Faster, more efficient data storage and computer logic systems could be on the horizon thanks to a new way of tuning electronic energy levels in 2D films of crystal, discovered by researchers at MIT. The discovery could ultimately pave the way for the development of so-called “valleytronic” devices, which harness the way electrons gather around two equal energy states, known as valleys.

Metal fatigue can lead to abrupt and sometimes catastrophic failures in parts that undergo repeated loading, or stress. It’s a major cause of failure in structural components of everything from aircraft and spacecraft to bridges and powerplants. As a result, such structures are typically built with wide safety margins that add to costs. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and in Japan and Germany has found a way to greatly reduce the eff...

One of the key technologies needed to transform world energy supplies away from fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable sources is a cheap and reliable way of storing and releasing energy. That will enable intermittent supplies such as solar and wind power, with their variable and often unpredictable outputs, to store energy that’s produced when it’s not needed and to release it when it’s needed most (or can be sold for the bes...

  MIT spinout Bevi believes it can cut the world’s use of bottled drinks with a smart beverage machine of the same name that delivers high quality, flavoured water — straight from the tap. Americans buy about 29 billion water bottles per year, and manufacturers use roughly 17 million barrels of crude oil to produce those bottles.

  A finding by physicists at MIT and in Israel shows that under certain specialised conditions, electrons can speed through a narrow opening in a piece of metal more easily than traditional theory says is possible.

A mystery concerning the structure of protons is a step closer to being solved, thanks to a seven-year experiment led by researchers at MIT. For many years researchers have probed the structure of protons — subatomic particles with a positive charge — by bombarding them with electrons and examining the intensity of the scattered electrons at different angles.

  Although data scientists can gain great insights from large data sets — and can ultimately use these insights to tackle major challenges — accomplishing this is much easier said than done. Many such efforts are stymied from the outset, as privacy concerns make it difficult for scientists to access the data they would like to work with.

  A single cell can contain a wealth of information about the health of an individual. Now, a new method developed at MIT and National Chiao Tung University could make it possible to capture and analyse individual cells from a small sample of blood, potentially leading to very low-cost diagnostic systems that could be used almost anywhere.

For centuries, cellulose has formed the basis of the world’s most abundantly printed-on material: paper. Now, thanks to new research at MIT, it may also become an abundant material to print with — potentially providing a renewable, biodegradable alternative to the polymers currently used in 3D printing materials. “Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer in the world,” says MIT postdoc Sebastian Pattin...

MIT researchers have devised a way to measure dopamine in the brain much more precisely than previously possible, which should allow scientists to gain insight into dopamine’s roles in learning, memory, and emotion. Dopamine is one of the many neurotransmitters that neurons in the brain use to communicate with each other. Previous systems for measuring these neurotransmitters have been limited in how long they provide accurate readings...

For years, Maia Weinstock, the deputy editor of MIT News, has been creating miniature LEGO figurines to honor and promote such scientists and engineers as MIT Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, Vice President for Research Maria T. Zuber, and Department of Chemical Engineering head Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Chair Professor in Engineering. The figures are Weinstock’s playful way of boosting the visibility of scientis...

Manufacturing small proteins known as peptides is usually very time-consuming, which has slowed development of new peptide drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and bacterial infections. To help speed up the manufacturing process, MIT researchers have designed a machine that can rapidly produce large quantities of customised peptides.

VR is quickly gaining steam in the gaming industry. But an MIT startup is now aiming the technology at a different demographic, putting it to use as a health care tool for the elderly. At last night’s MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovations Prize pitch competition, Rendever earned the $25,000 grand prize for creating a VR platform that gives residents in assisted-living facilities the chance to explore the world virtually.

Residential solar power is on a sharp rise in the United States as photovoltaic systems become cheaper and more powerful for homeowners. A 2012 study by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) predicts that solar could reach 1 million to 3.8 million homes by 2020, a big leap from just 30,000 homes in 2006.

For the first time ever, a single flexible fiber no bigger than a human hair has successfully delivered a combination of optical, electrical, and chemical signals back and forth into the brain, putting into practice an idea first proposed two years ago. With some tweaking to further improve its biocompatibility, the new approach could provide a dramatically improved way to learn about the functions and interconnections of different brain regions.

Within the inner ear, thousands of hair cells detect sound waves and translate them into nerve signals that allow us to hear speech, music, and other everyday sounds. Damage to these cells is one of the leading causes of hearing loss, which affects 48 million Americans. Each of us is born with about 15,000 hair cells per ear, and once damaged, these cells cannot regrow.

The Semiconductor Industry Association has estimated that at current rates of increase, computers’ energy requirements will exceed the world’s total power output by 2040. Using light rather than electricity to move data would dramatically reduce computer chips’ energy consumption, and the past 20 years have seen remarkable progress in the development of silicon photonics, or optical devices that are made from silicon so the...

  At the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, researchers from MIT’s Microsystems Technologies Laboratories (MTL) presented a power converter that maintains its efficiency at currents ranging from 500 picoamps to 1 milliamp, a span that encompasses a 2,000,000-fold increase.

For the first time, astronomers from MIT and elsewhere have observed a star pulsing in response to its orbiting planet. The star, which goes by the name HAT-P-2, is about 400 light years from Earth and is circled by a gas giant measuring eight times the mass of Jupiter — one of the most massive exoplanets known today. The planet, named HAT-P-2b, tracks its star in a highly eccentric orbit, flying extremely close to and around the star,...

In anticipation of the age of voice-controlled electronics, MIT researchers have built a low-power chip specialised for automatic speech recognition. Whereas a cellphone running speech-recognition software might require about 1 W of power, the new chip requires between 0.2 and 10 milliwatts, depending on the number of words it has to recognise. In a real-world application, that probably translates to a power savings of 90 to 99%, which could...