Research

The task force leadership team consists of (right) David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics and associate head of the MIT Department of Economics; (left) David Mindell, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, and professor of aeronautics and astronautics; and (center) Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center...

MIT launches Task Force on the Work of the Future

Institute-wide effort will study the evolution of jobs in an age of technological advancement.

February 27, 2018

Researchers hope that their work will lead to a new approach to designing and evaluating polymer stents and other types of degradable medical devices.

Study reveals why polymer stents failed

Microscopic flaws in material structure can lead to stent deformation after implantation.

February 26, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a light-sensitive protein that can be embedded into neuron membranes, where it emits a fluorescent signal that indicates how much voltage a particular cell is experiencing. This could allow scientists to study how neurons behave, millisecond by millisecond, as the brain performs a particular function.

Seeing the brain's electrical activity

Fluorescent sensor allows imaging of neurons' electrical communications, without electrodes.

February 26, 2018

Generally, a browser won’t know where the data it downloaded has ended up. Even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily have authorization from the operating system to delete it.

Private browsing gets more private

New system patches security holes left open by web browsers’ private-browsing functions.

February 22, 2018

A sample of materials in the CAVS Special Collection.

Digital archive showcases work from the Center for Advanced Visual Studies

The collection features groundbreaking projects from pioneers working at the intersection of art, science, and technology.

February 22, 2018

A new study found that cities with an orderly pattern, like the street grid seen in most of this map, have a much greater urban heat island effect than those with a more disorderly pattern, such as areas in the upper right.

Urban heat island effects depend on a city’s layout

The way streets and buildings are arranged makes a big difference in how heat builds up, study shows.

February 22, 2018

While the world’s best-known cave art exists in France and Spain, examples of it abound throughout the world.

The writing on the wall

Did humans speak through cave art? New paper links ancient drawings and language’s origins.

February 21, 2018

A new study co-authored by a professor at MIT shows the long-term financial hurt of a medical event serious enough to cause hospitalization is significant even for the insured.

Ouch: Study reveals financial pain after hospitalization

Serious medical problems reduce earnings, hurt employment, and increase debt.

February 20, 2018

Using a state-of-the-art type of electron microscopy, an MIT-led team has discovered the structure of an enzyme that is crucial for maintaining an adequate supply of DNA building blocks in human cells.

Scientists deliver high-resolution glimpse of enzyme structure

New finding suggests differences in how humans and bacteria control production of DNA’s building blocks.

February 20, 2018

The “pick-and-place” system consists of a standard industrial robotic arm that the researchers outfitted with a custom gripper and suction cup. They developed an “object-agnostic” grasping algorithm that enables the robot to assess a bin of random objects and determine the best way to grip or suction onto an item amid the clutter, without having to know anything about the object before pic...

Robo-picker grasps and packs

New robotic system could lend a hand with warehouse sorting and other picking or clearing tasks.

February 19, 2018

Polina Anikeeva was born in Leningrad, USSR, but grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia – the same city, whose name reverted to its original form after the fall of the Soviet Union. While in school there, she encountered two inspiring scientists who helped propel her toward a career at MIT, where she now develops cutting-edge materials to help researchers probe the mysteries of the brain in unprecede...

Seeking materials that match the brain

Polina Anikeeva explores ways to make neural probes that are compatible with delicate biological tissues.

February 18, 2018

MIT anthropologist Stefan Helmreich on the boom of the FLIP ship in October 2017.

Stefan Helmreich conducts fieldwork aboard the unique FLIP ship

MIT anthropologist is researching how scientists understand waves.

February 16, 2018

Pablo Rodriguez Fernandez, first author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Integrated simulations answer 20-year-old question in fusion research

Study finds that turbulence competes in fusion plasmas to rapidly respond to temperature perturbations.

February 16, 2018

Teppei Yamamoto, the Alfred Henry and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science.

Political Methodology Lab to dig deep into new kinds of data

Founder Teppei Yamamoto designs new tools to comprehend political behavior transformed by digital technology.

February 15, 2018

A collection of SHERLOCK paper test strips. (Left) Unused paper strips, (middle) paper tests displaying a negative SHERLOCK readout, and (right) paper tests displaying a positive SHERLOCK readout.

Researchers advance CRISPR-based tool for diagnosing disease

With SHERLOCK, a strip of paper can now indicate presence of pathogens, tumor DNA, or any genetic signature of interest.

February 15, 2018

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MIT launches Task Force on the Work of the Future

Study reveals why polymer stents failed

Seeing the brain's electrical activity

Private browsing gets more private

Digital archive showcases work from the Center for Advanced Visual Studies

Urban heat island effects depend on a city’s layout

The writing on the wall

Ouch: Study reveals financial pain after hospitalization

Scientists deliver high-resolution glimpse of enzyme structure

Robo-picker grasps and packs

Seeking materials that match the brain

Stefan Helmreich conducts fieldwork aboard the unique FLIP ship

Integrated simulations answer 20-year-old question in fusion research

Political Methodology Lab to dig deep into new kinds of data

Researchers advance CRISPR-based tool for diagnosing disease

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Research