Physics

Rainer Weiss awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy

Physics professor emeritus shares prize with Caltech's Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever for designing the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

June 1, 2016

MIT scientists developed a super-resolution imaging technique, using a combination of multi-colored lasers and mirrors, to visualize very tiny, transient phenomena, such as enzyme clustering on genes.

Scientists illuminate a hidden regulator in gene transcription

New super-resolution technique visualizes important role of short-lived enzyme clusters.

May 25, 2016

While all research in traditional photovoltaics faces the same underlying theoretical limitations, MIT PhD student David Bierman says, “with solar thermal photovoltaics you have the possibility to exceed that.”

Hot new solar cell

System converts solar heat into usable light, increasing device’s overall efficiency.

May 23, 2016

Porkolab honored by Hungarian Academy of Sciences

May 23, 2016

Mutualism, a phenomenon in which different species benefit from their interactions with each other, can help bacteria form drug-resistant communities. Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of mutualism among bacteria.

Teamwork enables bacterial survival

Strains of E. coli resistant to one antibiotic can protect other bacteria growing nearby.

May 16, 2016

Nuno Loureiro’s primary ambition for the next few years is to home in on a complete understanding of magnetic reconnection in the simplest possible plasma model.

Nuno Loureiro: A theorist seeks the elusive fundamentals of magnetic reconnection

May 12, 2016

Illustrations represent (left to right) an elliptic curve, L-function, and modular form, some of the types of mathematical objects whose relationships are explored in a vast new database.

International team launches vast atlas of mathematical objects

New online resource represents enormous computational effort, will advance research across fields.

May 10, 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

MIT postdoc Cui-Zu Chang works with equipment that can monitor topological insulator thin-film quality as it grows. The bright green vertical bar on computer screen is an indicator of very high-quality film growth. Chang led work in the Moodera group showing the first zero-resistance edge state in a circuit.

Achieving zero resistance in energy flow

MIT postdoc Cui-Zu Chang makes a spintronic breakthrough in the Moodera group.

May 6, 2016

(Left to right) David Shoemaker, Rainer Weiss, Matthew Evans, Erotokritos Katsavounidis, Nergis Mavalvala, and Peter Fritschel.

LIGO researchers awarded Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Team that detected gravitational waves to share $3 million prize.

May 4, 2016

This artist’s rendering shows an imagined view of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. In this view, one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star.

Scientists discover potentially habitable planets

Just 40 light years from Earth, planets are best targets so far for search for extraterrestrial life.

May 2, 2016

MIT Senior Research Scientist Jagadeesh Moodera stands in front of a custom-built system used to fabricate ultrathin films. His work includes devices that exhibit resistance-free, spin-polarized electrical current; enabling memory storage at the level of single molecules; and the search for the elusive Majorana fermions sought for quantum computing.

Research highlight: Jagadeesh Moodera

Step-by-step, the Moodera Research Group is building the essential knowledge and hardware for next-generation quantum computers.

April 29, 2016

Any system in thermodynamic equilibrium is known to satisfy perfectly balanced forward and backward transitions between any two states. It is therefore impossible, for instance, to drive a windmill to do work by using only thermal fluctuations. The new research shows how living systems violate this principle. Thus, even stochastic fluctuations in such living systems could be used to drive such a s...

Spotting hidden activity in cells

New data analysis technique distinguishes active from passive fluctuations inside cells.

April 28, 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

Seven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2016

Prestigious honor society announces 213 new members this year.