Explained: The Carnot Limit
Long before the nature of heat was understood, the fundamental limit of efficiency of heat-based engines was determined
Fly the eco-friendly skies
MIT-led team designs airplanes that would use 70 percent less fuel than current models.
Slideshow: Mapping the oil spill
MIT student leads project using balloons and kites to provide aerial documentation of the Gulf oil slick’s extent and effects
New water-splitting catalyst found
Research by MIT’s Dan Nocera expands the list of potential electrode materials that could be used to store energy.
Better models for better reactors
Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering teams working on improving computer-aided simulation and modeling
New project aims for fusion ignition
MIT-led Ignitor reactor could be the world’s first to reach major milestone, perhaps paving the way for eventual power production.
New solar research center inaugurated
Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center, funded by Italian oil company, will support research by 21 MIT faculty members
MIT-led clean-energy projects win ARPA-E funding
$11 million in grants to Institute research awarded in DoE agency’s second round
3 Questions: Stephen Connors on offshore wind farms
What the federal approval of the Cape Wind project will mean for Massachusetts and the nation
Fund helps energy efficiency bloom across campus
Alumni gifts support the greening of MIT, and the resulting savings are being reinvested in similar projects.
Explained: Thermoelectricity
Turning temperature differences directly into electricity could be an efficient way of harnessing heat that is wasted in cars and power plants.
Toward more efficient wireless power delivery
Latest research shows that efficiency improves when multiple devices are charged at once.
Viruses harnessed to split water
MIT team’s biologically based system taps the power of sunlight directly, with the aim of turning water into hydrogen fuel.