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“When you look at coal as a material, and not just as something to burn, the chemistry is extremely rich,” says Jeffrey Grossman. In this photo, a sample of pulverized coal (right) is shown with several test devices made from coal by the MIT researchers.

Making electronics out of coal

Instead of burning up this complex hydrocarbon, let’s make devices from it, says Jeffrey Grossman.

April 19, 2016

Researchers have found a new kind of long-range interaction between particles, in a liquid medium, that is based entirely on their motion. Alfredo Alexander-Katz describes the kind of interactions his team found as being related to the research field of active matter. Example of active systems are the flocking behavior of birds or the schooling of fish. In this illustration, moving particles in a ...

Study finds unexpected long-range particle interactions

Spinning cells could attract each other across surprisingly long distances.

April 11, 2016

QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 12 subjects for 2016

MIT ranked within the top 5 globally for 19 of 42 subject areas.

April 8, 2016

Professor Yoel Fink, director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics

New institute will accelerate innovations in fibers and fabrics

National public-private consortium led by MIT will involve manufacturers, universities, agencies, companies.

April 1, 2016

An artist’s rendering of nuclear fuel rods in front of a colorful computational valley predicted for alloying compositions.

How to make metal alloys that stand up to hydrogen

New approach to preventing embrittlement could be useful in nuclear reactors.

March 29, 2016

An artist’s rendering of a calcium liquid battery.

New chemistries found for liquid batteries

Grid-scale approach to rechargeable power storage gets new arsenal of possible materials.

March 22, 2016

U.S. News gives top rankings to MIT graduate programs in engineering, business

MIT is home to No. 1 graduate engineering program; MIT Sloan is No. 5 business school.

March 16, 2016

2016 MacVicar Faculty Fellows: (clockwise from top left) Patty Tang, Jeffrey Grossman, Michael Sipser, and Srinivas Devadas

Four professors named 2016 MacVicar Faculty Fellows

Devadas, Grossman, Sipser, and Tang awarded MIT’s highest undergraduate teaching award.

March 7, 2016

The metal with carbon nanotubes uniformly dispersed inside “is designed to mitigate radiation damage” for long periods without degrading, Kang Pyo So says. Pictured is an example of how the researchers created aluminum with carbon nanotubes inside.

Carbon nanotubes improve metal’s longevity under radiation

Aluminum used in nuclear reactors and other harsh environments may last longer with new treatment.

March 2, 2016

A new video series weaves together intimate observations of bird behavior and physiology with engineering “explainers.” Pictured here is a female pileated woodpecker.

Built to peck: MITx video series explores how woodpeckers avoid brain injury

Videos hosted by Professor Lorna Gibson bring an engineering approach to birding.

February 23, 2016

An illustration of the surface acoustic wave generators, with the generated 3-D trapping nodes. The inset indicates a single particle within a 3-D trapping node, which can be manipulated independently along x, y, or z axes.

Acoustic tweezers manipulate cells with sound waves

Technique could enable 3-D printing of cellular structures for tissue engineering.

January 25, 2016

On the top row are two images of a nanomesh bilayer of PDMS cylinders in which the top layer is perpendicular to the complex orientation of the bottom layer. The bottom images show well-ordered nanomesh patterns of PDMS cylinders. The images on the right show zoomed-in views of the images on the left.

Self-stacking nanogrids

Polymer nanowires that assemble in perpendicular layers could offer route to tinier chip components.

January 22, 2016

This GridForm model of a village in Bihar, India, shows the optimal layout of hardware for the load profiles of the community. Each building, color-coded by the cost (in Indian rupees) of supplying electricity to that structure, is wired to a central generation/storage node (solid lines), and the nodes are connected to each other (dotted lines).

Going off grid: Tata researchers tackle rural electrification

At MIT’s Tata Center for Technology and Design, researchers are exploring ways to extend electricity access to rural communities in India using microgrids.

January 21, 2016

This diagram shows how an electrical voltage can be used to modify the oxygen concentration, and therefore the phase and structure, of strontium cobaltites. Pumping oxygen in and out transforms the material from the brownmillerite form (left) to the perovskite form (right).

Switchable material could enable new memory chips

Small voltage can flip thin film between two crystal states — one metallic, one semiconducting.

January 20, 2016

Donald Sadoway (right) of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, David Bradwell MEng ’06, PhD ’11, and their collaborators have developed a novel molten-metal battery that is low-cost, high-capacity, efficient, long-lasting, and easy to manufacture — characteristics that make it ideal for storing electricity on power grids today and in the future.

A battery made of molten metals

New battery may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid.

January 12, 2016

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