Research

“Diesel is the preferred fuel because of its high energy density and the high efficiency of the engines that run on diesel,” professor Gregory Stephanopoulos says. “The problem with diesel is that so far it is entirely made from fossil fuels.”

A step toward renewable diesel

Chemical engineers program yeast to convert plant sugars into oils.

January 16, 2017

MIT chemists have now developed a 3-D printing technique that allows them to print objects and then go back and add new polymers that alter the materials’ chemical composition and mechanical properties. These new polymers can be reactivated by light.

Technique enables adaptable 3-D printing

Once fabricated, objects can be altered by adding new polymers.

January 13, 2017

New MOOC study explores 290 MIT and Harvard online courses, a quarter-million certifications, 4.5 million participants, and 28 million participant-hours.

Study of MOOCs offers insights into online learner engagement and behavior

New report, based on four years of data from edX, represents one of the largest surveys of massive open online courses to date.

January 12, 2017

Timothy Hyde, architectural historian and associate professor in the History, Theory, and Criticism (HTC) section of the MIT Department of Architecture.

House rules

Research shows how rebuilding Britain’s Houses of Parliament in the 1800s helped create clean-air laws.

January 12, 2017

This photosynthetic antenna consists of several pigments, which collect light energy, and their associated proteins.

How photosynthetic pigments harvest light

New model could help scientists design materials for artificial photosynthesis.

January 11, 2017

MapD is a type of commonly used database-management system modified to run on GPUs instead of CPUs, which power most traditional database-management systems. MapD can process billions of data points in milliseconds, making it 100 times faster than those traditional systems, and visualizes that data near instantaneously.

Split-second data mapping

New type of database-analytics platform queries and maps billions of data points in milliseconds.

January 11, 2017

C. Adam Schlosser, MIT research scientist and Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change deputy director

Modeling plausible futures

MIT research scientist C. Adam Schlosser assesses long-term risks to regional water and energy systems.

January 10, 2017

Neuroscientists at MIT have adapted their MRI scanner to make it easier to scan infants’ brains as the babies watch movies featuring different types of visual input.

A glimpse into the workings of the baby brain

MRI scans reveal surprising similarities in activity patterns of infant and adult visual cortex.

January 10, 2017

Researchers report that warming from short-lived compounds — greenhouse gases such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons, that linger in the atmosphere for just a year to a few decades — can cause sea levels to rise for hundreds of years after the pollutants have been cleared from the atmosphere.

Short-lived greenhouse gases cause centuries of sea-level rise

Through warming effects, methane and other gases impact rising seas long after leaving the atmosphere.

January 9, 2017

New research shows that when metal oxide (flat array of atoms at bottom) is used as a catalyst for splitting water molecules, some of the oxygen produced comes out of the metal oxide itself, not just from the surrounding water. This was proved by first using water with a heavier isotope of oxygen (oxygen 18, shown in white), and later switching to ordinary water (made with oxygen 16, shown in red)...

Study: Some catalysts contribute their own oxygen for reactions

Finding may help researchers fine-tune metal-oxide catalysts to enhance energy storage technology.

January 9, 2017

“There’s a close correspondence between the behavior of networks of computers or other devices like mobile phones and that of biological systems,” says MIT professor Nancy Lynch. “We’re trying to find problems that can benefit from this distributed-computing perspective, focusing on algorithms for which we can prove mathematical properties.”

Model sheds light on purpose of inhibitory neurons

Study suggests computational role for neurons that prevent other neurons from firing.

January 9, 2017

3-D-printed gyroid models such as this one were used to test the strength and mechanical properties of a new lightweight material.

Researchers design one of the strongest, lightest materials known

Porous, 3-D forms of graphene developed at MIT can be 10 times as strong as steel but much lighter.

January 6, 2017

Researchers are systematically exploring a variety of alternative packaging materials and containers to see which work best, and most cost-effectively, at reducing losses in food aid. Pictured are food aid bags in a Texas warehouse.

Reducing spoilage in food aid shipments

Large-scale tests compare damage from insects and moisture using a variety of containers.

January 6, 2017

Left: An artist’s conception of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan Eurybates — one of the six diverse and scientifically important Trojans asteroids to be studied. Right: Psyche, the first mission to a metal asteroid, will map features, structure, composition, and magnetic field, and examine a landscape unlike anything explored before.

Twin wins for planetary exploration

MIT scientists and alumni well represented on newly announced NASA asteroid missions Psyche and Lucy.

January 5, 2017

Decision points for the first player in an “envelope game” are graphed like the branches of a tree. In a game with two players, each has a potential payoff, but the first one’s actions determine the second one’s payoff in each round. Choices whether to gather more information by looking in an envelope that contains either a high or a low temptation and whether to cooperate or defect from t...

Using evolutionary dynamics and game theory to understand personal relations

MIT biophysicists apply mathematics from evolutionary biology to describe a surprising aspect of human behavior.

January 5, 2017

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A step toward renewable diesel

Technique enables adaptable 3-D printing

Study of MOOCs offers insights into online learner engagement and behavior

House rules

How photosynthetic pigments harvest light

Split-second data mapping

Modeling plausible futures

A glimpse into the workings of the baby brain

Short-lived greenhouse gases cause centuries of sea-level rise

Study: Some catalysts contribute their own oxygen for reactions

Model sheds light on purpose of inhibitory neurons

Researchers design one of the strongest, lightest materials known

Reducing spoilage in food aid shipments

Twin wins for planetary exploration

Using evolutionary dynamics and game theory to understand personal relations

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