Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with WBUR reporter Miriam Wasser about the benefits and risks associated with moving power lines underground. " We don't have to necessarily move to a system where everything is underground," says Knittel. "What we really need to do is do a more targeted approach, which is identify the most critical lines in the network and do the cost-benefit test on undergrounding those."
Writing for The Washington Post, Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen explores the economic implications of blocking the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which links Detroit to Windsor, Ontario. “The new bridge is essential to modernizing the Michigan-Canada trade corridor,” writes Pozen. “It will create a second freeway-to-freeway link, thereby relieving bottlenecks and congestion on the old bridge.”
While studying a 2,000-year-old construction site in Pompeii, MIT researchers uncovered new insights into the Roman building process, including the key ingredients needed to develop long-standing durable Roman concrete, reports Luis Prada for Vice. “Ancient Roman builders were ‘hot-mixing,’ which means that they dumped volcanic ash and powdered quicklime together dry, then added water later, triggering a chemical reaction that cooked the mixture from the inside,” writes Prada.
A new paper by Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues details their new findings on the specific ingredients used by ancient Romans to develop durable concrete, reports Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. “Looking ahead, the findings could help improve modern construction techniques, informing the development of next-generation durable, low-carbon concrete,” writes Kuta.
A new paper by Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues reinforces his theory that the ancient Romans used a technique called “hot-mixing” to create concrete, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “The evidence resides at an ancient Roman construction site preserved in great detail by the Mount Vesuvius eruption,” explains Paul. “Isotopic analysis confirmed that the workers in Pompeii relied on hot-mixing when making their concrete.”
By studying a workshop that was buried in Pompeii almost 2,000 years ago, Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues have uncovered how the ancient Romans created self-healing and long-lasting concrete, reports James Woodford for New Scientist. Masic and his team were stunned at how “exceptionally well preserved” the site was and that it offered an opportunity to understand Roman concreting methods in a way that “no laboratory reconstruction could ever replicate”. He adds: “The materials were exactly as they were at the moment the eruption froze the city in time,”
While visiting a house that was under renovation when Mount Vesuvius erupted, MIT researchers were able to confirm the tools and ingredients used by ancient Romans to create long-lasting concrete, reports Humberto Basilio for Scientific American. “The hot mixing method creates fragmented, highly porous lime clasts within the mortar that allow calcium to easily travel through the material and recrystallize to fill cracks,” Basilio explains. “Understanding and mastering this “self-healing” technology will allow engineers to use the technique in modern construction.”
Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues have confirmed that ancient Romans utilized “hot-mixing,” a technique that combines quicklime with volcanic rock, volcanic ash, and water, to create concrete that has lasted for thousands of years, reports Margherita Bassi for Gizmodo. “The team also discovered weights and measurement tools, which they propose may have been used to maintain concrete pouring ratios and build straight, even walls,” writes Bassi. “In short, the site revealed the clearest evidence yet of the ancient Roman use of hot-mixing in concrete.”
While analyzing samples from a newly-discovered construction site in Pompeii, researchers at MIT confirmed the ingredients and methods behind the ancient Romans’ durable and self-healing concrete, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. "Modern concretes generally lack intrinsic self-healing capability, which is increasingly important as we seek longer-lasting, lower-maintenance infrastructure," explains Prof. Admir Masic. "While the ancient process itself is not a direct replacement for modern standards, the principles revealed can inform the design of next-generation durable, low-carbon concretes."
Researchers at MIT have developed electron-conducting carbon concrete, a new kind of cement “that can store and release electricity like batteries,” reports Matthew Burgos for Design Boom. “MIT’s concrete battery shows a future where the material can be embedded into roads or parking areas to charge electric vehicles directly, or for off-grid homes that do not need external power,” Burgos explains.
Researchers at MIT have developed an “AI-powered tool that scans scientific literature and over 1 million rock samples to identify materials that can partially replace cement in concrete,” reports Samanatha Hindman for Yahoo! News. The new system could “change how we build cities forever,” says Hindman. “The system sorts materials based on their physical and chemical properties, narrowing them down by how well they hold concrete together when mixed with water (hydraulic reactivity) and how they strengthen it over time (pozzolanicity).”
Prof. Jessika Trancik speaks with ABC News reporter Julia Jacobo about the role of green hydrogen in decarbonization efforts. “Hydrogen itself could be a really important component to a green transition,” says Trancik.
Prof. Christopher Reinhart speaks with GBH reporter Craig LeMoult about the feasibility of harvesting energy from the Charles River. Reinhart notes that using renewable heat pumps along with the old, existing steam infrastructure could be a good option for Boston and other cities around the country that have district energy systems. “I think you would see a lot of those, especially with the overall push towards decarbonization,” says Reinhart.
Prof. Admir Masic speaks with New York Times reporter Amos Zeeberg about his research studying the benefits of lime clasts – a material used in ancient Roman infrastructure. According to Masic’s research, “these lime clasts were actually reservoirs of calcium that helped fill in cracks, making the concrete self-healing,” writes Zeeberg. “As cracks formed, water would seep in and dissolve the calcium in the lime, which then formed solid calcium carbonate, essentially creating new rock that filled in the crack.”
With skateboarding the sixth fastest-growing sport in the U.S. from 2019 to 2023, Bloomberg reporter Alexandra Lange highlights how Alexis Sablone MA ’16, coach of the 2024 Olympic Women’s U.S. Skateboarding Team, a three-time X-Games gold medalist, and graduate of MIT’s Department of Architecture, recently “designed a set of sculptural skate elements for a former tennis court, formalizing and aestheticizing what had been an informal spot” at a park in Montclair, New Jersey.