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Christoph Reinhart, a professor of architecture, described MIT's present campus facilities and their energy usage, and the extent of improvements that are needed.

How can MIT be a game-changer on climate?

MIT Climate Change Conversation gets underway with brainstorming session on how to catalyze change.

March 13, 2015

Images show calcium ion influx into neurons as a result of magnetothermal excitation with alternating magnetic fields in the presence of magnetic nanoparticles.

Magnetic brain stimulation

New technique could lead to long-lasting localized stimulation of brain tissue without external connections.

March 12, 2015

Penny Chisholm delivers the annual Killian Faculty Achievement Award Lecture at MIT

Chisholm sees big impacts from small sources

Discoverer of world’s most abundant and prolific photosynthetic organism delivers annual Killian Lecture.

March 11, 2015

Why do layered materials form one kind of wrinkly pattern or another? MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering Xuanhe Zhao and postdoc Qiming Wang describe a patterning process that applies to everything, including folds of the brain, wrinkles on a cat, or the ridged skin of pumpkins.

The secret of wrinkling, folding, and creasing

New research provides a general formula for understanding how layered materials form different surface patterns.

March 9, 2015

Domitilla Del Vecchio bridges math, engineering, and biology

Mechanical engineering professor carries out pioneering work in the creation of biological circuits.

March 9, 2015

Julie Newman, director of MIT's Office of Sustainability, kicked of the day's events at Sustainability Connect.

MIT’s sustainability community gets to work

Inaugural event brings together over 100 campus leaders to plan for greater efficiency, reduced waste.

March 5, 2015

A concluding panel discussion at the Energy Conference featured (from left) MIT alumnus David Danielson PhD ’08, who was the founder of MIT’s Energy Club and of the Energy Conference, and is now assistant secretary of energy; Ronald Prinn, the Tepco Professor of Atmospheric Physics and director of MIT’s Center for Global Change Science; Elizabeth Wayman, director of the Department of Energy'...

“There’s no more important issue than energy”

Speakers at 10th annual MIT Energy Conference see progress, but great need for more research.

March 3, 2015

Two different forms of calcium carbonate have identical chemical composition, but look different and have different properties such as solubility. The flat, clear crystal is calcite, the pinkish multifaceted one is aragonite.

Mystery solved: Why seashells’ mineral forms differently in seawater

Century-old riddle about aragonite formation is unraveled by scientists’ atomistic simulation.

March 2, 2015

Simulations show the effects of dislocations in cerium dioxide on the redistribution of differently sized dopant atoms, replacing a cerium atom in the crystal lattice. The results reveal different amounts of segregation around the dislocation caused by the differently sized elements. The sizes of the other atoms are compared to a cesium atom (left, in black). The white dashed line shows the plane ...

New analysis shows ion slowdown in fuel cell material

Dislocations in oxides seen as promising electrolytes create a “traffic jam” for charged ions.

March 2, 2015

Fibers made by transforming materials

New approach could enable low-cost silicon devices in fibers that could be made into fabrics.

February 20, 2015

Renée Richardson Gosline, the Zenon Zannetos Career Development Assistant Professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, was the keynote speaker Thursday at the second day of MIT’s annual Institute Diversity Summit.

“Our judgments are shaped by biases”

Keynote speaker Renée Richardson Gosline shares insights on preconceptions at Institute Diversity Summit.

February 13, 2015

Report outlines path to greater campus inclusiveness

Institute Community and Equity Officer releases report aimed at fostering culture of respect and caring.

February 12, 2015

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond could potentially determine the structure of single protein molecules at room temperature. Here the NV center is 2 to 3 nanometers below the surface, and the protein molecule is placed above it.

Diamonds could help bring proteins into focus

New technique could use tiny diamond defects to reveal unprecedented detail of molecular structures.

February 6, 2015

The MIT Gospel Choir performs at the luncheon.

MLK Luncheon speakers call for more action

Annual gathering reflects frustration over racial profiling, calls for more involvement by MIT community.

February 5, 2015

How to prevent metal embrittlement

Analysis shows certain crystal boundaries can enhance, or reduce, hydrogen’s damaging effects.