Study: Preschool gives a big boost to college attendance
Research using a Boston admissions lottery shows striking effects for children throughout their student lives.
Solving a machine-learning mystery
A new study shows how large language models like GPT-3 can learn a new task from just a few examples, without the need for any new training data.
Automating the math for decision-making under uncertainty
A new tool brings the benefits of AI programming to a much broader class of problems.
Engineers devise a modular system to produce efficient, scalable aquabots
The system’s simple repeating elements can assemble into swimming forms ranging from eel-like to wing-shaped.
New polymers could enable better wearable devices
MIT engineers developed organic polymers that can efficiently convert signals from biological tissue into the electronic signals used in transistors.
Toward new, computationally designed cybersteels
With a grant from the Office of Naval Research, MIT researchers aim to design novel high-performance steels, with potential applications including printed aircraft components and ship hulls.
Researchers map brain cell changes in Alzheimer’s disease
Study reveals key cell structures and gene expression changes near amyloid plaques and tau tangles in mouse brain tissue.
Why lung cancer doesn’t respond well to immunotherapy
A new study reveals that lymph nodes near the lungs create an environment that weakens T-cell responses to tumors.
Sparse, small, but diverse neural connections help make perception reliable, efficient
First detailed mapping and modeling of thalamus inputs onto visual cortex neurons show brain leverages “wisdom of the crowd” to process sensory information.
Why 1968 still matters
Professor Heather Hendershot’s new book about that year’s Democratic National Convention explores how anger at the media became part of our culture wars.
Engineers invent vertical, full-color microscopic LEDs
Stacking light-emitting diodes instead of placing them side by side could enable fully immersive virtual reality displays and higher-resolution digital screens.
Physicists observe rare resonance in molecules for the first time
The findings could provide a new way to control chemical reactions.
To decarbonize the chemical industry, electrify it
Researchers urge industry and the research community to explore electrification pathways to reduce chemical industry emissions.
How to make hydrogels more injectable
A new computational framework could help researchers design granular hydrogels to repair or replace diseased tissues.
“Spleen-on-a-chip” yields insight into sickle cell disease
With this microfluidic device, researchers modeled how sickled blood cells clog the spleen’s filters, leading to a potentially life-threatening condition.