How the brain deals with uncertainty
Dedicated circuits evaluate uncertainty in the brain, preventing it from using unreliable information to make decisions.
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At the crossroads of language, technology, and empathy
With a double major in linguistics and computer science, senior Rujul Gandhi works to surmount language and cultural barriers, globally and on campus.
Ana Pantelic appointed executive director of MIT D-Lab
An international development practitioner, academic researcher, and social entrepreneur, Pantelic will help guide D-Lab into its third decade.
Q&A: Dina Katabi on a “smart” home with actual intelligence
MIT professor is designing the next generation of smart wireless devices that will sit in the background, gathering and interpreting data, rather than being worn on the body.
Professor Emeritus Paul Penfield, chronicler of entropy and lifelong teacher, dies at 88
A former department head who established the MEng degree for EECS undergraduates, Penfield developed courses illuminating the equivalence of information and thermodynamic entropy.
Transformative truth-telling at the MIT Open Documentary Lab
The lab’s artists and technology scholars are exploring representation and reality — and shaping the future of storytelling.
A peculiar state of matter in layers of semiconductors
In a study that could benefit quantum computing, researchers show a superlattice embedded with nanodots may be immune from dissipating energy to the environment.
High-speed camera captures a water jet’s splashy impact as it pierces a droplet
The results may help engineers develop a way to inject drugs without needles.
Energy storage from a chemistry perspective
Eli Paster SM ’10, PhD '14 is the CEO of PolyJoule, a startup working to reinvent energy storage technology to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Why boiling droplets can race across hot oily surfaces
The commonplace phenomenon, now quantified for the first time, could be harnessed for many useful applications.
Considering the spiderweb
After nearly a decade, an interdisciplinary collaboration to model a 3D spider web leads to many surprising results.
Exact symbolic artificial intelligence for faster, better assessment of AI fairness
Probabilistic programming language allows for fast, error-free answers to hard AI problems, including fairness.
Gerald Wogan, professor emeritus of biological engineering, chemistry, and toxicology, dies at 91
Pioneering scientist isolated, characterized, and established the mechanisms of many environmental toxins relevant to public health.
Kristy Johnson: Expanding communication for all
The physicist, neuroscientist, and PhD candidate creates augmentative technology for children with neurodevelopmental differences.
Knight Science Journalism Program announces 2021-22 fellows
Twenty-one distinguished journalists will probe issues ranging from environmental justice and maternal health to threatened grasslands and endangered megafauna.