News & Stories

Aspiring physician explores the many levels of human health

It was her childhood peanut allergy that first sparked senior Ayesha Ng’s fascination with the human body. “To see this severe reaction happen to my body and not know what was happening — that made me a lot more curious about biology and living systems,” Ng says. She didn’t exactly plan it this way. But […]

Pushing the envelope with fusion magnets

“At the age of between 12 and 15 I was drawing; I was making plans of fusion devices.” David Fischer remembers growing up in Vienna, Austria, imagining how best to cool the furnace used to contain the hot soup of ions known as plasma in a fusion device called a tokamak. With plasma hotter than […]

Transatlantic research and study partnership continues amid the pandemic

“Global issues can only be solved with international collaboration and innovative ideas,” states Professor Maggie Dallman, vice president (international) at Imperial College London. “The MIT-Imperial College London Seed Fund provides a platform for scientists to do that.” The fund, managed by MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) on behalf of the associate provost for […]

A new world of warcraft

In the past decade, high tech tools have proliferated in the world’s fighting forces. At least 80 nations can now deploy remote-controlled drones. Will the widespread use of digitally enhanced arsenals prove a destabilizing, if not destructive, element in the complex struggles among states? Not necessarily, argues assistant professor of political science Erik Lin-Greenberg ’09, […]

Saudi Arabia faces increased heat, humidity, precipitation extremes by mid-century

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is at a crossroads. Recent long-term studies of the area indicate that rising temperatures and evaporation rates will likely further deplete scarce water resources critical to meeting the nation’s agricultural, industrial, and domestic needs; more extreme flooding events could endanger lives, economic vitality, and infrastructure; and a combination of […]

Podcast series from J-PAL North America shares stories behind the impact of summer jobs in the US

The inaugural season of J-PAL Voices: The Impact and Promise of Summer Jobs in the United States highlights the stories behind the impact of a program that has enabled communities across the country to lower violent crime, reduce incarceration, and save lives. Hosted by J-PAL North America’s Senior Research and Policy Manager Rohit Naimpally, the […]

Why soldiers fight

Matthew Cancian concluded his service in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2013, but in some ways he never left his Afghanistan battlefield experience behind. A rising fifth-year doctoral candidate in political science, Cancian researches what motivates people to enlist and to engage in combat. “It could be said that my dissertation is a poorly disguised […]

Learning by doing, remotely

Experiential learning is alive and well at MIT — even when it’s remote. Just ask Julian Zulueta, a sophomore in biological engineering. Last May, he spotted an intriguing social impact internship opportunity in the PKG Public Service Center newsletter: The CDC Foundation, a Congressionally-chartered nonprofit created to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]

Designing off-grid refrigeration technologies for crop storage in Kenya

For smallholder farmers living in hot and arid regions, getting fresh crops to market and selling them at the best price is a balancing act. If crops aren’t sold early enough, they wilt or ripen too quickly in the heat, and farmers have to sell them at reduced prices. Selling produce in the morning is […]