X-ray flashes from a nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously
Their source could be the core of a dead star that’s teetering at the black hole’s edge, MIT astronomers report.
Study shows how households can cut energy costs
An experiment in Amsterdam suggests providing better information to people can help move them out of “energy poverty.”
Study suggests how the brain, with sleep, learns meaningful maps of spaces
Place cells are known to encode individual locations, but research finds stitching together a “cognitive map” of a whole environment requires a broader ensemble of cells, aided by sleep, over several days.
Q&A: Examining American attitudes on global climate policies
Professor Evan Lieberman describes new research in which he and colleagues find a sharp partisan divide over providing aid to poor nations.
Minimizing the carbon footprint of bridges and other structures
MAD Design Fellow Zane Schemmer writes algorithms that optimize overall function, minimize carbon footprint, and produce a manufacturable design.
Teaching AI to communicate sounds like humans do
Inspired by the human vocal tract, a new AI model can produce and understand vocal imitations of everyday sounds. The method could help build new sonic interfaces for entertainment and education.
Images that transform through heat
The Thermochromorph printmaking technique developed by CSAIL researchers allows images to transition into each other through changes in temperature.
Personal interests can influence how children’s brains respond to language
McGovern Institute neuroscientists use children’s interests to probe language in the brain.
How hard is it to prevent recurring blackouts in Puerto Rico?
Using the island as a model, researchers demonstrate the “DyMonDS” framework can improve resiliency to extreme weather and ease the integration of new resources.
New filter captures and recycles aluminum from manufacturing waste
MIT engineers designed a nanofiltration process that could make aluminum production more efficient while reducing hazardous waste.
A new way to determine whether a species will successfully invade an ecosystem
MIT physicists develop a predictive formula, based on bacterial communities, that may also apply to other types of ecosystems, including the human GI tract.
An abundant phytoplankton feeds a global network of marine microbes
New findings illuminate how Prochlorococcus’ nightly “cross-feeding” plays a role in regulating the ocean’s capacity to cycle and store carbon.
A new computational model can predict antibody structures more accurately
Using this model, researchers may be able to identify antibody drugs that can target a variety of infectious diseases.
MIT scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst
The fleeting cosmic firework likely emerged from the turbulent magnetosphere around a far-off neutron star.
MIT’s top research stories of 2024
Stories on tamper-proof ID tags, sound-suppressing silk, and generative AI’s understanding of the world were some of the most popular topics on MIT News.