Most recent 40 articles: MIT -Climatechange
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Q&A: The power of tiny gardens and their role in addressing climate change - MIT -Climatechange (May 28) |
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May 28 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Letter to the MIT community: Announcing the Climate Project at MIT - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 08, 2024) |
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Feb 08, 2024 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Climate action, here and now - MIT -Climatechange (Jan 02, 2024) |
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Jan 02, 2024 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Transatlantic connections make the difference for MIT Portugal - MIT -Climatechange (Jun 29, 2023) |
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Jun 29, 2023 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Using seismology for groundwater management - MIT -Climatechange (Aug 22, 2022) |
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Aug 22, 2022 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Helping renewable energy projects succeed in local communities - MIT -Climatechange (Jun 12, 2022) |
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Jun 12, 2022 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Lama Willa Baker challenges MIT audience to look beyond technology to solve the climate crises - MIT -Climatechange (May 25, 2022) |
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May 25, 2022 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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2020 Water Summit brings international audiences together to discuss resilience - MIT -Climatechange (Dec 18, 2020) |
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Dec 18, 2020 · Earlier this semester, the MIT student group The Water Club gathered to discuss topics for their eighth annual MIT Water Summit. Given the dramatic challenges of 2020, the group knew this year’s decision was particularly weighty. Commenting on the process, Laura Chen, a junior in chemical engineering and director of the 2020 Water Summit, recalled, “in light of the effects of Covid-19 across the world, as well as the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S., we thought a lot about how we might [through the Water Summit] create a better picture of our future, on the scale of system-wide challenges.” To that end, the student organizers sought a theme and group of ... Read more ...
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Lincoln Laboratory establishes Biotechnology and Human Systems Division - MIT -Climatechange (Nov 23, 2020) |
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Nov 23, 2020 · MIT Lincoln Laboratory has established a new research and development division, the Biotechnology and Human Systems Division. The division will address emerging threats to both national security and humanity. Research and development will encompass advanced technologies and systems for improving chemical and biological defense, human health and performance, and global resilience to climate change, conflict, and disasters.
“We strongly believe that research and development in biology, biomedical systems, biological defense, and human systems is a critically important part of national and global security. The new division will focus on improving human conditions on many fronts," ... Read more ...
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Saving Iñupiaq - MIT -Climatechange (Sep 25, 2020) |
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Sep 25, 2020 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Six strategic areas identified for shared faculty hiring in computing - MIT -Climatechange (Aug 31, 2020) |
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Aug 31, 2020 · Nearly every aspect of the modern world is being transformed by computing. As computing technology continues to revolutionize the way people live, work, learn, and interact, computing research and education are increasingly playing a role in a broad range of academic disciplines, and are in turn being shaped by this expanding breadth.
Nearly every aspect of the modern world is being transformed by computing. As computing technology continues to revolutionize the way people live, work, learn, and interact, computing research and education are increasingly playing a role in a broad range of academic disciplines, and are in turn being shaped by this expanding breadth.
To ... Read more ...
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Two projects receive funding for technologies that avoid carbon emissions - MIT -Climatechange (Aug 20, 2020) |
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Aug 20, 2020 · The Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Center, one of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)’s Low-Carbon Energy Centers, has awarded $900,000 in funding to two new research projects to advance technologies that avoid carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and help address climate change. The winning project is receiving $750,000, and an additional project receives $150,000.
The winning project, led by principal investigator Asegun Henry, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and co-principal investigator Paul Barton, the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering, aims to produce hydrogen without CO2 ... Read more ...
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Building a more sustainable MIT - from home - MIT -Climatechange (Jul 15, 2020) |
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Jul 15, 2020 · Like most offices across MIT, the Office of Sustainability (MITOS) has in recent months worked to pivot projects while seeking to understand and participate in the emergence of a new normal as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite now working off campus, the MITOS team methodology - one that warrants collective engagement, commitment to innovative problem solving, and robust data collection - has continued.
An expanded look at resiliency
When the MIT community transitioned off campus, many began to use the word “resilient” for good reason - it’s one way to describe a community of thousands that quickly learned how to study, research, work, and teach from afar in ... Read more ...
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D-Lab moves online, without compromising on impact - MIT -Climatechange (Jul 01, 2020) |
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Jul 01, 2020 · With the campus shut down by Covid-19, the spring D-Lab class Water, Climate Change, and Health had to adapt.
It’s not a typical sentence you’d find on a class schedule, but on April 2, the first action item for one MIT course read: “Check in on each other’s health and well-being.” The revised schedule was for Susan Murcott and Julie Simpson’s spring D-Lab class EC.719 / EC.789 (Water, Climate Change, and Health), just one of hundreds of classes at MIT that had to change course after the novel coronavirus sparked a campus-wide shutdown.
D-Lab at home
The dust had only begun to settle two weeks later, after a week of canceled classes followed by the established ... Read more ...
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What moves people? - MIT -Climatechange (Jun 15, 2020) |
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Jun 15, 2020 · Media can only be downloaded from the desktop version of this website.
It’s easy to think of urban mobility strictly in terms of infrastructure: Does an area have the right rail lines, bus lanes, or bike paths? How much parking is available? How well might autonomous vehicles work? MIT Associate Professor Jinhua Zhao views matters a bit differently, however.
To understand urban movement, Zhao believes, we also need to understand people. How does everyone choose to use transport? Why do they move around, and when? How does their self-image influence their choices?
“The main part of my own thinking is the recognition that transportation systems are half physical ... Read more ...
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Unlocking the secrets of a plastic-eater - MIT -Climatechange (Jun 08, 2020) |
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Jun 08, 2020 · Graduate student Linda Zhong and professor of biology Anthony Sinskey are studying the plastic-devouring enzyme PETase as a way to improve recycling.
It was during a cruise in Alaska that Linda Zhong realized that the world didn’t have to be full of plastic. “I grew up in cities, so you’re very used to seeing all kinds of trash everywhere,” says the graduate student in microbiology. Zhong, who is Canadian and lived in Ottawa growing up and in Toronto during college, routinely saw trash in the waters of the Ottawa River and on the beaches around Lake Ontario. “You never see it as anything other than normal.”
Alaska changed that. Seeing the pristine, plastic-free ... Read more ...
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Making nuclear energy cost-competitive | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 27, 2020) |
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May 27, 2020 · Nuclear energy is a low-carbon energy source that is vital to decreasing carbon emissions. A critical factor in its continued viability as a future energy source is finding novel and innovative ways to improve operations and maintenance (O&M) costs in the next generation of advanced reactors. The U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) established the Generating Electricity Managed by Intelligent Nuclear Assets (GEMINA) program to do exactly this. Through $27 million in funding, GEMINA is accelerating research, discovery, and development of new digital technologies that would produce effective and sustainable reductions in O&M costs.
Three ... Read more ...
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Solar energy farms could offer second life for electric vehicle batteries | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 22, 2020) |
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May 22, 2020 · Media can only be downloaded from the desktop version of this website.
As electric vehicles rapidly grow in popularity worldwide, there will soon be a wave of used batteries whose performance is no longer sufficient for vehicles that need reliable acceleration and range. But a new study shows that these batteries could still have a useful and profitable second life as backup storage for grid-scale solar photovoltaic installations, where they could perform for more than a decade in this less demanding role.
The study, published in the journal Applied Energy, was carried out by six current and former MIT researchers, including postdoc Ian Mathews and professor of ... Read more ...
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The quest for practical fusion energy sources | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 21, 2020) |
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May 21, 2020 · The promise of fusion energy has grown substantially in recent years, in large part because of novel high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials that can shrink the size and boost the performance of the extremely powerful magnets needed in fusion reactors. Realizing that potential is a complex engineering challenge, which nuclear science and engineering student Erica Salazar is taking up in her doctoral studies.
Salazar works at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) on the SPARC project, an ambitious fast-track program being conducted in collaboration with MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). The goal is development of a fusion energy experiment to ... Read more ...
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A scientist turns to entrepreneurship | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 20, 2020) |
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May 20, 2020 · Like the atomic particles he studies, Pablo Ducru seems constantly on the move, vibrating with energy. But if he sometimes appears to be headed in an unexpected direction, Ducru, a doctoral candidate in nuclear science and computational engineering, knows exactly where he is going: “My goal is to address climate change as an innovator and creator, whether by pushing the boundaries of science” through research, says Ducru, or pursuing a zero-carbon future as an entrepreneur.
It can be hard catching up with Ducru. In January, he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Beijing, where he was spending a year earning a master’s degree in global affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar at ... Read more ...
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Towable sensor free-falls to measure vertical slices of ocean conditions | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 20, 2020) |
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May 20, 2020 · Media can only be downloaded from the desktop version of this website.
The motion of the ocean is often thought of in horizontal terms, for instance in the powerful currents that sweep around the planet, or the waves that ride in and out along a coastline. But there is also plenty of vertical motion, particularly in the open seas, where water from the deep can rise up, bringing nutrients to the upper ocean, while surface waters sink, sending dead organisms, along with oxygen and carbon, to the deep interior.
Oceanographers use instruments to characterize the vertical mixing of the ocean’s waters and the biological communities that live there. But these tools are limited ... Read more ...
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3 Questions: Harnessing wave power to rebuild islands | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (May 11, 2020) |
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May 11, 2020 · Many island nations, including the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, are facing an existential threat as a result of a rising sea level induced by global climate change. A group of MIT researchers led by Skylar Tibbits, an associate professor of design research in the Department of Architecture, is testing ways of harnessing nature's own forces to help maintain and rebuild threatened islands and coastlines.
Some 40 percent of the world's population lives in coastal areas that are threated by sea level rise over the coming decades, yet there are few proven measures for countering the threat. Some suggest building barrier walls, dredging coastlines to rebuild beaches, or building ... Read more ...
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Kerry Emanuel, David Sabatini, and Peter Shor receive BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge awards - MIT -Climatechange (May 08, 2020) |
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May 08, 2020 · The BBVA Foundation awarded three MIT professors Frontiers of Knowledge Awards for their work in climate change, biology and biomedicine, and quantum computation. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Professor Kerry A. Emanuel, Department of Biology Professor David Sabatini, and Department of Mathematics Professor Peter Shor were recognized in the 12th edition of this annual award.
Kerry Emanuel
Emanuel, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science, earned the BBVA’s Climate Change award “for his fundamental contributions to the understanding of tropical cyclones and how they are affected by climate change,” according to the committee’s ... Read more ...
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Associate Professor Amy Moran-Thomas receives the 2020 Levitan Prize in the Humanities | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (Apr 24, 2020) |
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Apr 24, 2020 · Amy Moran-Thomas, the Alfred Henry and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT, has been awarded the 2020 Levitan Prize in the Humanities. The $29,500 grant will support Moran-Thomas's project "Mine: A Family History of Place, Race, and Planetary Health," which Moran-Thomas writes will "excavate the cultural histories and everyday social fabrics behind the deep sedimentation of American generational identities and fossil fuel legacies."
Moran-Thomas is a cultural anthropologist whose work specializes in the human and material entanglements that shape health in practice. Her first book, "Traveling With Sugar," was published in late ... Read more ...
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Researchers explore ocean microbes' role in climate effects | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (Apr 23, 2020) |
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Apr 23, 2020 · A new study shows that "hotspots" of nutrients surrounding phytoplankton — which are tiny marine algae producing approximately half of the oxygen we breathe every day — play an outsized role in the release of a gas involved in cloud formation and climate regulation.
The new research quantifies the way specific marine bacteria process a key chemical called dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), which is produced in enormous amounts by phytoplankton. This chemical plays a pivotal role in the way sulfur and carbon get consumed by microorganisms in the ocean and released into the atmosphere.
The work is reported today in the journal Nature Communications, in a paper by MIT ... Read more ...
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Maria Zuber on climate change: "Breakthroughs will happen" - MIT -Climatechange (Apr 22, 2020) |
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Apr 22, 2020 · Climate change is a very personal issue to Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research. A native of eastern Pennsylvania, she watched her grandfathers, both coal miners, battle black-lung disease. “The burning of anthracite coal drove my community and was a central part of my childhood,” says Zuber. “Yet it’s been known since the 1800s that combustion of fossil fuels puts CO2 into the atmosphere, and that the effects can be damaging.”
Today, the catastrophic effects of climate change are showing up even faster than models predicted, she observes. “If you just look at it that way, it’s easy to despair.”
Yet Zuber, also the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, ... Read more ...
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On Earth Day, lessons from Covid-19 pandemic offer hope | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (Apr 22, 2020) |
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Apr 22, 2020 · If humanity can take the right lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be better equipped to galvanize action on climate change, MIT President L. Rafael Reif writes in an op-ed published today in The Boston Globe.
Marking the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the article notes that despite decades of research and increasingly dire warnings, societies still aren't prepared to respond robustly to climate change. They were likewise unprepared during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, but several insights have emerged since then.
"The first lesson is that our deepest well of practical hope is in science and the people who practice it," Reif writes, citing health ... Read more ...
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Attacking climate change, one human story at a time | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (Apr 16, 2020) |
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Apr 16, 2020 · On a Tuesday evening earlier this semester, before MIT began to de-densify its campus in response to the emergence of Covid-19, 10 students stood in three small circles and took turns somberly counting to 20. They started calm and low with the number one, then gradually added volume and heartfelt pauses as the counting progressed. Some students reached 20 with evocative, uplifting crescendos, while others muttered the number in quiet, sympathetic tones punctuated by silence at the end.
For this exercise, the numbers themselves weren't important. Prompted to count in the rhythm and timbre with which one might give a wedding toast, a graduation speech, or a funeral eulogy, ... Read more ...
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Emissions of several ozone-depleting chemicals are larger than expected | MIT News - MIT -Climatechange (Mar 17, 2020) |
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Mar 17, 2020 · Media can only be downloaded from the desktop version of this website.
In 2016, scientists at MIT and elsewhere observed the first signs of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. This environmental milestone was the result of decades of concerted effort by nearly every country in the world, which collectively signed on to the Montreal Protocol. These countries pledged to protect the ozone layer by phasing out production of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, which are also potent greenhouse gases.
While the ozone layer is on a recovery path, scientists have found unexpectedly high emissions of CFC-11 and CFC-12, raising the possibility of production of the banned ... Read more ...
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3 Questions: David Friedrich on graduate student housing and financial support - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 27, 2020) |
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Feb 27, 2020 · At the start of the of 2019-20 academic year, Housing and Residential Services (HRS) began to work with the Eastgate Apartments community to prepare for the building's closure and residents' transition to new housing. After the Office of the Vice Chancellor announced a series of new graduate student support measures, HRS released 2020-21 rental rates for the new Graduate Tower at Site 4 and all other graduate student residences on Feb. 5. The Institute established the rates in keeping with recommendations from the 2018 Graduate Student Housing Working Group Report, and announced a number of measures designed to make the transition to new housing more affordable for current Eastgate ... | By Division of Student Life Read more ...
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3 Questions: Ron Rivest on trusting electronic voting systems - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 26, 2020) |
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Feb 26, 2020 · Ron Rivest is an MIT Institute Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He's an authority on algorithms and an inventor of the RSA public-key cryptosystem, one of the most widely used algorithms to securely transmit data. Since the 1980s, he's taught students how to use cryptography to help secure voting systems. Then, in 2000, an historic recount in Florida determined the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, and the Caltech / MIT Voting Technology Project was founded with the mission to secure future elections, pulling in Rivest, who has been involved since, as well as other MIT faculty from the Department of Political Science and the MIT ... | By Ashley Belanger School of Engineering Read more ...
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It all adds up - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 26, 2020) |
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Feb 26, 2020 · MIT students train teams in Ghana and Uganda for the International Mathematical Olympiad through MISTI-Africa.
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is more than a math competition for high schoolers: It's also a springboard for subsequent success. The MIT delegation that annually dominates the Putnam Mathematical Competition is largely composed of alumni of the IMO and related math competitions. Many of these mathletes remain involved by producing training or prep courses and study guides, like the popular Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiads by Evan Chen '18, a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics, which is read by aspiring contestants around the ... | By Laura Carter School of Science Read more ...
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The force is strong in neutron stars - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 26, 2020) |
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Feb 26, 2020 · Most ordinary matter is held together by an invisible subatomic glue known as the strong nuclear force — one of the four fundamental forces in nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak force. The strong nuclear force is responsible for the push and pull between protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus, which keeps an atom from collapsing in on itself.
In atomic nuclei, most protons and neutrons are far enough apart that physicists can accurately predict their interactions. However, these predictions are challenged when the subatomic particles are so close as to be practically on top of each other.
While such ultrashort-distance interactions are rare in ... | By Jennifer Chu MIT News Office Read more ...
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Using light to put a twist on electrons - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 26, 2020) |
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Feb 26, 2020 · Some molecules, including most of the ones in living organisms, have shapes that can exist in two different mirror-image versions. The right- and left-handed versions can sometimes have different properties, such that only one of them carries out the molecule's functions. Now, a team of physicists has found that a similarly asymmetrical pattern can be induced and measured at will in certain exotic materials, using a special kind of light beam to stimulate the material.
The team found that while titanium diselenide at room temperature has no chirality to it, as its temperature decreases it reaches a critical point where the balance of right-handed and left-handed electronic ... | By David Chandler MIT News Office Read more ...
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Simple, solar-powered water desalination - MIT -Climatechange (Feb 07, 2020) |
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Feb 07, 2020 · The key to the system's efficiency lies in the way it uses each of the multiple stages to desalinate the water. At each stage, heat released by the previous stage is harnessed instead of wasted. In this way, the team's demonstration device can achieve an overall efficiency of 385 percent in converting the energy of sunlight into the energy of water evaporation.
The device is essentially a multilayer solar still, with a set of evaporating and condensing components like those used to distill liquor. It uses flat panels to absorb heat and then transfer that heat to a layer of water so that it begins to evaporate. The vapor then condenses on the next panel. That water gets ... Read more ...
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How to stage a revolution - MIT -Climatechange (Jan 29, 2020) |
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Jan 29, 2020 · MIT undergraduates are rolling up their sleeves to address major problems in the world, conducting research on topics ranging from nursing care to money laundering to the spread of misinformation about climate change — work highlighted at the most recent SuperUROP Showcase.
The event, which took place on the Charles M. Vest Student Street in the Stata Center in December 2019, marked the halfway point in the Advanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (better known as "SuperUROP"). The yearlong program gives MIT students firsthand experience in conducting research with close faculty mentorship. Many participants receive scholar titles recognizing the program's ... | By School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Read more ...
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Researchers hope to make needle pricks for diabetics a thing of the past - MIT -Climatechange (Jan 24, 2020) |
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Jan 24, 2020 · Patients with diabetes have to test their blood sugar levels several times a day to make sure they are not getting too high or too low. Studies have shown that more than half of patients don't test often enough, in part because of the pain and inconvenience of the needle prick.
One possible alternative is Raman spectroscopy, a noninvasive technique that reveals the chemical composition of tissue, such as skin, by shining near-infrared light on it. MIT scientists have now taken an important step toward making this technique practical for patient use: They have shown that they can use it to directly measure glucose concentrations through the skin. Until now, glucose levels had ... | By Anne Trafton | MIT News Office Read more ...
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Hacking life inside and outside the laboratory - MIT -Climatechange (Jan 21, 2020) |
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Jan 21, 2020 · "The idea is that [the process is] synthetic, outside of the natural developmental pathways," she explains. "My project mostly involves giving the cells genetic circuits to express cell-to-cell adhesion molecules differently."
A fifth-year graduate student in the Computational and Systems Biology program, Tordoff is passionate about synthetic biology, which aims to create artificial systems from parts already found in nature — in her case, harnessing nature's ability to form shapes as complex and intricate as the human body.
The field has implications for developing organoids, artificially grown organs, and even things as fantastic as living materials, where engineered ... | By Bridget E. Begg | Office of Graduate Education Read more ...
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How biomarkers can record and reconstruct climate trends - MIT -Climatechange (Dec 04, 2019) |
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Dec 04, 2019 · Scientists reveal the genes and proteins controlling the chemical structures underpinning paleoclimate proxies.
Nestled within sediments that accumulate in marine environments, fossil molecules sneakily record how climates and environments change over time. These fossils, vestiges of microbial membranes, preserve different chemical structures that reflect the changing world around them at the time the organisms lived. For almost two decades, scientists have used one class of these molecular fossils, known as glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether lipids or GDGTs, to reconstruct climate trends experienced over both regional and local marine environments by examining the ... Read more ...
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