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Engineers at MIT have come up with a scaling law to describe how objects move through sand. The scaling law can be used to predict how large trucks and cars drive through this material, based on how toy versions of those vehicles drive through an experimental sandbox containing the same grains.

New scaling law predicts how wheels drive over sand

Formula could help optimize construction vehicles, military tanks, and rovers on Mars.

May 29, 2017

Engineers at MIT have come up with an algorithm to tune a Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) camera, simplifying a scene to its most essential visual elements and potentially enabling the development of faster drones.

Faster, more nimble drones on the horizon

New algorithm quickly makes sense of incoming visual data.

May 25, 2017

These pasta shapes were caused by immersing a 2-D flat film into water.

Researchers engineer shape-shifting noodles

Sheets of gelatin transform into 3-D shapes when dunked in water; could save food shipping costs.

May 24, 2017

Professor Sara Ellison (center) and Professor Esther Duflo (right) receive an award from Professor Isaac Chuang for their work on "Data Analysis for Social Scientists.” Their course was awarded for the importance and relevancy of the topic, how the course is used in both the Data, Economics, and Development Policy MicroMasters program and for MIT undergraduate students, and how it provides stude...

First-ever winners of MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs announced

New annual prize lauds innovation in online courses.

May 22, 2017

This breathable workout suit prototype has ventilating flaps that open and close in response to an athlete’s body heat and sweat. The left photo was taken before exercise when ventilation flaps are flat; after exercise, the ventilation flaps have curved.

Researchers design moisture-responsive workout suit

Ventilating flaps lined with live cells open and close in response to an athlete’s sweat.

May 19, 2017

Left to right: River networks on Mars, Earth, and Titan. Researchers report that Titan, like Mars but unlike Earth, has not undergone any active plate tectonics in its recent past.

Rivers on three worlds tell different tales

Study finds history of Titan’s landscape resembles that of Mars, not Earth

May 18, 2017

“The observations are telling us there will be increases [in extreme rainfall] at almost all latitudes, but if you want to know what’s going to happen at the scale of a continent or smaller, it’s a much more difficult question,” Paul O’Gorman says.

Varied increases in extreme rainfall with global warming

Intensification of extreme rainfall varies from region to region, study shows.

May 15, 2017

“I’m driven by developing methodology that will be broadly useful,” says Youssef Marzouk, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

Illuminating uncertainty

Youssef Marzouk aims to improve predictions of everything from underground pollution to daily weather.

May 11, 2017

MIT physicists have found that a flake of graphene, when brought in close proximity with two superconducting materials, can inherit some of those materials’ superconducting qualities. As graphene is sandwiched between superconductors, its electronic state changes dramatically, even at its center. Pictured is the experimental concept and device schematic.

Sandwiched between superconductors, graphene adopts exotic electronic states

Platform may be used to explore avenues for quantum computing.

May 4, 2017

On the left, an atomic-force microscopy image shows a nanoporous graphene membrane after a burst test at 100 bars. The image shows that failed micromembranes (the dark black areas) are aligned with wrinkles in the graphene. On the right, two zoomed-in scanning electron microscopy images of graphene membranes show the before (top) and after of a burst test at pressure difference of 30 bars. The i...

Graphene holds up under high pressure

Used in filtration membranes, ultrathin material could help make desalination more productive.

April 24, 2017

Engineers at MIT have found a way to cut the cost of solar-powered drip systems by half, by optimizing the drippers. Furthermore, these new drippers can halve the pumping power required to irrigate, lowering energy bills for farmers. Pictured is an example of a current drip system.

Watering the world

New design cuts costs, energy needs for drip irrigation, bringing the systems within reach for more farmers.

April 19, 2017

In addition to spit-shooting, an archer fish, pictured here, can launch itself from a near standstill, out of the water to a height of more than two times its body length. “Unlike, say, a shark that comes barreling up from the bottom to catch its prey, an archer fish’s initial momentum is zero,” says Alexandra Techet, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.

High-speed images capture archer fish’s rocket-like launch

Insights into the hydrodynamics of the move may improve underwater vehicle design.

April 19, 2017

(Left to right): Postdoc Kyusang Lee, Professor Jeehwan Kim (sitting), and graduate students Samuel Cruz and Yunjo Kim.

Not stuck on silicon

Engineers use graphene as a “copy machine” to produce cheaper semiconductor wafers.

April 19, 2017

Engineers at MIT have devised a microfluidic technique to capture and count circulating plasma cells from small samples of blood. The technique, which relies on conventional blood draws, may provide patients with a less painful test for multiple myeloma.

Method may help myeloma patients avoid painful biopsies

Microfluidic device isolates plasma cells from blood rather than bone marrow.

April 4, 2017

Researchers at MIT have found a way to make graphene with fewer wrinkles, and to iron out the wrinkles that do appear. They found each wafer exhibited uniform performance, meaning that electrons flowed freely across each wafer, at similar speeds, even across previously wrinkled regions.

Researchers “iron out” graphene’s wrinkles

New technique produces highly conductive graphene wafers.

April 3, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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New scaling law predicts how wheels drive over sand

Faster, more nimble drones on the horizon

Researchers engineer shape-shifting noodles

First-ever winners of MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs announced

Researchers design moisture-responsive workout suit

Rivers on three worlds tell different tales

Varied increases in extreme rainfall with global warming

Illuminating uncertainty

Sandwiched between superconductors, graphene adopts exotic electronic states

Graphene holds up under high pressure

Watering the world

High-speed images capture archer fish’s rocket-like launch

Not stuck on silicon

Method may help myeloma patients avoid painful biopsies

Researchers “iron out” graphene’s wrinkles

Browse By

Topics

Departments

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Schools

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