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The photograph shows a square-shaped “intruder” plunging through various material, including coarse, salt-like grains (white) and fine sand (blueish green), as well as more viscous (green) and pasty (blue) materials.

Pushing through sand

Simple equation predicts force needed to push objects through granular and pasty materials.

August 29, 2016

In this series, a 3-D printed multimaterial shape-memory minigripper, consisting of shape-memory hinges and adaptive touching tips, grasps a cap screw.

3-D printed structures “remember” their shapes

Heat-responsive materials may aid in controlled drug delivery and solar panel tracking.

August 26, 2016

Clownfish fight off predators of anemones that in turn provide habitats for the clownfish, an example of mutualism. But mutualistic relationships aren’t always set in stone; depending on environmental conditions, once-simpatico species can become competitors.

A mutual breakdown

Species relationships devolve from jointly beneficial to competitive in benign environments.

August 24, 2016

MIT graduate student George Ni holds a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam through its pores.

Sponge creates steam using ambient sunlight

Bubble-wrapped structure requires no mirrors or lenses to focus the sun’s heat.

August 22, 2016

Michael Floyd, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says that in developing seismic hazard assessments, it’s important to consider afterslip and slowly creeping faults, which occur often and over long periods of time following the more obvious earthquake.

2014 Napa earthquake continued to creep, weeks after main shock

Continuing seismic activity could pose additional hazards to infrastructure.

August 19, 2016

Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon, pictured, spans as much as 600 kilometers across and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. The image was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

New technique may help detect Martian life

A novel interpretation of Raman spectra will help the 2020 Mars rover select rocks to study for signs of life.

August 15, 2016

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a huge, cubic-kilometer particle detector buried deep under the ice at the South Pole. After analyzing 20,000 neutrinos detected over the span of a year at the observatory, scientists were unable to observe any sign of sterile, or “hidden,” neutrinos.

Neutrino search finds no evidence of “hidden” particle

If discovered, sterile neutrinos may explain dark matter.

August 8, 2016

A new microfluidic device that replicates the neuromuscular junction — the vital connection where nerve meets muscle — contains a small cluster of neurons (green) and a single muscle fiber (red). A fluorescence image, bottom, shows the motor neurons sending out axons toward a muscle strip over a distance of about 1 millimeter.

Replicating the connection between muscles and nerves

New chip could help test drugs for ALS, other neuromuscular disorders.

August 3, 2016

MIT aerospace engineers have found a way to bond composite layers, producing a material that is substantially stronger and more resistant to damage than other advanced composites. The improvement may lead to stronger, lighter airplane parts.

Carbon nanotube “stitches” strengthen composites

Method to reinforce these materials could help make airplane frames lighter, more damage-resistant.

August 2, 2016

An artist’s depiction of planets transiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 System

First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds

Two potentially habitable planets in nearby system are confirmed to be rocky.

July 20, 2016

MIT physicists have found that subatomic particles called neutrinos can be in superposition, without individual identities, when traveling hundreds of miles, and not just at quantum, subatomic scales.

MIT scientists find weird quantum effects, even over hundreds of miles

Neutrinos traveling 450 miles have no individual identities, according to MIT analysis.

July 19, 2016

“We don’t necessarily want [air traffic controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information. Instead, we can tell them the three top choices,” says Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.

Ready for takeoff

Hamsa Balakrishnan develops algorithms to reduce airport congestion.

July 15, 2016

Clusters of four or more small satellites could look at a single location on Earth from multiple angles, and measure that location’s total reflectance with an error that is half that of single satellites in operation today, an MIT-led study suggests.

Better views with smaller satellites

Batches of shoebox-sized satellites could improve estimates of Earth’s reflected energy.

July 12, 2016

An X-ray image of the Perseus Cluster from NASA’s Chandra Observatory.

Dead X-ray satellite reveals “quiet” center of massive galaxy cluster

Scientists find gas at center of Perseus cluster travels much more slowly than expected.

July 6, 2016

A photo of three microfluidic devices filled with food color dyes. The device, about the size of a credit card, is designed to help scientists narrow in on safe ranges of electric fields that might be used to noninvasively treat breast, lung, and other forms of cancer.

New microfluidic device offers means for studying electric field cancer therapy

Low-intensity fields keep malignant cells from spreading, while preserving healthy cells.

July 5, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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