Physics

Q&A: Rainer Weiss on LIGO’s origins

MIT physicist developed the concept for LIGO as a teaching exercise.

February 11, 2016

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

Scientists make first direct detection of gravitational waves

LIGO signal reveals first observation of two massive black holes colliding, proves Einstein right.

February 11, 2016

“It’s important to understand how the process of fluid breakup happens,” says Lydia Bourouiba. “What is the physics telling us in terms of droplet size distribution, that we can use downstream to predict range of contamination?”

Sneezing produces complex fluid cascade, not a simple spray

High-speed imaging shows how fluid breaks apart in air, may help identify super-spreaders.

February 10, 2016

MIT assistant professor of physics Liang Fu seeks to identify new materials that can process and store quantum information robustly.

Faculty highlight: Liang Fu

MIT theoretical physicist’s research bridges abstract math and exotic computing materials.

February 3, 2016

Dispatches from the Paris climate talks

MIT attendees of COP21 share experiences, perspectives on outcomes

February 2, 2016

Researchers used the MIT and Tim the Beaver logos to show photoluminescence emissions from a monolayer of molybdenum disulfide inlayed onto graphene. The arrow indicates the graphene-MoS2 lateral heterostructure, which could potentially form the basis for ultrathin computer chips.

New chip fabrication approach

Depositing different materials within a single chip layer could lead to more efficient computers.

January 27, 2016

This diagram demonstrates the simplified results that can be obtained by using quantum analysis on enormous, complex sets of data. Shown here are the connections between different regions of the brain in a control subject (left) and a subject under the influence of the psychedelic compound psilocybin (right). This demonstrates a dramatic increase in connectivity, which explains some of the drug’...

A new quantum approach to big data

System for handling massive digital datasets could make impossibly complex problems solvable.

January 25, 2016

In this image, the middle "explosion" is a cloud of hot electrons, inside graphene, that bounce off one another as they reach equilibrium and spread out. The red spheres are those electrons that are energetic enough to escape the hot cloud in less than 30 femtoseconds and generate an electric current. MIT researchers have developed a technique to access and control these ultrafast processes.

Physicists control electrons at femtosecond timescales

Results may help improve efficiency of solar cells, energy-harvesting devices.

January 22, 2016

New finding may explain heat loss in fusion reactors

Solving a longstanding mystery, MIT experiments reveal two forms of turbulence interacting.

January 21, 2016

A proof-of-concept device built by MIT researchers demonstrates the principle of a two-stage process to make incandescent bulbs more efficient. This device already achieves efficiency comparable to some compact fluorescent and LED bulbs.

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?

Researchers combine the warm look of traditional light bulbs with 21st-century energy efficiency.

January 11, 2016

Astronomers have detected a massive, sprawling, churning galaxy cluster that formed only 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang. The cluster, shown here, is the most massive cluster of galaxies yet discovered in the first 4 billion years after the Big Bang.

Most distant massive galaxy cluster identified

Formed in the first 4 billion years of the universe, cluster is 1,000 times more massive than the Milky Way.

January 7, 2016

MIT affiliates were well represented in the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30, honoring young leaders.

25 from MIT named to Forbes 30 Under 30 lists in 2016

Students, researchers, and alumni honored in the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 lists showcasing America’s most important young entrepreneurs, thinkers, and leaders.

January 7, 2016

As bacteria stream through a microfluidic lattice, they synchronize and swim in patterns similar to those of electrons flowing through a magnetic material. This image shows a microfluidic 6x6 lattice. The left-hand side shows the original data as seen under the microscope. The overlaid color coding on the right-hand side shows the relative strength of clockwise (purple) or anti-clockwise (green) ...

Study reveals shared behavior of microbes and electrons

Bacteria streaming through a lattice behave like electrons in a magnetic material.

January 5, 2016

Clearing the way for Floquet-Bloch states

Team demonstrates pure quantum-mechanical mixture of electrons and photons in the solid topological insulator bismuth selenide.

January 4, 2016

MIT researchers fed their physics prediction system videos of collisions, shown as screenshots in (a) and (b), which were then converted into simulations generated by the 3-D physics engine, shown in (c) and (d).

Computer model matches humans at predicting how objects move

“3-D physics engine” from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory simulates the human brain to infer physical properties.