Physics

"Astronomers think it is very likely that every single star in our Milky Way galaxy has at least one planet," said Professor Sara Seager at a NASA panel on the possibility of life on other planets, writes Sara Gates for The Huffington Post. 

"We believe we're very, very close in terms of technology and science to actually finding the other Earth and our chance to find signs of life on another world," said Professor Sara Seager during a NASA panel on the search for extraterrestrial life, reports Suzanne Presto of CNN.

Hal Hodson writes for The New Scientist about the Smart Morphable Surface developed by Professor Pedro Reis. The surface dimples into different depths and patterns to create the best aerodynamics for the conditions.

Dan Vergano of National Geographic profiles Professor Alan Guth’s career in physics. "What always fascinated me about science was the desire to understand what underlies it all, and I think physics is basically the study of that," Guth explains. 

David Snzondy writes for GizMag about new materials created by a team that included Professor Nick Fang. These “metamaterials,” which are lightweight and can withstand weights 160,000 times their own, could have applications for the construction of aircraft and other vehicles.

Bruce Dorminey writes for Forbes about how scientists are looking to close a quantum physics loophole. “We wanted to come up with a potential test that could close one of the last major remaining quantum physics loopholes that could still allow entangled particle experiments to be interpreted according to classical physics,” explains MIT postdoc Andrew Friedman. 

Neil Swidey profiles Professor Alan Guth and his work developing the theory of cosmic inflation in a piece for The Boston Globe Magazine. “Perhaps you went to school with someone like Alan Guth, a child so preternaturally gifted that the teachers didn’t know what to do with him,” Swidey writes.

Professor Max Tegmark writes for The New York Times about recent research that appears to support the theory of cosmic inflation, and the implications of this discovery for the study of physics and the origins of the universe.

Xinhuanet highlights a new system developed by MIT Professor Marin Soljačić  and graduate student Yichen Shen that allows for filtering light waves based on direction. This research could have major implications for solar energy technology.

New Scientist reporter Jacob Aron reports on how MIT researchers have developed a new system that filters light waves based on the direction they are traveling. The system could be used to take photographs of faint objects, Aron writes.

New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye profiles Professor Alan Guth, one of the first physicists to set forth the theory of cosmic inflation. This week astronomers presented evidence that could confirm Guth’s work.

Charles Q. Choi writes about Professor David Kaiser’s research into the last major loophole in quantum physics. “Kaiser and his colleagues have proposed looking for answers from the most remote corners of the known cosmos,” reports Choi.

Reporter Lisa Grossman interviews MIT Professor Anna Frebel about her work searching for the oldest, living stars in the universe, and her recent discovery of a star almost as old as the universe.

The Financial Times explores new MIT research into the mechanics behind underwater or “internal waves.” Through their work, which could prove useful in climate modeling, researchers found that ocean ridges and channels cause the gigantic waves to form.

 “Four years ago, Anna Frebel, a young astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found an ancient star in a neighboring galaxy whose chemical composition proved nearly identical to some unusual stars on the outskirts of our own galaxy,” wrote New York Times reporter Curtis Brainard in a feature on Prof. Frebel’s work.