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New findings suggest the ancient Earth harbored a mantle that was much more efficient at drawing down pieces of the planet’s crust.

Ancient Earth’s hot interior created “graveyard” of continental slabs

Higher mantle temperatures caused subducting tectonic plates to sink much further than they do today.

August 22, 2017

A phase diagram of living mammalian cytoplasm, developed by MIT researchers, describes the type of material an organelle feels as it moves through cytoplasm, given its size and speed.

How cytoplasm “feels” to a cell’s components

In study that may guide drug design, researchers find organelles encounter varying levels of resistance.

August 21, 2017

Engineers at MIT can predict how beds of tiny, soft hair, such as those that line surfaces inside the human body, will bend in response to fluid flow.

Our hairy insides

Engineers predict how flowing fluid will bend tiny hairs that line blood vessels and intestines.

August 21, 2017

New measurements of lunar rocks have demonstrated that the ancient moon generated a dynamo magnetic field in its liquid metallic core (innermost red shell). The results raise the possibility of two different mechanisms — one that may have driven an earlier, much stronger dynamo, and a second that kept the moon’s core simmering at a much slower boil toward the end of its lifetime.

Lunar dynamo’s lifetime extended by at least 1 billion years

Findings suggest two mechanisms may have powered the moon’s ancient churning, molten core.

August 9, 2017

MIT engineers have devised a way to assess a cell’s mechanical properties simply by observation. The researchers use standard confocal microscopy to zero in on the constant, jiggling motions of a cell’s particles.

Fast, noninvasive technique for probing cells may reveal disease

Researchers gauge a cell’s stiffness, which can reflect cancer or other conditions, simply by watching it.

August 3, 2017

Geologists report that about 251.9 million years ago, a huge pulse of magma rose up through the Earth, in a region that today is known as the Siberian Traps.

Underground magma pulse triggered end-Permian extinction

Study ties specific interval during an extended period of volcanism to Earth’s most severe mass extinction.

July 31, 2017

“The Indian monsoon is considered a textbook, clearly defined phenomenon, and we think we know a lot about it, but we don’t,” says Senior Research Scientist Chien Wang. An image from Varanasi, India, shows flooding in 2011.

Study: Indian monsoons have strengthened over past 15 years

A 50-year dry spell has reversed, with more rain to come.

July 24, 2017

“[MIT] is a fantastic place,” says associate professor Markus Klute, a member of the Laboratory of Nuclear Science. “Where else in the world do you get this amount of freedom?”

Particle hunter

Now that the Higgs boson has come to light, Markus Klute is looking at physics beyond the Standard Model.

July 21, 2017

Graduate student Anthony McDougal has developed a model that predicts a single heart cell’s response to dwindling supplies of oxygen.

Study predicts heart cells’ response to dwindling oxygen

Results may help surgeons determine when and how to treat heart attacks.

July 20, 2017

MIT engineers have designed a gel-like material that can be coated onto standard plastic or rubber devices, providing a softer, more slippery exterior that can significantly ease a patient’s discomfort during surgery.

New gel coatings may lead to better catheters and condoms

Bonded layers of rubber and hydrogel yield tough, slippery, and impermeable coatings.

July 18, 2017

$Engineers at MIT have taken a first step in designing a computer chip that uses a fraction of the power of larger drone computers and is tailored for a drone as small as a bottlecap.$

Miniaturizing the brain of a drone

Method for designing efficient computer chips may get miniature smart drones off the ground.

July 11, 2017

“In the Southwest, water availability for irrigation is already a concern,” says Elodie Blanc, a research scientist at MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. “If we mitigate, this could prevent added stress associated with climate change and a severe decrease in runoff in the western United States. But it will be even worse in the future if we don’t do anything a...

Climate change to deplete some US water basins, reduce irrigated crop yields

By 2050, the Southwest will produce significantly less cotton and forage, researchers report.

July 11, 2017

$MIT climate scientists have found that the ocean’s export efficiency, or the fraction of total plankton growth that is sinking to its depths, is decreasing, due mainly to rising global temperatures.$

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