Physics

In a roundup of the biggest tech breakthroughs of 2025, Forbes reporter Alex Knapp spotlights how MIT engineers developed magnetic transistors, a “discovery [that] could enable faster and more energy-efficient semiconductors.”

Prof. Nuno F.G. Loureiro is remembered as a “brilliant ‘physicist’s physicist,’” who “pushed for revolutionary breakthroughs in the complex, arcane field of plasma science,” in a tribute by Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie. “Inside and outside the lab, Mr. Loureiro also was known for a charismatic leadership style that combined warmth, humor, and personal engagement in the relentless pursuit of excellence,” MacQuarrie writes. “Nuno represents what MIT treasures in its people,” notes Prof. Joseph Paradiso, “at the top of his game in research, but with a wide-ranging curious mind ready to grapple with new ideas.”

Prof. Jesse Thaler shares the physics moonshot experiment he would like to undertake if imagination was the only constraint on scientific ambition. “I am an enthusiast for an audacious idea to explore the unknown: a muon collider,” Thaler shares. “The muon is a brilliant candidate for a discovery machine. Muons are 200 times heavier than electrons, which makes them more efficient to accelerate. And unlike the protons used at the LHC, muons are elementary particles, so colliding them together would probe sharper, higher energies, potentially allowing us to discover more massive particles beyond the Higgs boson or even the nature of dark matter.” 

MIT is “taking a quantum leap with the launch of the new MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT), reports State House News reporter Katie Castellani. “There isn't a more important technological field right now than quantum with its enormous potential for impact on both fundamental research and practical problems,” said President Sally Kornbluth during the launch event. “QMIT will help us to ask the right questions, identify the most critical problems and create a roadmap for developing quantum solutions that are both transformative and accessible.” 

A 1927 argument between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr regarding “one of the core mysteries of quantum physics,” has led multiple scientists, including Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle, to conduct the thought experiments the two scientists developed a century ago to determine if  “light [is] really a wave, a particle or a complex mixture of the two,” writes Karmela Padavic-Callaghan for New Scientist.

The Advanced LIGO Documentary Project commemorates the life and legacy of Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and “LIGO’s heart and soul.” Said Weiss of the significance of detecting gravitational waves: "The discovery isn't the measurement of the gravitational waves…it's the black holes. That's absolutely spectacular... that this exists, and if you see a couple more, then you could say something about the universe. It's something new that we're going to be able to say about the universe. It's spectacular. To me, that's the big discovery."

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, who was honored for his work in cosmology with the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Douglas Scott, Joseph Silk and Tom Broadhurst for Nature. Smoot’s work “contributed to our understanding of the Universe on the largest scales and at the earliest observable times by measuring temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background,” they explain. 

Researchers at MIT have discovered “the most direct evidence to date of unconventional superconductivity in ‘magic-angel’ twisted trilayer graphene (MATTG), reports Aman Tripathi for Interesting Engineering. “This finding is a crucial step in the global search for room-temperature superconductors, often referred to as the ‘Holy Grail’ of physics,” writes Tripathi. 

Writing for Meteorological Technology International, Alex Pack explores how MIT researchers have developed a new “lightning-prediction model that could help protect more unconventional aircraft designs – such as blended-wing bodies or truss-braced configurations – as aviation moves beyond traditional tube-and-wing designs.” 

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Katrina Miller for The New York Times. Smoot’s work as a physicist “helped elucidate the story of cosmic creation, providing evidence of what he called the primordial seeds that grew into galaxies and galaxy clusters,” writes Miller. 

Prof. Peter Shor speaks with Katia Moskvitch and her nine-year-old son Kai of The Quantum Kid about how quantum technologies could be applied to developing climate change and sustainability solutions. Shor explains that quantum computers can be used for “simulating quantum mechanics, which would really help immensely in designing new materials, and new materials could be very useful for solving the climate crisis.” 

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, the 2006 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Kasha Patel for The Washington Post. Smoot’s work “helped take an image of the universe in its infancy, providing strong support for the Big Bang theory and new insight into the origins of the cosmos,” writes Patel. 

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, a recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work “finding the background radiation that finally pinned down the Big Bang Theory,” has died at age 80, reports the Associated Press. 

Researchers at MIT have developed magnetic transistors, “which could enable faster and more energy-efficient semiconductors,” reports Alex Knapp for Forbes. “Researchers have been trying to use magnets this way for years, but the materials used so far haven’t been optimal for computing functions,” explains Knapp. “That changed after experimenting with chromium sulfur bromide, which replaces the silicon in a conventional microchip and enables the transistors to be switched on and off with an electric current.” 

Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science, joins Bob McDonald of CBC’s “Quirks & Quarks” to discuss how 10 years after LIGO’s first detection of gravitational waves the observatories are still “helping scientists better understand the life cycles of stars, the nature of gravity, and transforming the way we explore the farthest reaches of space.” Mavalvala shares: "Scientists have been able to design and construct these instruments that are capable of measuring imperceptibly small changes in spacetime distance, and in the past 10 years the sensitivity of these instruments has improved. That’s what is allowing us to make greater discoveries.”