The Atlantic’s Natalie Wolchover writes that MIT physicists have presented a demonstration of quantum entanglement, addressing a loophole in quantum theory. Prof. Andrew Friedman says his team will continue testing the loophole, explaining, “either we close the loophole more…or we see something that could point toward new physics.”
In this video, Prof. Leia Stirling and graduate student Alison Gibson speak with Wired about the vibrating boots they developed to help astronauts avoid obstacles. “To be able to provide technologies that can assist the astronauts and actually make a group of people have more capability, that’s really exciting,” explains Stirling.
Wired reporter Kathryn Nave speaks with research scientist Sheperd Doeleman about the Event Horizon Telescope project, which is aimed at imaging a black hole using telescopes stationed around the world. "We have good evidence there are black holes at the center of galaxies just from the orbits of stars around them, but we've never actually seen one," Doeleman explains.
The writers and editors of Science named the successful detection of gravitational waves by researchers from MIT, Caltech and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration as their top breakthrough of 2016. Science reporter Adrian Cho writes that “physicists are eagerly anticipating what may come next, because gravitational waves promise an entirely new way to peer into the cosmos.”
In their round up of the top science stories of 2016, Science News highlighted several MIT research breakthroughs. The top story of the year was the successful detection of gravitational waves by researchers from MIT, Caltech and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Another highlight was the discovery by Prof. Susan Solomon that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is shrinking.
In an in-depth piece for The New York Times Magazine, Chris Jones spotlights Prof. Sara Seager, exploring her quest for an Earthlike exoplanet. Jones writes there has been an explosion of knowledge about exoplanets in part because of “Seager’s pioneering theoretical work in using light to study the composition of alien atmospheres.”
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss and the LIGO team were honored as recipients of the 2016 Breakthrough Prizes during a ceremony in California, reports Lisa Krieger for Mercury News. The LIGO team was honored for their “observation of gravitational waves, a discovery which opens new horizons in astronomy and physics.”
In a series of papers, the New Horizons team, which includes MIT researchers, reveals that there may be a slushy subsurface ocean on Pluto, reports Rebecca Boyle for The Atlantic. “The research suggests that many other distant worlds in the Kuiper Belt might also hold inner oceans of water, or other liquids,” Boyle explains.
Researchers involved with the NASA New Horizons mission have uncovered evidence that an ocean of ice water lies beneath Pluto’s heart-shaped basin, reports Irene Klotz for Reuters. Prof. Richard Binzel explains that the findings show that “nature is more creative than we are able to imagine, which is why we go and explore."
Boston Globe reporter Olivia Quintana writes that the NASA New Horizons team, which includes MIT researchers, has collected data that suggests there is a slushy ocean of ice water beneath Pluto’s surface. “I think the big picture is that this is telling us that Pluto is much more complicated, much more fascinating than we ever imagined,” explains Prof. Richard Binzel.
Scientists at MIT and Brown University have discovered the origin of the Orientale basin, the oldest crater on the Moon, according to EFE. The impact of an asteroid 3.8 billion years ago formed a crater that has since “collapsed under the rock fractures and its temperatures forming three concentric rings visible today.”
Prof. Rainer Weiss speaks with Marco Werman of PRI about his childhood, what inspired his interest in science, and black holes. "One of the dreams I would have, had Einstein been still alive, is to tell him about this,” said Weiss, of the successful detection of gravitational waves. “I would have loved to have seen what he would have thought.”
Mt. Hebron Middle School in New Jersey has been renamed in honor of MIT alumnus Buzz Aldrin, according to the Associated Press. Aldrin was one of the first humans to land on the Moon and the second person to step on it.
In an article for Quartz, Prof. Sara Seager speculates about what it might be like to visit the recently discovered Earth-like planet dubbed Proxima Centauri. Seager writes that “the most fascinating aspect to me is that on the planet, the alien sun would be in the same place in the sky at all times.”
Women You Should Know celebrates the 80th birthday of computer scientist Margaret Hamilton with a video spotlighting her work at MIT developing code for NASA’s Apollo program. Hamilton’s “Apollo code ultimately saved the Apollo 11 astronauts from having to abort their historic moon landing.”