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Brent D. Ryan, an associate professor of urban design and public policy in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, has detailed his perspective on urban design in a new book, “The Largest Art: A Measured Manifesto for a Plural Urbanism,” recently published by the MIT Press.

A manifesto for designing cities

MIT professor’s new book calls for a more pluralistic, democratic vision of the city.

January 4, 2018

The image shows the locus coeruleus, which drives neuronal circuits of the hippocampus and enables novel contextual memory. The red staining shows norepinephrine transporter (NET)-positive cells, indicating the locus coeruleus. The green staining shows adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated expressions of light-sensitive inhibitory opsin, archaerhodopsin (Arch). The blue staining shows all cells in...

How the brain selectively remembers new places

Neuroscientists identify a circuit that helps the brain record memories of new locations.

December 25, 2017

A molten hanging droplet, or pendant (at center), forms from an aluminum oxide rod under intense heat and light from xenon lamps. Using this process, MIT researchers have demonstrated a new electrochemical method to study thermodynamic processes in a molten oxide melt at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Celsius.

Capturing the properties of very hot compounds

MIT researchers demonstrate a new electrochemical method to study thermodynamic processes in an ultra-high temperature molten oxide.

December 14, 2017

As part of an investigation into the nature of humans' physical intuitions, MIT researchers trained a neural network to predict how unstably stacked blocks would respond to the force of gravity.

Computer systems predict objects’ responses to physical forces

Results may help explain how humans do the same thing.

December 13, 2017

Neural nets are so named because they roughly approximate the structure of the human brain. Typically, they’re arranged into layers, and each layer consists of many simple processing units — nodes — each of which is connected to several nodes in the layers above and below. Data is fed into the lowest layer, whose nodes process it and pass it to the next layer. The connections between layers ...

Reading a neural network’s mind

Technique illuminates the inner workings of artificial-intelligence systems that process language.

December 10, 2017

Paul Gray ’54, SM ’55, ScD ’60, a devoted leader at MIT whose lifetime career at the Institute included turns as a student, professor, dean of engineering, associate provost, chancellor, president, and MIT Corporation chair, died September 18th at his home in Concord, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85.

MIT community gathers to honor Paul Gray

Memorial tribute celebrates former Institute president who cherished “This special place.”

December 4, 2017

Letter regarding MIT's efforts in combating sexual harassment

November 30, 2017

Ryan Williams, who joined the MIT electrical engineering and computer science faculty with tenure this year, hasn’t solved the problem of P vs. NP — nobody has — but he’s made one of the most important recent contributions toward its solution.

Chasing complexity

Ryan Williams has taken a key step toward solving the biggest problem in theoretical computer science.

November 22, 2017

For the MIT production of the 2017 play “Everybody,” the medieval banquet scene from Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 1911 play “Jedermann” was performed as a prelude — to show the historical roots of the themes in “Everybody.” Both plays are based on the 15th century English morality play “Everyman."

New chapter for theater at MIT opens with “Everybody,” a morality play for our time

Starting with inaugural performance in new facility, students immerse themselves in all aspects of making theater.

November 20, 2017

MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Harvard Kennedy School launch collaborative international studies program

New initiative supported by $3.7 million in grants from the Charles Koch Foundation.

November 13, 2017

Graduate student Ingrid Guha holds a jar containing a clear liquid that looks like water to the naked eye, but it’s actually an emulsion of oil and water at the nanoscale.

A new way to mix oil and water

Condensation-based method developed at MIT could create stable nanoscale emulsions.

November 8, 2017

Left to right: Richard Clarke SM ’79, former national coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States; and Joel Brenner, former head of counterintelligence under the Director of National Intelligence for the United States and Senior Research Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies and CSAIL.

Why we should welcome warnings

At MIT event, experts call for a new approach to worst-case scenarios.

November 3, 2017

Acoustic-gravity waves are sound waves that are typically produced by high-impact sources such as underwater explosions or surface impacts. Usama Kadri and his colleagues carried out experiments to see whether objects hitting a water’s surface produced a characteristic pattern in acoustic-gravity waves.

Ocean sound waves may reveal location of incoming objects

New acoustic analysis could pinpoint impacts by meteorites or possibly plane debris.

October 26, 2017

A new smartphone app analyzes a car’s sounds and vibrations, as measured by the phone’s microphone and accelerometers. “We’re listening to the car’s breathing, and listening for when it starts to snore,” Joshua Siegel says.

Let your car tell you what it needs

MIT team develops software that can tell if tires need air, spark plugs are bad, or air filter needs replacing.

October 25, 2017

More than 1,000 MIT alumni and friends celebrated the MIT Campaign for a Better World at the Boch Center Wang Theatre in downtown Boston on Sept. 28.

The Better World Tour comes home to Boston

Alumni and friends gather at the Boch Center Wang Theatre to celebrate the vibrant MIT community and the Institute's ambitious dreams for a better world.

October 20, 2017

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