms the material from the brownmillerite form (left) to the perovskite form (right).

Switchable material could enable new memory chips

Small voltage can flip thin film between two crystal states — one metallic, one semiconducting.

January 20, 2016

A proof-of-concept device built by MIT researchers demonstrates the principle of a two-stage process to make incandescent bulbs more efficient. This device already achieves efficiency comparable to some compact fluorescent and LED bulbs.

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?

Researchers combine the warm look of traditional light bulbs with 21st-century energy efficiency.

January 11, 2016

The layer-by-layer solar thermal fuel polymer film comprises three distinct layers (4 to 5 microns in thickness for each). Cross-linking after each layer enables building up films of tunable thickness.

A new way to store solar heat

Material could harvest sunlight by day, release heat on demand hours or days later.

January 7, 2016

This diagram illustrates the principle behind the proposed energy-harvesting system. Two metal electrodes made of lithium-alloyed silicon form a sandwich around a layer of electrolyte, a polymer that ions (charged atoms) can move across. When the sandwich is bent, unequal stresses cause lithium ions to migrate across the electrolyte, producing a compensating electron current that can be harnessed ...

Harnessing the energy of small bending motions

New device could provide electrical power source from walking and other ambient motions.

January 6, 2016

3 Questions: Neil Gershenfeld and the spread of Fab Labs

Ten years after launching Fab Lab, the project’s founder describes the program’s research, global impact.

January 4, 2016

Mechanical engineering professor David Wallace (right of center in top hat) was surprised with a tribute video for his 20 years of teaching the “product engineering processes” class, before course instructors shot streams of confetti over the audience.

Students unveil “magical” product designs

Final presentations in mechanical engineering class show devices for climbers, patients, and others.

December 8, 2015

Plan takes shape for MIT sustainability

Preliminary plan sets priorities for sustainable buildings, stormwater and land management, materials, and greener labs.

November 30, 2015

By using plasmons to “wiggle” a free electron in a sheet of graphene, researchers have developed a new method for generating X-rays. In this image of one of their simulations, the color and height represent the intensity of radiation (with blue the lowest intensity and red the highest), at a moment in time just after an electron (grey sphere) moving close to the surface generates a pulse.

A new way to make X-rays

MIT researchers have found a phenomenon that might lead to more compact, tunable X-ray devices made of graphene.

November 23, 2015

Close-up image of part of the shell of a chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) shows the two kinds of sensory organs that cover the shell surface. The eyes are the dark bumps with shiny centers. The exact function of other sensory organs called aesthetes (small bumps with black centers) is not yet known.

Armor plating with built-in transparent ceramic eyes

Tiny sea creatures feature transparent optical systems as tough as their shells.

November 19, 2015

Maria Zuber, MIT vice president for research and the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics

3 Questions: Maria Zuber on MIT’s climate action plan

MIT’s vice president for research looks ahead to implementation.

November 17, 2015

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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