Reporter’s Notebook: Emergency measures
For drowning surfers, fallen bicyclists and injured mountaineers, students in MIT’s 2.009 class devise products that could save lives.
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3 Questions: Henry Jacoby on Copenhagen
The co-director of MIT’s Global Change program discusses what to expect from the U.N. Climate Change Conference, and the effects of ‘Climategate’
Rethinking artificial intelligence
Broad-based MIT project aims to reinvent AI for a new era. By going back and fixing mistakes, researchers hope to produce ‘co-processors’ for the human mind.
A greener way to get electricity from natural gas
A proposed system would use solid-oxide fuel cells to produce power without sending CO2 into the atmosphere. But can it compete with conventional power plants?
ET: Check your voicemail
New message beamed to the stars commemorates Earth’s first attempt to reach out to intelligent aliens
3 Questions: Sara Seager on searching for Earth-like planets
MIT planetary scientist discusses projects that aim to discover distant planets similar to our own, and what we can learn when we find them
Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?
Professor Donald Sadoway’s research in energy storage could help speed the development of renewable energy.
Turning heat to electricity
MIT research points to a much more efficient way of harvesting electrical power from what would otherwise be wasted heat.
The politics of climate fixes
Judith Layzer says there’s no easy way out when it comes to climate change — but that geo-engineering might be a last-ditch solution.
Blowin' in the wind
Students bring wind-speed monitoring equipment to campus to evaluate potential sites for a wind turbine.
3 Questions: Sergey Paltsev on the costs of climate-change legislation
MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change has pegged the annual cost of the proposed cap-and-trade legislation in Congress at $400 per U.S. household. But estimating the cost of doing nothing is far more difficult.
New methods are changing old materials
Computational approach to materials science could bring new properties even to familiar substances such as concrete and steel
Energy researchers find Obama an eager student
In the President's visit to MIT labs he showed keen interest, quick understanding and warm appreciation, say his hosts
Renewable fuels may have hidden costs, study says
New analysis shows that without proper regulation, biofuels programs aimed at curbing greenhouse gases could do just the opposite