MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that could reduce how long planes wait before takeoff, reports Lee Moran for The Huffington Post. The formula allows air traffic controllers to use data on weather conditions and runway traffic to “hold airplanes at the gate, which would help avoid congestion.”
Researchers at MIT have developed an incandescent light bulb that vastly improves the device’s energy efficiency, The Economist reports. The modified bulb “maintains the technology’s advantages while vastly improving its energy credentials, giving it the potential to trounce CFLs and LEDs.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that MIT researchers are developing a more efficient incandescent light bulb. Griggs explains that the prototype “is already as energy efficient as some LEDs and fluorescent bulbs currently on the market.”
MIT researchers have developed a technique to increase the efficiency of incandescent light bulbs, reports Matt McGrath for BBC News. "We have this huge challenge that the world is facing right now, global warming and energy efficiency and this gives you one more tool," says Prof. Marin Soljačić.
Fortune reporter Hilary Brueck writes that MIT researchers have developed a new flexible battery that can harness energy from a range of motions, including walking. Brueck explains that the “bendy battery works best with normal, human-scale activity, like walking, poking, and bending.”
Boston.com reporter Eric Levenson writes that MIT researchers have developed a polymer material capable of storing solar energy and releasing it later as heat. The “polymer being developed would store the sun’s rays in a chemical reaction that is then converted into heat,” explains Levenson.
Prof. Jessika Trancik writes for The Christian Science Monitor that cutting greenhouse gas emissions can lower the cost of further cuts. Trancik explains that Paris climate talk pledges, “will support the development of cheaper low-carbon technologies, allowing industrialized nations to increase their commitments.”
In an article for the Financial Times, Martin Sandbu argues that renewable energy should be seen as an opportunity for investment, highlighting an MIT report on renewable energy costs. The report documents the “extraordinary fall in renewable electricity generation costs and the good reason to expect them to continue to fall.”
Scientific American reporter David Biello writes about the growth of clean energy technologies, highlighting a new MIT report that finds that commitments from the U.S., Europe and China to cut greenhouse gas emissions could drive cost reductions in wine and solar technologies.
In an article for Scientific American, Katherine Hamilton writes about the fourth annual Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Symposium (C3E), which highlighted the increasing role women are playing in clean energy. The symposium was started by the U.S. Department of Energy in conjunction with the MIT Energy Initiative.
Bret Stetka writes for The Atlantic about how MIT researchers have studied how harbor seals are able to use their whiskers to track prey. Prof. Michael Triantafyllou explains that his team’s findings could be used to develop new technologies that, for example, could “detect plumes underwater, such as in oil spills, or other plumes polluting the environment.”
Matthew Nisbet, a professor at Northeastern University who focuses on climate change communication, writes for The Conversation about MIT’s Climate Action Plan. Nisbet writes that MIT’s plan can “serve as a model for how major research universities can accelerate effective societal actions on climate change by collaborating with a diversity of industry members.”
MIT researchers have developed a self-sustaining water-purification system for a remote Mexican village, according to The Guardian. “The villagers are able to operate and maintain the water purification system themselves,” The Guardian reports.
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that MIT researchers have uncovered how seals use their whiskers to sense their surroundings. The findings could “help aquatic vehicles track schools of fish or sources of pollution.”
Frank O’Sullivan speaks with Lyndsey Gilpin of Forbes about several states in the U.S. that are investing in renewable energy. O’Sullivan says that, “as the economics of solar in particular have improved, the economic rationale is beginning to be more broadly appreciated.”