MIT researchers have developed a method to control the fracturing process of atomically-thin, brittle materials, directing it to produce miniscule pockets of predictable size and shape. Embedded inside these pockets are electronic circuits and materials that can collect, record, and output data.
MIT engineers have created a new technique to detect electromagnetic signals in the brain using minimally invasive MRI sensors, enabling spatially accurate pinpointing of electrical activity. The sensors can also detect light produced by luminescent proteins, expanding their potential applications in neuroscience and beyond.
Researchers discovered that human dendrites have different electrical properties than those in rats, with reduced signal strength as they flow along the longer extensions. This increased electrical compartmentalization could enable single neurons to perform more complex computations.
MIT researchers developed a cryptographic system to securely analyze massive pharmacological datasets, enabling broad pooling of sensitive data for predictive drug discovery. The neural network identified novel interactions, including one with leukemia drug imatinib and an enzyme ErbB4, which could have clinical significance.
A new study by MIT researchers shows that combining antibiotic drugs with probiotics can eradicate two strains of drug-resistant bacteria that infect wounds. The probiotic bacteria were encapsulated in a protective shell of alginate to prevent them from being killed by the antibiotics.
The Beaufort Gyre's speed is controlled by the Arctic ice cover, which acts as a natural governor to slow down the gyre. As the Arctic ice melts, the gyre speeds up, gathering more fresh water from the Arctic's river runoff and melting ice.
MIT biological engineers have developed a way to regulate RNA expression, giving precise control over the dose of therapeutic protein a patient receives. This technology allows doctors to tailor treatment for individual patients and offers a quick way to turn off protein production if necessary.
A deep-learning model has been successfully used on real patients to assess dense breast tissue in mammograms with high accuracy. The model outperforms traditional prediction models, achieving a kappa score of 0.85 in clinical applications, and could lead to more consistent screening procedures nationwide.
Scientists observed a material's phase change when triggered by ultrafast laser light instead of temperature change. The process generates topological defects and affects electron dynamics. Researchers can potentially use this phenomenon for data storage systems using controlled light pulses.
A machine-learning model provides risk assessment for complex nonlinear systems, identifying the types of extreme events likely to occur. The technique simulates wave forces and stresses on structures, offering a faster and more accurate risk assessment than traditional methods.
A new method has been developed to efficiently harvest 2-D materials at the wafer scale, opening up opportunities for flexible electronics. This technique allows researchers to separate individual monolayers of 2-D material in just a few minutes, paving the way for commercialization.
Researchers at MIT have developed a self-healing material that can grow, strengthen and repair itself by reacting with carbon dioxide from the air. The material, made from a polymer and chloroplasts, becomes stronger as it incorporates the carbon.
A team of MIT engineers created a microfluidic chip with 3-D tissue model of the interface between motor neurons and muscle fibers, replicating the effects of ALS. The researchers tested two drugs in clinical trials and found that giving both restored most of the lost muscle strength.
A new compact fusion reactor design using high-temperature superconducting magnets can effectively shed excess heat, a longstanding challenge in fusion power plants. This approach makes it possible to open the device's internal chamber and replace critical components.
Researchers create semiconducting films from materials like gallium arsenide, lithium fluoride, and silicon, with potential for low-cost, high-performance devices. The technique uses remote epitaxy and graphene, allowing for the production of flexible electronics that outperform traditional silicon-based devices.
A novel motion-planning model combines a planning algorithm with a neural network to help robots determine how to reach a goal by exploring the environment and exploiting learned experiences. This allows robots to learn from past experiences and adapt to new situations, enabling them to navigate complex environments more efficiently.
Researchers found that natural killer cells fail to respond to malaria infection in some patients, leading to more severe disease outcomes. By identifying key genes involved, they discovered a potential therapeutic target using poly I:C treatment.
Researchers at MIT have discovered a unique aspect of the enzyme carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, which converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. The C-cluster's structure can change its configuration in response to oxygen exposure, providing a safety net for the metal atoms.
The new system can produce different proteins in a fully automated, hands-free manner and is of comparable quality to commercially available versions. It enables flexible switching between products as they are needed, making it useful for producing rare disease treatments.
Researchers at MIT have developed a software tool that automatically generates maps of favorable landing sites on Mars, taking into account scientific priorities and engineering constraints. The program uses fuzzy logic to deal with imprecision in the data and can explore different landing and exploratory scenarios.
Researchers found that ripple defects resembling hourglasses, zigzags, and tuning forks are associated with periods of environmental flux. These defects can serve as fingerprints to understand how dramatic the shifts in weather conditions were at the time.
Researchers from MIT's EAPS department found a linear relationship between the Earth's surface temperature and its outgoing heat, which may break down at higher temperatures. The study suggests that water vapor feedback is responsible for this relationship, and it could help climate scientists model the effects of climate change.
A new MIT study finds that 10 major European auto manufacturers produced diesel cars emitting up to 16 times more NOx on the road than in lab tests, resulting in approximately 2,700 premature deaths per year across Europe. Improving emissions control technologies could prevent up to 1,900 premature deaths annually.
A new type of battery developed by MIT researchers can convert carbon dioxide into a solid mineral carbonate as it discharges. This approach could potentially reduce the cost of carbon capture systems and make them more economically viable. The battery is made from lithium metal, carbon, and an electrolyte that incorporates captured CO2.
A new MIT model has been developed to reduce false positives in credit card fraud detection, achieving a 54% reduction in incorrect flagging of legitimate transactions. By extracting more than 200 detailed features for each individual transaction, the model can better pinpoint unusual spending habits and improve accuracy.
MIT researchers have developed a plug-and-play technology that automates chemical synthesis, allowing chemists to focus on analytical and creative aspects of their research. The system can optimize reactions in a single day, cutting weeks or months of optimization time.
The MIT-developed AI model can associate specific words with specific patches of pixels in an image, enabling real-time object highlighting based on spoken descriptions. This innovation holds promise for applications such as language translation and automatic image annotation.
Researchers at MIT develop Temporal Relation Network (TRN) module to help CNNs recognize activities by observing key frames. The module achieves top accuracy of 95% in activity recognition on Jester dataset, outperforming existing models.
MIT neuroscientists have developed tiny probes that can measure dopamine levels in the brain for more than a year. The sensors were implanted in animals and found to produce accurate readings for up to 393 days, opening up new possibilities for understanding dopamine's role in diseases such as Parkinson's.
A new study by MIT researchers reveals that using a mix of fuel-saving, flexible, and highly reliable sources is key to building a cost-effective and reliable zero-carbon electricity system. The study found that pairing low-carbon sources with steady carbon-free resources can reduce costs by up to 62% compared to relying on wind, solar...
Researchers found that immature reticulocytes are more prone to stick to blood vessel walls, leading to vaso-occlusive pain crises. A new microfluidic system mimicked post-capillary vessels, revealing how low oxygen levels cause sickle red cells to form stiff fibers that increase adhesion.
MIT researchers have developed a passive, solar-powered system to prevent ice buildup on surfaces, using a three-layered material that absorbs sunlight and spreads heat to melt boundary layers of ice. The system has been tested extensively and shows great promise for commercial use in various applications.
Researchers developed a neural-network model that can accurately predict depression in individuals based on raw text and audio data from clinical interviews. The model learns speech patterns indicative of depression without relying on specific questions or answers, offering potential for scalable and accessible mental health monitoring.
Research reveals that air pollution can reduce solar panel output by up to 17% in some cities, leading to significant financial losses. The study found that urban areas like Delhi and Beijing could lose tens of millions of dollars annually due to haze-related reductions in solar power.
A team of MIT researchers has found a way to balance the size of droplets used in spraying pesticides, making them stick to targets more effectively. The new method uses a fine mesh screen to break up larger drops into tiny ones, reducing waste and pollution.
MIT researchers create a new technique to alter membrane proteins, making them more accessible for structural studies. The QTY code allows for the substitution of hydrophobic amino acids with hydrophilic ones, enabling water-soluble proteins that can be analyzed using X-ray crystallography or NMR.
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital discovered a novel mechanism for chronic rhinosinusitis, which involves distinct gene-expression patterns in epithelial cells. The study suggests that basal cells from patients with nasal polyps retain a memory of IL-4 and IL-13, immune response cytokines driving allergic inflammation.
Researchers at MIT Media Lab have developed a system called TARF that uses underwater sonar signals to transmit data to airborne receivers, breaking through the water-air barrier. The system consists of an underwater acoustic transmitter and a highly sensitive receiver that decodes the vibrations caused by the sonar signal.
Researchers at MIT have discovered fragments of a protein found in the stomach that can kill certain bacteria, including those resistant to antibiotics. The peptides show promise as new candidates for treating infections and may be used to develop synthetic antibiotics.
Researchers used light from distant quasars to determine measurements on pairs of entangled photons, finding correlations that exceeded Bell's original limit for a classically based mechanism. This strengthens the case for quantum entanglement and restricts options for the freedom-of-choice loophole.
A novel encryption technique combining homomorphic encryption and garbled circuits secures data used in online neural networks without significantly slowing their runtimes. This approach holds promise for using cloud-based neural networks for medical-image analysis and other applications that use sensitive data.
The discovery reveals hundreds of individual galaxies in the cluster, which surrounds an extremely active supermassive black hole at the center. The quasar's light has obscured these galaxies, making them invisible to astronomers.
Researchers at MIT have found a way to break dry spaghetti into exactly two pieces by twisting and then slowly bending it. The team developed an apparatus to control the twist and bend, and used it to test hundreds of sticks, finding that this method works consistently across different types of spaghetti.
MIT researchers developed novel optics that capture images based on the timing of reflecting light inside the optics. This allows for new capabilities in time- or depth-sensitive cameras, such as capturing a trillion-frame-per-second video. The new optics architecture includes semireflective parallel mirrors that reduce focal length by...
Researchers found that in neutron-rich objects, protons carry a disproportionate part of the average energy, moving faster than neutrons. The team analyzed data from CLAS experiments and observed a significant increase in the probability of protons having high energies as the number of neutrons increased.
MIT researchers develop a machine-learning model that reduces toxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy dosing for glioblastoma patients, maintaining tumor-shrinking potential while minimizing side effects. The model uses reinforced learning to favor lower doses and schedules, improving patient quality of life.
A recent study suggests that glaucoma is not just a pressure-related disease, but also an autoimmune disorder caused by the immune system attacking retinal cells. The researchers found that T cells, which normally target foreign substances, are responsible for progressive retinal degeneration in glaucoma.
Researchers at MIT found that stimulating the caudate nucleus, a brain region linked to emotional decision-making, induces animals to make more negative decisions. The study suggests that this type of pessimistic thinking could influence approach-avoidance decision-making and may be related to depression and anxiety.
Researchers at MIT have developed soft hardware that can be worn, integrating high-speed optoelectronic semiconductor devices into fibers woven into washable fabrics. This breakthrough could lead to a new 'Moore's Law' in fibers, enabling rapid growth in capabilities.
Researchers developed a new sensor that detects hydrogen peroxide levels in human cells to identify effective chemotherapy drugs. The sensor can be used to screen existing drugs and predict success in individual patients' tumors. This breakthrough could lead to more targeted and effective cancer treatments.