MIT News

Curiosity Unbounded, Ep 2: Bureaucracies, dictatorships, and the power of Africa's people — Mai Hassan

In this episode, MIT President Sally Kornbluth sits down with associate professor of political science and faculty co-director of MIT-Africa, Mai Hassan. Her work looks a

Curiosity Unbounded, Ep 1: How a free-range kid from Maine is helping green-up industrial practices — Desirée Plata

In this episode, MIT President Sally Kornbluth sits down with newly tenured associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, Desirée Plata. Her work focuses on

Audio Article: Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere

MIT researchers have made an open-source version of the “City Scanner” mobile pollution detector that lets people check air quality anywhere, cheaply. Pictured are some e

Audio Article: Minimizing electric vehicles’ impact on the grid

In a new study, MIT researchers have developed strategies for beneficial electric vehicle charging to reduce peak electricity demand and store solar energy. Read the art

Audio Article: How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through granular material

Predicting what it takes to push through sand, gravel, or other soft media can help engineers drive a rover over Martian soil, anchor a ship in rough seas, and walk a rob

Audio Article: A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment

By modeling the conditions of an entire wind farm rather than individual turbines, engineers can squeeze more power out of existing installations. Read the article: http

Audio Article: Startup lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture

Piction Health, a startup founded by Susan Conover SM '15, lets doctors classify skin conditions with the snap of a picture. Their app uses machine learning to help physi

Audio Article: Keeping web-browsing data safe from hackers

Studying a powerful type of cyberattack, researchers identified a flaw in how it’s been analyzed before, then developed new techniques that stop it in its tracks. Read t

Audio Article: The sound of a sunset

What does a sunset sound like? With the Sonification Toolkit, almost anything can be transformed into sound that is aesthetically satisfying and analytically illuminating

What does a sunrise and sunset sound like?

Using a new sonification toolkit, designed but MIT's Digital Humanities Lab, senior Moises Trejo was able to turn a sunrise and a sunset into sound. What the toolkit does

Audio Article: Babies can tell who has close relationships based on one clue: saliva

MIT neuroscientists have identified a specific signal that young children and even babies can use to determine whether two people have a strong relationship and a mutual

Audio Article: Deploying machine learning to improve mental health

A machine-learning expert from MIT and a psychology researcher/clinician from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have teamed up to develop tools for mental health care

Audio Article: Reducing food waste to increase access to affordable foods

Spoiler Alert, a company founded by two MIT alumni, is helping companies bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity with a platform connecting major food and b

Audio Article: Scientists build new atlas of ocean’s oxygen-starved waters

A team of MIT scientists have generated a detailed, three-dimensional "atlas" of the largest oxygen-deficient zones (ODZ) in the tropical Pacific. And though these ODZs m

Audio Article: Sensor based on quantum physics could detect SARS-CoV-2 virus

A novel approach to testing for the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19 may lead to tests that are faster, less expensive, and potentially less prone to erroneous

Audio Article: Timber or steel?

Researchers at MIT have done a detailed analysis and created a set of computational tools to enable architects and engineers to design truss structures in a way that can

Audio Article: Giving robots social skills

MIT researchers have now incorporated certain social interactions into a framework for robotics, enabling machines to understand what it means to help or hinder one anoth

Audio Article: Dragging your feet? Lack of sleep affects your walk, new study finds

Good sleep can be hard to come by. But a new study by researchers at MIT and the University of São Paulo in Brazil finds that if you can make up for lost sleep, even for

Audio Article: How marsh grass protects shorelines

As climate change brings greater threats to coastal ecosystems, new research can help planners leverage the wave-damping benefits of marsh plants. Read the article: htt

Audio Article: Toward a smarter electronic health record

Researchers at MIT and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are combining machine learning and human-computer interaction to create a better electronic health record