Experimenting With Thermopower Waves

Movable microplatform floating on droplets

A new approach to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), developed by a team of researchers at MIT, could offer a new way of making movable parts with no solid connections between the pieces, potentially eliminating a major source of wear and failure. Video: Melanie Gonick/MIT more

Plant-to-human communication

MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. Video: Melanie Gonick/MITInfrared/fluorescent images: Min Hao Wong more

Particles attract across long distances

MIT researchers have found a new kind of long-range interaction between particles, in a liquid medium, that is based entirely on their motions. Video: Melanie Gonick/MIT more

New battery gobbles up carbon dioxide

A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants. Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized chemicals using metal catalysts, which is currently highly challenging, this battery could continuously ... more

North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials to continue for another five years

At a conference marking the five-year anniversary of the North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials (NORA), the center’s members convened to discuss the outcomes of the research alliance to date as well as future areas of focus, including bioscience and catalysis research, dig ... more

A big leap toward tinier lines

For the last few decades, microchip manufacturers have been on a quest to find ways to make the patterns of wires and components in their microchips ever smaller, in order to fit more of them onto a single chip and thus continue the relentless progress toward faster and more powerful comput ... more