MIT research suggests the underlying function of “next-word prediction” computational models closely resembles the function of language-processing centers in the human brain. | Continue reading
MIT researchers conducted a study with blind and sighted readers to determine the most useful descriptive alternative text to include with a chart. They developed a four-level framework that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a chart caption, whether it is generated by … | Continue reading
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a novel control system that enables the MIT mini cheetah robot to traverse discontinuous terrain effectively, in real-time without requiring the terrain to be pre-mapped. | Continue reading
An MIT study suggests our brains are not optimized to calculate the shortest possible route when navigating on foot. Instead, pedestrians use vector-based navigation, choosing “pointiest” paths that point most directly toward their destination, even if the routes are longer. | Continue reading
A new kind of fiber can be made into clothing that senses how much it is being stretched or compressed, and then provides tactile feedback in the form of pressure, lateral stretch, or vibration. Such fabrics could be used in garments that help train singers or athletes to better … | Continue reading
A brief history of the famous 1969 Margaret Hamilton photo featuring the Apollo software she and her team developed for NASA, sending humans to the moon. Article includes rarely-seen outtakes of Hamilton and her code from the MIT Museum. | Continue reading
MIT computer scientists have crunched data from 57 textbooks and more than 1,110 research papers to trace the history of how quickly algorithms got better. | Continue reading
A deep learning model predicts high-resolution automobile crash risk maps that describe the expected number of crashes and identify high-risk areas. The work was led by scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Qatar Center for … | Continue reading
MIT researchers have demonstrated that a special class of deep learning neural networks is able to learn the true cause-and-effect structure of a navigation task during training. | Continue reading
The unique mineral composition of the 2,050-year-old Roman tomb of Caecilia Metella could point the way toward more resilient and sustainable modern concrete structures. | Continue reading
Images from the Perseverance rover confirm that Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake, MIT researchers report. The team also detected signs of flash flooding strong enough to carry large boulders downstream into the ancient delta. | Continue reading
The use of blockchain technology as a communication tool for a team of robots could provide security and safeguard against deception, according to a study by researchers at MIT and Polytechnic University of Madrid. The research may also have applications in cities where multirobo … | Continue reading
Researchers from MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories have developed a fully flexible device made of the 2-D material molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) that converts energy from Wi-Fi signals into electricity to power electronics, wearables, internet-of-things technologies, and t … | Continue reading
MIT scientists estimate that oxygenic photosynthesis — the ability to turn light and water into energy, releasing oxygen— first evolved on Earth between 3.4 and 2.9 billion years ago. | Continue reading
MIT engineers developed a technique that, for the first time, allows them to measure the generation rate and half-life of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in mice. | Continue reading
An MIT CSAIL-led group is drawing on an underused resource — the vast body of radiology reports that accompany medical images, written by radiologists in routine clinical practice — in order to improve the interpretive abilities of machine learning algorithms. | Continue reading
The economic crisis has revived an old philosophical idea about risk and uncertainty. But what is it, exactly? | Continue reading
MIT Engineers designed a relatively low-cost, energy-efficient approach to treating water contaminated with heavy metals such as lead. | Continue reading
MedKnowts, a “smart” electronic health record system, can help doctors work more efficiently by presenting relevant information from a patient’s medical history, autocompleting medical terms as a clinician types, and auto-populating repetitive fields. The system was developed by … | Continue reading
A newly discovered bacterial enzyme could expand scientists’ CRISPR toolkit, making it easy to cut and edit RNA with the kind of precision that, until now, has only been available for DNA editing. The work was led by researchers at MIT’s McGovern Institute. | Continue reading
Researchers have developed a way of rapidly switching the magnetic polarity of a ferrimagnet 180 degrees, using just a small applied voltage. The discovery could usher in a new era of ferrimagnetic logic and data storage devices, the researchers say. | Continue reading
MIT’s Erik Demaine has proven that the video game “Super Mario Brothers” is even harder than NP-hard — meaning it’s among the hardest problems in the complexity class PSPACE. | Continue reading
Vaccinating against certain cancer proteins can boost overall T cell response and help shrink tumors in mice, according to MIT scientists. The findings could help researchers decide what proteins to include in cancer vaccines. | Continue reading
MIT scientists have discovered a new class of compact DNA modifying systems called OMEGAs that naturally shuffle DNA in bacteria and can be engineered to work in human cells. | Continue reading
MIT engineers developed a way to grow tiny replicas of the pancreas, using either healthy or cancerous pancreatic cells. Their models could help researchers develop and test potential drugs for pancreatic cancer. | Continue reading
For the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created. The demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the first fusion power … | Continue reading
MIT Professor Emeritus Paul Penfield, chronicler of entropy and lifelong teacher, died at age 88. A longtime department head, Penfield developed courses illuminating the equivalence of information and thermodynamic entropy. | Continue reading
Crowdsourcing fact-checking of news stories can work about as effectively as using professional fact-checkers, according to a study co-authored by Professor David Rand and PhD student Jenny Allen of the MIT Sloan School of Management. | Continue reading
Computer scientists have developed a way to preserve a network when the fiber is down. The ARROW system reconfigures optical light from a damaged fiber to healthy ones. | Continue reading
Moving to certain locations in the U.S. can have a significant impact on the longevity of senior citizens, according to research co-authored by MIT economist Amy Finkelstein. | Continue reading
MIT researchers suggest a way to protect qubit states using a phenomenon called many-body localization (MBL) — a peculiar phase of matter that is unlike solid or liquid, and never reaches equilibrium. | Continue reading
To mitigate heat waves and climate change, cities can use cool paving materials that reflect more light and emit less heat. Research from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub finds that cool pavements would reduce Phoenix’s emissions by up to 6%. | Continue reading
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have significantly boosted the output from a system that can extract drinkable water directly from the air even in dry regions, using heat from the sun or another source. | Continue reading
A study by MIT and University of Twente researchers involves firing small jets of water through many kinds of droplets, using high-speed cameras to capture each watery impact — similar to the famous strobe-light photographs of a bullet piercing an apple, pioneered by MIT’s Harold … | Continue reading
An MIT-developed inflatable robotic hand gives amputees real-time tactile control. The smart hand is soft and elastic, weighs about half a pound, and costs a fraction of comparable prosthetics. | Continue reading
Researchers are working to adapt the standard lithium-ion battery to make safer, smaller, and lighter versions. An MIT-led study describes an approach that can help researchers consider what materials may work best in their solid-state batteries, while also considering how those … | Continue reading
A new domain-specific artificial intelligence programming language developed at MIT allows for error-free, exact, automatic solutions to hard AI problems — and it’s thousands of times faster than alternatives. The researchers' Sum-Product Probabilistic Language could have us … | Continue reading
After nearly a decade, an interdisciplinary collaboration between MIT's Markus Buehler, Tomas Sacareno, and others to model a 3D spider web has led to many surprising results. | Continue reading
A new algorithm helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. The MIT system could enable fast, nimble drones for time-critical operations such as search and rescue. | Continue reading
A team of MIT researchers has developed an immunotherapy strategy that can eliminate pancreatic tumors in mice. The new therapy, a combination of three drugs that boost the body’s immune defenses against tumors, is expected to enter clinical trials later this year. | Continue reading
A new device can detect SARS-CoV-2 from saliva in about an hour. Developed by MIT and Harvard engineers, the diagnostic is just as accurate as PCR tests and can identify Covid-19 variants. | Continue reading
MIT and Ericsson are collaborating to research the next generation of mobile networks. Two projects on the design of state-of-the-art hardware could one day power next-generation 5G and 6G mobile networks. | Continue reading
New MIT research using patent data could help inform decision-makers by predicting which technologies are improving the fastest. | Continue reading
MIT spinoff Infinite Cooling aims to reduce power plants’ significant water needs and to shrink the huge plumes of water vapor produced by their cooling towers. At-scale prototypes tested on MIT facilities have proven effective. | Continue reading
MIT physicists have observed signs of a rare type of superconductivity in a material called “magic-angle” twisted trilayer graphene. They report that the material exhibits superconductivity at surprisingly high magnetic fields of up to 10 Tesla, which is three times higher than w … | Continue reading
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created a new method to computationally optimize the shape and control of a robotic manipulator for a specific task. | Continue reading
A human-aware motion planning algorithm from MIT CSAIL addresses the safety gap in collaboration between robots and humans, enabling robots to assist with dressing, for example. | Continue reading
After overseeing three years of research and development, MIT Senior Research Scientist Brian LaBombard is ready to test a superconducting toroidal field model coil (TFMC), a prototype for those that will be used in the SPARC fusion experiment. | Continue reading