Robotic lightning bugs take flight
Inspired by fireflies, researchers create insect-scale robots that can emit light when they fly, which enables motion tracking and communication.
MIT engineers boost signals from fluorescent sensors
The advance allows the particles to be placed deeper within biological tissue, which could aid with cancer diagnosis or monitoring.
Could we make cars out of petroleum residue?
A new way to make carbon fiber could turn refinery byproducts into high-value, ultralight structural materials for cars, aircraft, and spacecraft.
Physicists find direct evidence of strong electron correlation in a 2D material for the first time
The discovery could help researchers engineer exotic electrical states such as unconventional superconductivity.
New book celebrates trailblazing MIT physicist Mildred Dresselhaus
“Carbon Queen” explores how the Institute Professor transformed our understanding of the physical world and made science and engineering more accessible to all.
Why are comet heads green — but not their tails?
An accidental discovery and a love of spectroscopic perturbations leads to the solution of a 90-year-old puzzle.
Giving bug-like bots a boost
A new fabrication technique produces low-voltage, power-dense artificial muscles that improve the performance of flying microrobots.
Gene Dresselhaus, influential research scientist in solid-state physics, dies at 91
Over 50 years at MIT, Dresselhaus made lasting contributions to materials science within the research group of longtime collaborator and wife, Mildred Dresselhaus.
Carbon nanotube-based sensor can detect SARS-CoV-2 proteins
The technology could be developed as a rapid diagnostic for Covid-19 or other emerging pathogens.
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero receives Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award
The Max Planck Society and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation honor the MIT physicist's work on two-dimensional quantum materials.
Physicists engineer ferroelectricity in boron nitride
New property in an ultrathin cousin of graphene could allow for much denser computer memory.
Using graphene foam to filter toxins from drinking water
MIT-led research team fashions graphene foam into device that can extract uranium and other heavy metals from tap water.
Cleaning up industrial filtration
MIT spinoff Via Separations aims for industrial decarbonization with its durable graphene oxide membranes.
“Magic-angle” trilayer graphene may be a rare, magnet-proof superconductor
New findings might help inform the design of more powerful MRI machines or robust quantum computers.
Custom-made MIT tool probes materials at the nanoscale
A scattering-type scanning nearfield optical microscope offers advantages to researchers across many disciplines.