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New optical sensing system will improve space domain awareness
Earlier this year, the first of two space domain awareness (SDA) payloads, called the QZS6-HP1, launched from Tanegashima, Japan. Recently, that payload collected its first imaging data, a moment known as first light. Sponsored by the United States Space Force (USSF), MIT Lincoln Laboratory designed, built, and delivered the two payloads as part of a […]
MIT D-Lab students design global energy solutions through collaboration
This semester, MIT D-Lab students built prototype solutions to help farmers in Afghanistan, people living in informal settlements in Argentina, and rural poultry farmers in Cameroon. The projects span continents and collectively stand to improve thousands of lives — and they all trace back to two longstanding MIT D-Lab classes. For nearly two decades, 2.651 […]
A new technology for extending the shelf life of produce
We’ve all felt the sting of guilt when fruit and vegetables go bad before we could eat them. Now, researchers from MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have shown they can extend the shelf life of harvested plants by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable microneedles. That’s a big deal because […]
MIT students turn vision to reality
Life is a little brighter in Kapiyo these days. For many in this rural Kenyan town, nightfall used to signal the end to schoolwork and other family activities. Now, however, the darkness is pierced by electric lights from newly solar-powered homes. Inside, children in this off-the-grid area can study while parents extend daily activities past dusk, […]
Study in India shows several tactics together boost vaccination against deadly diseases
Around the world, low immunizations rates for children are a persistent problem. Now, an experiment conducted in India shows that an inexpensive combination of methods, including text reminders and small financial incentives, has a major impact on immunization. Led by MIT economists, the research finds that a trifecta of incentives, text messages, and information provided […]
How can India decarbonize its coal-dependent electric power system?
As the world struggles to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions, India has pledged to do its part, and its success is critical: In 2023, India was the third-largest carbon emitter worldwide. The Indian government has committed to having net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. To fulfill that promise, India will need to decarbonize its electric power system, […]
The MIT-Portugal Program enters Phase 4
Since its founding 19 years ago as a pioneering collaboration with Portuguese universities, research institutions and corporations, the MIT-Portugal Program (MPP) has achieved a slew of successes — from enabling 47 entrepreneurial spinoffs and funding over 220 joint projects between MIT and Portuguese researchers to training a generation of exceptional researchers on both sides of […]
Will the vegetables of the future be fortified using tiny needles?
When farmers apply pesticides to their crops, 30 to 50 percent of the chemicals end up in the air or soil instead of on the plants. Now, a team of researchers from MIT and Singapore has developed a much more precise way to deliver substances to plants: tiny needles made of silk. In a study […]
Always looking to home
For Mingmar Sherpa, a senior research support associate in the Martin Lab in the Department of Biology, community is more than just his colleagues in the lab, where he studies how mechanical forces affect cell division timing during embryogenesis. On his long and winding path to MIT, he never left behind the people he grew […]