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MIT neuroscientists have identified tight connections between dopamine-producing cells of the substantia nigra (red) and neurons in the striatum (green). These connections, which show up as yellow, may play a role in the brain’s decision-making processes.

Newly discovered neural connections may be linked to emotional decision-making

Researchers suspect cells in this brain circuit could also be targets of Parkinson’s disease.

September 19, 2016

ROBOAT, a new collaboration between researchers from MIT and partner institutions in the Netherlands, seeks to design and deploy a fleet of autonomous boats on the canals of Amsterdam.

An autonomous fleet for Amsterdam

MIT, AMS Institute will collaborate to solve complex urban problems for Amsterdam with the development of autonomous "roboats."

September 19, 2016

A new gene therapy technique being developed by researchers at MIT uses microRNAs — small noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression — to control breast cancer metastasis.

Gene therapy technique may help prevent cancer metastasis

Gene-regulating RNA molecules could help treat early-stage breast cancer tumors before they spread.

September 19, 2016

“The way we measure street lighting is still very primitive,” says Sumeet Kumar PhD ’14. Kumar and his team came up with the idea of replacing manual inspections with a set of cameras and sensors mounted on top of a vehicle, in much the same way that Google uses vehicle-mounted camera systems to generate its street views.

Drive-by monitoring for urban streetlights

System developed at MIT could automate inspection for efficiency and maintenance issues.

September 16, 2016

MIT research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz in her office with a display of her phytoplankton model simulation

Computing the ocean’s true colors

Stephanie Dutkiewicz’ phytoplankton models project the future of the ocean as food source and carbon sink.

September 15, 2016

$Polymers, or long chains of repeating molecules, are found in many objects that we encounter every day, including anything made of plastic or rubber. In many materials, however, a significant fraction of these chains bind to themselves, forming defects.$

New theory overcomes a longstanding polymer problem

Technique for calculating elasticity could aid design of new materials.

September 15, 2016

“Learning from this model, we can understand what’s really going on in these superconductors, and what one should do to make higher-temperature superconductors, approaching hopefully room temperature,” says Martin Zwierlein, professor of physics and principal investigator in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

For first time, researchers see individual atoms keep away from each other or bunch up as pairs

Observations of atomic interactions could help pave way to room-temperature superconductors.

September 15, 2016

MIT spinout EverVest has built a data-analytics platform that gives investors rapid, accurate cash-flow models and financial risk analyses for renewable-energy projects.

Calculating the financial risks of renewable energy

Financial-modeling software for sustainable-infrastructure projects could boost investment in sector.

September 15, 2016

Human colorectal cancer cells

High-capacity nanoparticle

Particles that carry three or more drugs hold potential for targeted cancer therapy.

September 14, 2016

A team of MIT scientists has developed a strategy for delivering large numbers of beneficial bacterial to the human gut. The strategy involves coating bacteria with polymer layers that protect them from the acids and bile salts found in the digestive tract.

Delivering beneficial bacteria to the GI tract

Method that transports microbes through the stomach to the intestine may benefit human health.

September 14, 2016

Imaging scientist and social impact inventor Ramesh Raskar of MIT is the 2016 recipient of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.

Ramesh Raskar awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

Imaging scientist and inventor sets sights on launching peer-to-peer invention platforms for global impact.

September 13, 2016

Researchers have designed a new programming language that lets application developers manage memory more efficiently in programs that deal with scattered data points in large data sets. In tests on several common algorithms, programs written in the new language were four times as fast as those written in existing languages.

Faster parallel computing

New programming language delivers fourfold speedups on problems common in the age of big data.

September 13, 2016

Left to right: MIT Professor Franz-Josef Ulm, Aix-Marseille University President Yvon Berland, MIT President L. Rafael Reif, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) President Alain Fuchs, and CNRS research director and MIT senior research scientist Roland Pellenq at a signing ceremony extending a partnership behind MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment (MSE2), which ...

MIT and French research institutions collaborate on climate-conscious materials

MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment research partnership could reduce the carbon footprint of materials such as concrete.

September 12, 2016

A new imaging system can read closed books. “The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don’t even want to touch,” says Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab.

Judging a book through its cover

New computational imaging method identifies letters printed on first nine pages of a stack of paper.

September 9, 2016

“Our understanding of our environment is largely shaped by our memory for what’s currently out of sight,” says Caroline Robertson, a postdoc at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. “What we were looking for are hubs in the brain where your memories for the panoramic environment are integrated with your current field of view....

How the brain builds panoramic memory

Neuroscientists identify brain regions key to linking different views of our surroundings.

September 8, 2016