AI helps design new materials that work in the real world
MIT Newsby Zach Winn | MIT News26 Aug 2026
Today, anyone with a large enough artificial intelligence model can generate millions of new material designs in minutes.
MIT News
news.mit.eduadded August 2026
top 73%Retooling to help democracy revive
MIT Newsby Peter Dizikes | MIT News26 Aug 2026
In the 20th century, the United States built the world’s dominant manufacturing powerhouse. A thriving middle class grew, well into the 1970s. The U.S.
Cells use a little-known molecule to protect themselves from iron overload
MIT Newsby Shafaq Zia | Whitehead Institute25 Aug 2026
Iron is essential. Our cells need it to produce energy, carry oxygen throughout the body, and power countless chemical reactions that sustain life. But this metal has a dark side.
Brain circuit keeps tabs on what just happened to aid judgment of what’s happening now
MIT Newsby David Orenstein | The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory24 Aug 2026
A brain must constantly cope with the highly variable, fast-paced nature of the world when trying to judge what’s going on around it.
Generating scenarios for extreme events, without extreme data
MIT Newsby Jennifer Chu | MIT News24 Aug 2026
Can a city’s seawall stand up to a blockbuster storm? Will a region’s power grid hold against record-breaking heat? And can a town’s fire-fighting resources contain a major wildfire?
The importance of indoor airflow patterns in spreading airborne disease
MIT Newsby Zach Winn | MIT News21 Aug 2026
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of infectious disease deaths, claiming over 1 million lives every year.
Paving the way for greener ammonia production
MIT Newsby David L. Chandler | Department of Materials Science and Engineering20 Aug 2026
Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world, ranking second only to sulfuric acid in the total volume produced each year.
MIT engineers design a better controller for operating construction diggers
MIT Newsby Jennifer Chu | MIT News20 Aug 2026
Anyone who’s ever wrestled with a claw machine at an arcade can appreciate the difficulty in pulling and pushing on joysticks, in just the right way, to get a mechanical arm to scoop up that one...
How the Toxoplasma parasite adapts to crowded conditions in host cells
MIT Newsby Mackenzie White | Whitehead Institute19 Aug 2026
Toxoplasma gondii, or Toxoplasma, is a parasite that infects hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Securing wireless communication in next-generation devices
MIT Newsby Adam Zewe | MIT News19 Aug 2026
MIT researchers have overcome a major challenge holding back the real-world deployment of microwave quantum technologies for advanced signal processing and secure communications.
Cell-preservation technique could make CAR-T cell therapy more accessible
MIT Newsby Anne Trafton | MIT News19 Aug 2026
Immune cells that are engineered to attack cancer cells, known as CAR-T cells, are used to treat some types of blood cancer.
How 35 percent of US employees are left on the margins
MIT Newsby Peter Dizikes | MIT News18 Aug 2026
You’ve heard of gig workers, freelancers, and temporary employees. But do you know about marginal workers? Accounting for about one in six U.S.
DNA shaper steers nervous system development
MIT Newsby Jennifer Michalowski | McGovern Institute for Brain Research17 Aug 2026
A functional nervous system depends on the cooperation of many kinds of cells. So as developing organisms build their nervous systems, their neurons must take on different forms and functions to...
Mathematical framework connects biological principles to manufacturable, adaptive materials
MIT Newsby Adam Zewe | MIT News17 Aug 2026
The scales of a pine cone open in low humidity to scatter seeds, but close in damp conditions to protect seeds from moisture.
MIT engineers connect bacteria to create living transistors
MIT Newsby Anne Trafton | MIT News17 Aug 2026
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria that can function as transistors, allowing the team to create living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto a growth medium in a Petri dish.
Flexible brain circuits can switch between different tasks
MIT Newsby Anne Trafton | MIT News17 Aug 2026
As we move through everyday life, our brains engage in a huge variety of cognitive tasks. For example, during a grocery run, we might have to recall the items for a recipe, remember where the clerk...
Drug that targets an inflammatory enzyme could help prevent lung cancer
MIT Newsby Anne Trafton | MIT News14 Aug 2026
Every year, lung cancer kills more than 100,000 people in the United States. Smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer, but other environmental exposures can also contribute to the...
Cells pulse together as they grow — and malignant cells pulse the longest
MIT Newsby Jennifer Chu | MIT News14 Aug 2026
Epithelial cells are the tiny shields that line and protect our body. In a developing embryo, epithelial cells grow, divide, and move into positions to form the outer layers of our skin and the...
High-speed microscopy reveals electrical activity across the brain
MIT Newsby Anne Trafton | MIT News14 Aug 2026
Within the brain, neurons compute by generating electrical impulses. These signals travel throughout neurons, which are in turn connected in vast networks that control brain functions such as...
Researchers uncover hidden pore network within nuclear fuel
MIT Newsby Zach Winn | MIT News13 Aug 2026
The moment a nuclear reactor begins operation, a complex chain of events is initiated within the fuel: Heavy atoms split into fission products, knocking other atoms out of place and creating...