A new MIT study proposes refueling on the moon to reduce launch mass for a Martian mission, with the potential to save 68% of cargo. The research suggests that establishing an infrastructure in space could enable sustainable travel between planetary bodies.
The CMS collaboration at CERN has reported the first particle collisions from the Large Hadron Collider's second run, producing an average of 22 charged particles per collision. The results provide a precise picture of a typical proton collision, which will help scientists sift through background events to detect rare particles.
Researchers at MIT are developing a computer system that uses genetic, demographic, and clinical data to predict the effects of neurodegenerative disease on brain anatomy. By combining MRI data with additional patient information, they found that predictions were improved by half in cases where changes were drastic.
The MIT Deshpande Center has awarded grants to 15 research teams working on emerging technologies with potential impact in disease monitoring, cancer treatment, and more. The center provides support and guidance to innovators as they develop viable technologies.
Scientists at MIT have developed tiny graphene pores that exhibit diverse preferences for certain ions, similar to those found in biological channels. The findings have significant implications for the development of ion-specific membranes for environmental sensing and trace metal mining.
Researchers at MIT develop a new way of doing machine learning that enables semantically related concepts to reinforce each other. In experiments, their system outperformed conventional training methods in predicting Flickr tags and even when considering semantically similar tags.
Researchers identify and map a light-sensing protein that uses vitamin B12 to regulate gene expression in response to light exposure. The discovery expands the biological role of vitamin B12 and offers insights into novel modes of gene regulation.
A brain circuit has been identified that processes the 'when' and 'where' components of memory, separating location and timing into two streams of information. This discovery sheds light on how the brain represents time and place in episodic memories.
Researchers discovered that flu viruses gain ability to spread through air by adapting to bind to specific human receptors, with the soft palate playing a key role in this process. The findings provide insight into how flu viruses evolve airborne transmissibility and can help identify viruses with potential to cause global outbreaks.
Researchers have engineered viruses to target specific bacteria, offering a new approach to combatting human disease. The customizable viruses could be used to treat various infections, including those caused by E. coli, Yersinia, and Klebsiella bacteria.
A modular system of proteins can detect a specific DNA sequence in a cell and trigger a response, such as cell death. The system can be customized to detect any DNA sequence and trigger a desired response, including killing cancer cells or cells infected with a virus.
Researchers at MIT and Boston Children's Hospital have developed a system that can take MRI scans of a patient's heart and convert them into a tangible, physical model. The models provide a more intuitive way for surgeons to assess individual patients' anatomical idiosyncrasies, improving surgical planning.
A study by MIT economist Christopher Knittel reveals an essential mechanism underlying the politics of climate change. The research shows that certain climate policies, like transportation fuel subsidies, contain asymmetries that benefit a smaller group at the expense of most people.
Scientists found regions on the far side of the moon with fractured and porous upper crusts, altered by small asteroid impacts. The research suggests that these impacts increased porosity in some areas, while decreasing it elsewhere.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new cache-coherence mechanism that significantly reduces memory usage in multicore chips. The Tardis system uses time stamps and lease management to enforce logical-time order, eliminating the need for invalidation messages and saving space in shared caches.
Physicists at MIT have found a phenomenon described as a 'ring of exceptional points' produced by the Dirac cone, potentially leading to applications in powerful lasers and precise optical sensors. The discovery represents the first experimental demonstration of this phenomenon.
Researchers develop a new theory that describes how a knot's topology determines its mechanical forces, providing guidelines for choosing certain knot configurations. The theory accurately predicts the force needed to close a knot, given its topology and strand properties.
New analysis reveals that excessive bubble formation limits heat transfer, leading to overheating and equipment damage. The study identifies optimal surface texturing to improve boiler efficiency and plant safety.
Researchers at MIT have developed a family of materials that can emit light of precisely controlled colors and respond to external conditions. The materials, made from rare-earth elements and polymers, show promise for detecting chemical and biological compounds, mechanical changes, and thermal conditions.
Researchers created a new system called 'Fab Forms' that automatically generates visual models for users to modify. The system uses a wide range of values to calculate geometries and store results, allowing users to test designs in real time.
Researchers at MIT's SMART program conducted a six-day experiment using autonomous golf carts to ferry tourists around winding paths. The system, which used off-the-shelf sensors and dynamic algorithms, demonstrated a 98% user satisfaction rate and showed potential for elderly transportation applications.
Researchers discovered that chronic stress strengthens traumatic memories in the brain, leading to PTSD. Blocking this process with serotonin-blocking drugs may offer a new treatment option for the disorder.
A new MIT study finds that large seasonal changes in desert dust can dramatically affect surface phytoplankton, which rely on iron as a main nutrient for growth. The team determined that iron has a very short residence time in ocean waters, lasting only six months before sinking into the deep ocean.
A new theoretical analysis by MIT researchers demonstrates how their compression techniques can expand applications of accelerated searching in biology and other fields. The algorithms cluster similar genomic sequences, then choose one representative sequence to focus on, significantly reducing the search time.
A new method for dealing with flight delays, proposed by MIT researchers, distributes delays among airlines more evenly while keeping system-wide delays virtually constant. The approach allows airlines to swap schedule slots with each other, resulting in a fairer distribution of delays.
Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School discovered a new pathway that controls human metabolism by prompting adipocytes to store or burn fat. The study identified two master controllers of thermogenesis, IRX3 and IRX5, which turn off fat storage genes and restore energy balance.
A new study provides more accurate estimates of worldwide mercury pollution, revealing Asia produces over double the previous estimated amount. The research uses a top-down approach combining measured air concentrations with a global simulation to calculate mercury emissions, improving estimates and refining pollution-control strategies.
Researchers at MIT have developed paraffin-based capsules that can enclose multiple reagents and catalysts, simplifying chemical synthesis. The capsules can protect water-sensitive compounds for extended periods, extending the shelf life of common commodity chemicals.
Researchers at MIT propose a compact tokamak fusion reactor that could produce significant power in a decade. The new design uses commercially available superconductors to achieve higher magnetic fields, enabling more efficient fusion reactions.
Researchers at MIT have developed a novel electrode made of nanoparticles with a solid shell, and a yolk that can change size without affecting the shell, improving cycle life and energy storage. The use of aluminum as the key material has proven to be high-rate champion among high-capacity anodes.
Engineers at MIT have developed a model that predicts the force needed for robotic grippers to adjust their grasp on an object by interacting with the environment. This approach, called extrinsic dexterity, enables robots to perform more complex maneuvers without needing expensive and complex hand designs.
A recent study by MIT researchers found that most languages tend to minimize dependency length (DLM) in practice, preferring words related to each other to be close together. This tendency is associated with simpler language use and reduced cognitive load for speakers, listeners, and readers.
Scientists at MIT discovered that non-wetting surfaces promote chemical reaction rates, while hydrophilic surfaces inhibit them. This finding enables researchers to predict a material's suitability as a catalyst based on its wettability.
A team of researchers has designed a passive, low-tech prosthetic knee that delivers similar performance to high-end prosthetics for a few hundred dollars. The prototype mimics the ideal torque profile of able-bodied knees using simple mechanical elements like springs and dampers.
Researchers at MIT and QCRI demonstrate a vulnerability in Tor's design, allowing an adversary to infer a hidden server's location or the source of information reaching a user. However, they also propose defenses, which are being evaluated for inclusion in future versions of the Tor software, to prevent such attacks.
A study by MIT economists found that pharmaceutical firms tend to invest more in drugs for earlier-stage cancers, resulting in a lack of investment in late-stage cancer treatments. This has resulted in a loss of 890,000 life-years among people diagnosed with cancer in 2003.
A new algorithm developed by MIT researchers combines SLAM and object recognition to improve robots' performance. The system uses SLAM information to augment existing object-recognition algorithms, achieving comparable performance to special-purpose robotic object-recognition systems that factor in depth measurements.
Researchers from MIT and WHOI have developed a simple way to predict a river delta's shape, influenced by its river's sediment flux and ocean waves' strength. The new metric can help engineers determine how engineered structures like dams and levees may affect the coastline of a river delta.
Phytoplankton, the base of marine food chains, may experience significant changes due to ocean acidification, with some species dying out while others thrive. The study found that increased acidity could lead to altered competition among species, affecting entire ecosystems and potentially impacting predators like polar bears.
A new statistical technique predicts wind speeds more accurately than existing methods, even with limited data. The model uses non-Gaussian distributions and nonlinear correlations to improve accuracy, doubling predictions in some cases.
A team of physicists has confirmed the detection of Weyl points, a kind of massless particle predicted by physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929. The finding was made possible by a novel use of a photonic crystal material, which could lead to new kinds of high-power single-mode lasers and other optical devices.
Researchers at MIT developed a new system that makes servers using flash memory as efficient as those using conventional RAM while preserving power and cost savings. The system uses preprocessed data on flash drives to improve distributed computation efficiency.
Researchers at MIT have created sensors, memory switches, and circuits that can be encoded in the common human gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. These basic computing elements will allow the bacteria to sense, memorize, and respond to signals in the gut.
Scientists have discovered that nanoscale forces are responsible for stopping a puddle from spreading, resolving a paradox in fluid flow. This finding has significant implications for various processes, including lubrication of gears and sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions.
Researchers found large-amplitude slow-delta waves in patients receiving nitrous oxide, twice as powerful as those seen in deep sleep. The discovery could lead to better anesthetic dosing decisions and alleviate concerns about awareness under anesthesia.
Researchers at MIT have found that a combination of artificial gravity and exercise can significantly lessen the effects of extended weightlessness in space. The study involved healthy participants pedaling a stationary bicycle while spinning in a centrifuge, with results showing improved bone density and cardiovascular activity.
Researchers developed a dropout-prediction model that uses data from one course offering to predict stopout in the next. The model achieved fairly accurate predictions and showed promise, particularly when incorporating additional variables like weekend study habits. Ongoing work aims to refine the model for improved accuracy.
CodePhage analyzes application execution to identify security checks missing from vulnerable code, then imports and inserts them into the source code. The system can repair common open-source programs in minutes, reducing grunt work for developers.
A new model by MIT researchers analyzes flight schedules and ticket sales to determine global air transport connectivity. The study finds that one-stop flights have become more important over time in connecting regions, despite being less preferred by passengers.
MIT researchers have created a new ultralow-power circuit that can harness more than 80% of the energy from tiny solar cells, enabling it to run for months without battery changes. The chip achieves this efficiency improvement while powering devices directly from batteries.