National Science Foundation (NSF)

This diagram depicts the way a new surface treatment can improve the efficiency and longevity of perovskite materials for use in applications such as fuel-cell electrodes. Within the bulk of the material (bottom left) oxygen vacancies shown as “holes” are distributed throughout the material, and cause intense chemical reactivity. But on the surface, many of those vacancies get filled by oxygen...

Researchers find a way to extend life and improve performance of fuel cell electrodes

Surface treatment greatly reduces degradation of catalyst material.

June 13, 2016

A research team led by MIT chemistry professor Mohammad Movassaghi has developed a strategy for synthesizing a group of compounds called communesins, which occur naturally in some fungi. Researchers may now be able to further investigate the compounds’ cancer-fighting abilities. Pictured is an image of penicillium fungus.

A new approach to chemical synthesis

Communesins, originally found in fungus, could hold potential as cancer drugs.

June 7, 2016

The 2016 MPC-CMSE Summer Scholars are: (top row, l-r) Michael Concepción Santana, Justin Cheng, Erica Eggleton, Ashley Del Valle Morales; (middle row, l-r) Suna Njie, Ashley Kaiser, Jennifer Coulter; (bottom row, l-r) Michael Porter, Alexandra Barth, Victoria Yao, Grant Smith.

Stepping out of their comfort zone

Eleven students will challenge themselves at MIT in the MPC-CMSE Summer Scholars program.

June 6, 2016

“[T]oday, if you want to write a program, you go and bring in these huge frameworks and these huge pieces of functionality that you then glue together, and you write a little code to get them to interact with each other. If you don’t understand what that big framework is doing, you’re not even going to know where your program is going to start executing,” says Armando Solar-Lezama.

Automatic bug finder

System could make complex analysis practical for programs that import huge swaths of code.

May 25, 2016

Maria Zuber elected as chair of the National Science Board

For the first time, women will hold both of the board’s top leadership positions.

May 24, 2016

A sample of the mineral perovskite is shown in the foreground, while behind it is an image the researchers used to prove the effects of intense light on a thin film of perovskite. Fluorescence imaging shows that areas that received more light became more purified, as revealed by brighter fluorescence from those regions.

Light can “heal” defects in some solar cells

Defects in some new electronic materials can be removed by making ions move under illumination.

May 24, 2016

A sample of a core-shell nanoparticle made by the researchers is shown in images made using scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Color images show where the different elements are located in the particle, with the precious metals platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru) concentrated in the shell, and the other constituents, tungsten (W), and tita...

New nanoparticle catalysts could reduce need for precious metals

Process from MIT provides improved reactivity with much less platinum.

May 19, 2016

MIT scientists say that the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a period that scientists believe marked the beginning of oxygen’s permanent presence in the atmosphere, started as early as 2.33 billion years ago.

Study pinpoints timing of oxygen’s first appearance in Earth’s atmosphere

Beginning 2.33 billion years ago, atmospheric oxygen built up in just 10 million years.

May 13, 2016

Arrows indicate the spin direction in the ferromagnetic insulator (EuS, shown in red) and topological insulator (Bi2Se3, shown in blue) at the interface between the two materials.

Researchers find unexpected magnetic effect

Combining two thin-film materials yields surprising room-temperature magnetism.

May 9, 2016

A photo of the edge of the Greenland ice sheet. “With our technique, we can continuously monitor ice sheet volume changes associated with winter and summer,” Germán Prieto says.

Tracking Greenland’s ice melt with seismic waves

Technique uses vibrations generated by ocean waves to monitor ice sheet’s seasonal changes.

May 6, 2016

Higher coal use in Asia could increase water stress

Aerosol emissions would slow warming but suppress rainfall.

April 28, 2016

Mircea Dincă wins National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award

Chemistry professor receives the NSF's highest honor for an outstanding researcher under the age of 35.

April 21, 2016

Robert Birgeneau to receive Vannevar Bush award

Former MIT physics professor and dean of science recognized by the National Science Board.

April 21, 2016

The goal of MIT's "Duckiebot" class was to create a fleet of 50 self-driving taxis that can navigate the roads of a model city with just a single on-board camera and no pre-programmed maps.

Self-driving cars, meet rubber duckies

“Duckietown” class at Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab teaches autonomy, aims to become global research platform.

April 20, 2016

In this image of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the colors represent which buildings could be retrofitted to obtain different percentages of total energy savings. Converting just red and orange buildings would achieve 40 percent of the total potential energy savings in the city from efficiency improvements. West Cambridge has a dividing line that shows efficient, dense housing next to a several homes t...

How to make cities more energy efficient

Retrofitting a small portion of buildings would have big impact on cities’ carbon emissions.