Author: Ms. R.

Buildings cost a lot these days. But when concrete buildings are being constructed, there’s another material that can make them less expensive: mud. MIT researchers have developed a method to use lightly treated mud, including soil from a building site, as the “formwork” molds into which concrete is poured. The technique deploys 3D printing and can replace the more costly method of building elaborate wood formworks for concrete construction. “What we’ve demonstrated is that we can essentially take the……

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Several years ago, the residents of a manufactured-home neighborhood in southeast suburban Houston, not far from the Buffalo Bayou, took a major step in dealing with climate problems: They bought the land under their homes. Then they installed better drainage and developed strategies to share expertise and tools for home repairs. The result? The neighborhood made it through Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and a winter freeze in 2021 without major damage. The neighborhood is part of a U.S. movement……

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Businesses and developers often face a steep learning curve when installing clean energy technologies, such as solar installations and EV chargers. To get a fair deal, they need to navigate a complex bidding process that involves requesting proposals, evaluating bids, and ultimately contracting with a provider. Now the startup Station A, founded by a pair of MIT alumni and their colleagues, is streamlining the process of deploying clean energy. The company has developed a marketplace for clean energy that……

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A new experimental vaccine developed by researchers at MIT and Caltech could offer protection against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, as well as related coronaviruses, known as sarbecoviruses, that could spill over from animals to humans. In addition to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, sarbecoviruses — a subgenus of coronaviruses — include the virus that led to the outbreak of the original SARS in the early 2000s. Sarbecoviruses that currently circulate in bats and other mammals may also hold……

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MIT physicists have created a new ultrathin, two-dimensional material with unusual magnetic properties that initially surprised the researchers before they went on to solve the complicated puzzle behind those properties’ emergence. As a result, the work introduces a new platform for studying how materials behave at the most fundamental level — the world of quantum physics. Ultrathin materials made of a single layer of atoms have riveted scientists’ attention since the discovery of the first such material — graphene,……

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As the capabilities of generative AI models have grown, you’ve probably seen how they can transform simple text prompts into hyperrealistic images and even extended video clips. More recently, generative AI has shown potential in helping chemists and biologists explore static molecules, like proteins and DNA. Models like AlphaFold can predict molecular structures to accelerate drug discovery, and the MIT-assisted “RFdiffusion,” for example, can help design new proteins. One challenge, though, is that molecules are constantly moving and jiggling,……

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MIT.nano has announced seven new companies to join START.nano, a program aimed at speeding the transition of hard-tech innovation to market. The program supports new ventures through discounted use of MIT.nano’s facilities and access to the MIT innovation ecosystem. The advancements pursued by the newly engages startups include wearables for health care, green alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy, novel battery technologies, enhancements in data systems, and interconnecting nanofabrication knowledge networks, among others. “The transition of the grand idea that……

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Steven Strang, a writer and literary scholar who founded MIT’s Writing and Communication Center in 1981 and directed it for 40 years, died with family at his side on Dec. 29, 2024. He was 77. His vision for the center was ambitious. After an MIT working group identified gaps between the students’ technical knowledge and their ability to communicate it — particularly once in positions of leadership — Strang advocated an even broader approach rarely used at other universities. Rather……

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Materials like car tires, human tissues, and spider webs are diverse in composition, but all contain networks of interconnected strands. A long-standing question about the durability of these materials asks: What is the energy required to fracture these diverse networks? A recently published paper by MIT researchers offers new insights. “Our findings reveal a simple, general law that governs the fracture energy of networks across various materials and length scales,” says Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and professor……

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