Physics

Graduate student Megan Masterson speaks with CBS Eye on the World hosts John Batchelor and David Livingston about her research on tidal disruption events. “These events were first theorized in the 1970s, first discovered in the 1990s with x-ray wavelengths,” explains Masterson. “But today, what James Webb is doing is allowing us to detect these events in the infrared band. And so, what we’re seeing here are previously dormant black holes that were kind of lying at the center for their galaxies doing pretty much nothing suddenly become active.” 

Researchers at MIT have found a new “iteration of a foundational quantum experiment,” reports Gayoung Lee for Gizmodo. They “successfully replicated the double-slit experiment on the atomic scale, allowing for an unprecedented level of empirical precision,” writes Lee. “By using supercold atoms as ‘slits’ for light to pass through, the team confirmed that the wave-particle duality of light—with all its paradoxical properties—holds up even on the most fundamental quantum scales.” 

Physicists at MIT have provided new insights into the world of quantum mechanics after successfully performing the double-slit experiment with “incredible atomic precision,” reports Mrigakshi Dixit for Interesting Engineering. The researchers “discovered a clear relationship: the more precisely they determined a photon’s path (confirming its particle-like behavior), the more the wave-like interference pattern faded,” explains Dixit. “The researchers observed that the wave interference pattern weakened any time an atom was nudged by a photon passing by. This confirmed that getting information about the photon’s route automatically erased its wave-like properties.”  

Prof. Julien de Wit speaks with CNN reporter Ashley Strickland about asteroid 2024 YR4 and the importance of monitoring and studying asteroids to help keep Earth safe. 

Interesting Engineering reporter Saoirse Kerrigan spotlights a number of MIT research projects from the past decade. MIT has “long been a hub of innovation and ingenuity across multiple industries and disciplines,” writes Kerrigan. “Every year, the school’s best and brightest debut projects that push the boundaries of science and technology. From vehicles and furniture to exciting new breakthroughs in electricity generation, the school’s projects have tackled an impressive variety of subjects.” 

Ten years after scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time using the LIGO detectors, Rachel Feltman of Scientific American's “Science Quickly” podcast visits the MIT LIGO Lab to speak with Prof. Matt Evans about the future of gravitational wave research and why Cosmic Explorer, the next generation gravitational wave observatory, will help unearth secrets of the early universe. “We get to look back towards the beginning of the universe, in some sense, with gravitational waves as we look at these sources that are farther and farther away,” says Evans. “With Cosmic Explorer we’ll have not just one or two but hundreds of thousands of sources from the distant universe. So it’s a really exciting way to explore the universe as a whole by looking at this stellar graveyard.”

Prof. Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, “an experimental physicist who helped to develop an atomic clock that became an essential part of global positioning systems (GPS),” has died at the age of 92, reports Dylan Loeb McClain for The New York Times. In addition to his work in atomic clocks, Kleppner also “helped to discover a rare fundamental state of matter predicted by Albert Einstein and his fellow theoretical physicist Satyendra Nath Bose,” writes McClain. 

Mashable reporter Elisha Sauers spotlights some of the exoplanets identified thus far in 2025, including BD+05 4868 Ab, a rocky exoplanet discovered by MIT astronomers that has a “comet-like tail stretching more than 5.5 million miles.” BD+05 4868 Ab is “about the size of Mercury and orbits its star every 30.5 hours,” Sauers explains. “At roughly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the planet appears to be shedding material — about one Mount Everest’s worth per orbit — that becomes its tail.”

Prof. Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, a “highly honored physicist who developed technologies that helped pave the way for the Global Positioning System and whose foundational atomic discoveries helped open up the field of quantum computing,” has died at age 92, reports Anusha Mathur for The Washington Post. Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle explains that Kleppner’s research laid the groundwork for what “in the last 15 years has been developed into a new platform, a new approach for quantum computation. That has led to multimillion-dollar funding in multiple start-up companies in Europe and the U.S.” 

Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, Shreya Dave '09, SM ’12, PhD '16, Bob Mumgaard SM '15, PhD '15 and Sloan alumna Emily Reichert have been named to the 2025 Boston Globe Tech Power Players list for their efforts in the energy sector, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Chiang emphasizes the importance of federal funding in advancing scientific research. “My entire career has been supported by US taxpayers,” Chiang says. “The ability to give back and develop technologies and create jobs, that’s a big motivator for me.”

Gizmodo reporter Isaac Schultz writes that MIT astronomers have uncovered the most distant galaxy ever detected, dubbed MoM-z14, using the James Webb Space Telescope. Schultz notes that MoM-z14 “isn’t just some dim smudge, either—it’s unexpectedly luminous, echoing a growing theme in JWST’s discoveries. MoM-z14 now joins a strange new class of young galaxies that shine far more brightly than anyone expected.” 

Postdoc Rohan Naidu and his colleagues have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to examine galaxy MoM-z14, first spotted in 2023, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for New Scientist. “Naidu and his colleagues confirmed MoM-z14 is the most distant galaxy yet,” writes Naidu. “The light we see now was emitted just 280 million years after the big bang, breaking the previous record by about 10 million years.” 

New York Post reporter Marissa Matozzo cracks into a new study by MIT researchers that uncovers the best way to keep eggs from cracking. The researchers found that eggs dropped sideways are less likely to break than those dropped vertically. “It turns out the sides can take more of a beating than their pointy or rounded ends, and that could mean a lot for proper storage,” says Matozzo. 

Forbes reporter Amanda Kooser spotlights a new study by MIT scientists that has found eggs are less likely to crack when dropped on their side. “The researchers put eggs through their paces in two different tests,” explains Kooser. “One was a static compression test that applied increasing force to the eggs. The other was a drop test.” 

Researchers at MIT have discovered that eggs dropped on their side are less likely to crack than those dropped on their tips, reports Doyle Rice for USA Today. The researchers conducted both a drop and compression test on the eggs, and the findings “suggest that future research could explore the application of these findings to engineering scenarios, such as how structures respond to dynamic loads,” writes Rice.