Research

Studies have shown that mothers who experience an infection severe enough to require hospitalization during pregnancy are at higher risk of having a child with autism.

Studies help explain link between autism, severe infection during pregnancy

Bacterial populations in mother’s GI tract may play a central role.

September 13, 2017

A new method produces a printable structure that begins to fold itself up as soon as it’s peeled off the printing platform.

“Peel-and-go” printable structures fold themselves

Expanding polymer enables self-folding without heating or immersion in water.

September 13, 2017

MIT researchers have found a surprising new twist to the mechanics involved when droplets come in contact with surfaces. Pictured here is a microscopic top view of a droplet.

Stick, peel, or bounce: Controlling a freezing droplet’s fate

MIT study reveals a new way to enhance or reduce the adhesion of freezing droplets.

September 11, 2017

2017 MPC-CMSE Summer Scholar Gaetana Michelet holds a pipette in the Biogel Lab of Katharina Ribbeck, the Eugene Bell Career Development Professor of Tissue Engineering at MIT. Ribbeck studies how complex materials such as mucus influence bacterial behavior.

Mucus’ influence on bacterial behavior

Summer Scholar Gaetana Michelet explores the role mucus plays in protecting people from getting sick.

September 8, 2017

Researchers will present a new general-purpose technique for making sense of neural networks trained to perform natural-language-processing tasks, in which computers attempt to interpret freeform texts written in ordinary, or natural language (as opposed to a programming language, for example).

How neural networks think

General-purpose technique sheds light on inner workings of neural nets trained to process language.

September 8, 2017

Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, who negotiated the collaboration on behalf of MIT, speaks during the signing of the agreement with representatives of IBM.

3Q: Anantha Chandrakasan on new MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab

Lab seeks to expand the boundaries of research on artificial intelligence.

September 7, 2017

MIT President L. Rafael Reif, left, and John Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and Research, shake hands at the conclusion of a signing ceremony establishing the new MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab.

IBM and MIT to pursue joint research in artificial intelligence, establish new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

IBM plans to make a 10-year, $240 million investment in new lab with MIT to advance AI hardware, software, and algorithms.

September 7, 2017

Professor Evelyn Wang, the director of MIT’s Device Research Laboratory, has been appointed associate head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Evelyn Wang joins leadership team in MechE

Mechanical engineering alumna and internationally recognized professor is the new associate head of the department.

September 6, 2017

One proposed application of the firebrick-based thermal storage system is depicted in this hypothetical configuration, where it is coupled to a nuclear power plant to provide easily dispatchable power.

Firebricks offer low-cost storage for carbon-free energy

Ancient technology could be used to level electricity prices for renewables.

September 6, 2017

“The question we’re asking is: Do retractions trigger, at an individual level, something like an infection mechanism, where the retracted author is being punished and discredited for being dishonest or just incompetent?” says Alessandro Bonatti, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

How retractions hurt scientists’ credibility

Study finds faulty research creates a significant drop in use of prior published work.

September 5, 2017

“The concept of my startup is, ‘Let’s use hacker tools to defeat hackers,’” PhD student Gregory Falco says. “If you don’t know how to break it, you don’t know how to fix it.”

Gregory Falco: Protecting urban infrastructure against cyberterrorism

PhD student works at the intersection of urban planning and computer science.

September 5, 2017

“The goal was trying to understand the chemistry associated with organic particulate matter in a forested environment,” associate professor Jesse Kroll explains. “We took a lot of measurements using state-of-the-art instruments we had developed.” The team also took many photos while in Colorado. Pictured on the bottom right is Douglas Day, CU researcher and organizer of the field campaign....

Team gathers unprecedented data on atmosphere’s organic chemistry

Colorado forest study provides clearest-ever picture of gases released into the atmosphere and how they change.

September 4, 2017

“Our prediction is that we might be able to identify risk for preterm birth ahead of time, before labor sets in,” says Katharina Ribbeck, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study. “Diagnostic tools for this are missing.”

Study suggests simple way to predict preterm births

Test of cervical mucus may reveal pregnant women’s risk of going into labor too early.

September 4, 2017

$Research by MIT graduate student Ashley Kaiser (left) and postdoc Itai Stein shows that a small fraction of carbon nanotubes added to phenol-formaldehyde resin lowers the processing temperature needed to achieve the best combination of hardness and low density by 200 degrees Celsius.$

Glassy carbon, now with less heat

Carbon nanotubes lower the transformation temperature of glassy carbon, possibly aiding manufacturers, MIT researchers report.

September 1, 2017

Graduate student Leigh Ann Kesler researches the effects of hot plasma on the interiors of fusion devices using a 2 megavolt electrostatic accelerator called DANTE in the Vault Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Measuring depths, scaling heights

When not climbing mountains, nuclear science and engineering PhD candidate Leigh Ann Kesler tracks erosion inside fusion reactor containment chambers.

August 31, 2017

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