MIT Neuroscientists Identify Brain Circuit in the Hippocampus That Encodes Timing of Events
Findings suggest this hippocampal circuit helps us to maintain our timeline of memories. When we experience a new event, our brain records a memory of…
MIT
New Design Improves Efficiency of Next-Generation Perovskite Solar Cells
Reducing internal losses could pave the way to low-cost perovskite-based photovoltaics that match silicon cells’ output. Perovskites are a leading candidate for eventually replacing silicon…
Decarbonizing US Energy: An Aggressive Market-Driven Model for Fusion Power Development
National Academies study says fusion can help decarbonize US energy, calls for public-private approach to pilot plant operation by 2035-40. Electricity generated by fusion power…
New Type of Amputation Surgery May Enable Better Control of Prosthetic Limbs
Reconnecting muscle pairs during amputation gives patients more sensory feedback from the limb. MIT researchers have invented a new type of amputation surgery that can…
TESS Research Updates: Hunting for Worlds Beyond Our Solar System
At the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held last month, MIT researchers presented new data from programs such as the Transiting Exoplanet…
New “Metalens” Shifts Focus Without Moving – Enables Miniature Zoom Lenses for Drones, Cellphones, or Night-Vision Goggles
Polished glass has been at the center of imaging systems for centuries. Their precise curvature enables lenses to focus light and produce sharp images, whether…
New Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing Approach to Keep Tokamak Fusion Power Plants Running
MIT’s Erica Salazar shows that faster detection of thermal shifts can prevent disruptive quench events in the HTS magnets used in tokamak fusion devices. The…
MIT Teams Prepare for Mars Perseverance Rover Landing
Following touchdown, MOXIE will brew up oxygen while geologists comb for sediments to sample. On Thursday, NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, is scheduled to touch…
MIT Develops Machine-Learning Approach to Finding New Treatment Options for COVID-19
Researchers develop a system to identify drugs that might be repurposed to fight the coronavirus in elderly patients. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early…
MIT Twitter Experiment Shows Clear Self-Selection Into Social Media “Echo Chambers” Due to Political Preferences
It is no secret that U.S. politics is polarized. An experiment conducted by MIT researchers now shows just how deeply political partisanship directly influences people’s…
Unleashing the Potential of the Mind: Controlling Digital Interfaces, Such As Phones, Through Brain Signals
Pison, founded by Dexter Ang (MIT ’05), enables people to control digital interfaces, such as their phones, through brain signals. Dexter Ang ’05, AF ’16…
Physicists Discover Important and Unexpected Electronic Property of Graphene – Could Power Next-Generation Computers
Unconventional form of ferroelectricity could impact next-generation computing. MIT researchers and colleagues recently discovered an important — and unexpected — electronic property of graphene, a…
Resistance Is Futile: Nanowire Could Provide a Stable, Easy-to-Make Superconducting Transistor
Inspired by decades-old MIT research, the new technology could boost quantum computers and other superconducting electronics. Superconductors — materials that conduct electricity without resistance —…
Comprehensive Genetic Map Reveals Circuitry of 30,000 Human Disease Regions
Analysis reveals genetic control elements that are linked to hundreds of human traits. Twenty years ago this month, the first draft of the human genome…
Hybrid-Electric Plane Concept May Reduce Aviation’s Air Pollution Problem
Proposed design could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 95 percent, a new study finds. At cruising altitude, airplanes emit a steady stream of nitrogen oxides…
A Black Computing Pioneer Takes His Place in Technology History at MIT
A brief history of a 1950s photo featuring Joseph Thompson, one of the original operators of MIT’s groundbreaking Whirlwind computer. The caption on a black-and-white…
Four New Exoplanets Orbiting a Nearby Sun-Like Star Discovered by TESS
MIT-led NASA mission finds a multi-planetary system that could be an “ideal laboratory” to study planetary formation and evolution. MIT researchers have discovered four new…
Atomic Design for a Carbon-Free Planet – “To Help Save Earth, Essentially”
Manipulating materials at a fundamental level, MIT’s Ju Li reveals new properties for energy applications. For much of his career, Ju Li thrived on the theoretical…