When a new species is introduced to an ecosystem, it can either succeed in colonizing or fail and go extinct. MIT physicists have devised a formula that can predict which of these outcomes is most likely. The researchers developed the formula based on an analysis of hundreds of different scenarios they modeled using lab-grown soil…
Dr. Richard Locke (Class of 1989), a distinguished scholar and academic administrator with extensive leadership experience, has been named the new dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, effective July 1. Rock will return to the institute as the school’s 10th president. He served in various roles at MIT Sloan from 1988 to 2013,…
Lauren R. Graham, professor emeritus of the history of science at MIT for nearly 30 years, passed away on December 15, 2024 at the age of 91. Graham earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 1955, the same year that his classmate and acquaintance, future NASA astronaut and moon walker…
Used in everything from soda cans and foil to circuit boards and rocket boosters, aluminum is the second most produced metal in the world after steel. In the next decade, global aluminum production is expected to grow by 40% due to increasing demand. This dramatic increase will increase aluminum’s environmental impact, including the pollutants released…
Researchers at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) have shown that using decision-making software and dynamic monitoring of weather and energy usage can greatly improve resilience to weather-related outages and efficiently integrate renewable energy sources into the grid. The researchers note that their proposed system could have prevented or at least mitigated…
Joseph F. De Carolis, Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), has some general advice for anyone studying long-term energy forecasts: “Whatever you do, don’t start believing the numbers,” De Carolis said at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) fall meeting. “When you sit in front of a computer and watch models spit out numbers,…
Recent research from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research shows that preferences can modulate how children’s brains process language, paving the way for personalized brain research. The paper, published in the journal Imaging Neuroscience , was conducted in the laboratory of MIT professor and McGovern Institute investigator John Gabrieli and led by lead author Anila DeMello, a…
Elaine Jutamuria ’24 sips coffee with a few drops of anise extract, her second attempt at this. “What do you think?” asked Omar Orozco, standing at a lab bench in MIT’s Breaker Space, surrounded by filters, coffee pots, and other coffee-making paraphernalia. “I think it was still pretty bitter when I first tried it,” Jutamria…
As the old saying goes, 90 percent of politics is just a facade. That’s a good thing for people who are already involved in the political system and want to influence it. What about the rest of us? There are millions of people in America who don’t normally vote or participate in politics. Is there…
Yari Golden Castaño first learned about the moon, planets and space when her Mexican grandmother, Barbarita, taught her how to read the encyclopedia. Golden Castaño was nicknamed “Little Astronaut” in her family because her mother would dress her in astronaut jumpsuits. In third grade, she read a book that said that to be an astronaut,…
