Biological engineers discover new antibiotic candidates
Screen of human proteins reveals some with antimicrobial power.
Antidepressant restores youthful flexibility to aging inhibitory neurons
Neural plasticity and arbor growth decline with age, study in mice shows.
Light from ancient quasars helps confirm quantum entanglement
Results are among the strongest evidence yet for “spooky action at a distance.”
Investigating Earth’s earliest life
Graduate student Kelsey Moore uses genetic and fossil evidence to study the first stages of evolution on our planet.
Advancing undersea optical communications
Lincoln Laboratory researchers are applying narrow-beam laser technology to enable communications between underwater vehicles.
More efficient security for cloud-based machine learning
Novel combination of two encryption techniques protects private data, while keeping neural networks running quickly.
Sprawling galaxy cluster found hiding in plain sight
Bright light from black hole in a feeding frenzy had been obscuring surrounding galaxies.
Design tool reveals a product’s many possible performance tradeoffs
Users can quickly visualize designs that optimize multiple parameters at once.
MIT mathematicians solve age-old spaghetti mystery
It’s nearly impossible to break a dry spaghetti noodle into only two pieces. A new MIT study shows how and why it can be done.
In neutron stars, protons may do the heavy lifting
The positively charged particles may have an outsize influence on the properties of neutron stars and other neutron-rich objects.
Novel optics for ultrafast cameras create new possibilities for imaging
Technique can capture a scene at multiple depths with one shutter click — no zoom lens needed.
3Q: A bold mission to touch the sun
MIT’s John Belcher discusses the launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which will fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere.
Study suggests glaucoma may be an autoimmune disease
Unexpected findings show that the body’s own immune system destroys retinal cells.
Artificial intelligence model “learns” from patient data to make cancer treatment less toxic
Machine-learning system determines the fewest, smallest doses that could still shrink brain tumors.
The debate over how working memory works
Scientists present dueling theories in the high-stakes quest to understand how we hold and juggle multiple pieces of information in mind.