>>Novel design could help shed excess heat in next-generation fusion power plants A class exercise at MIT, aided by industry researchers, has led to an innovative solution to one of the longstanding challenges facing the development of practical fusion power plants: how to get rid
>>Cost-effective method produces semiconducting films from materials that outperform silicon The vast majority of computing devices today are made from silicon, the second most abundant element on Earth, after oxygen. Silicon can be found in various forms in rocks, clay, sand, and soil. And while
>>In simulations, robots move through new environments by exploring, observing, and drawing from learned experiences When moving through a crowd to reach some end goal, humans can usually navigate the space safely without thinking too much. They can learn from the behavior of others and
>>Metal cluster in enzyme that breaks down carbon dioxide can switch between two different shapes Many microbes have an enzyme that can convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. This reaction is critical for building carbon compounds and generating energy, particularly for bacteria that live in
>>Experiments show shifting ripple patterns can signal times of environmental flux When a coastal tide rolls out, it can reveal beautiful ripples in the temporarily exposed sand. These same undulating patterns can also be seen in ancient, petrified seabeds that have been exposed in various
>>Model extracts granular behavioral patterns from transaction data to more accurately flag suspicious activity Have you ever used your credit card at a new store or location only to have it declined? Has a sale ever been blocked because you charged a higher amount than
>>Lithium-based battery could make use of greenhouse gas before it ever gets into the atmosphere A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants. Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized
>>MIT designers explain their philosophy in a new book, “Resonant Games” To succeed at “Lure of the Labyrinth,” a video game created by designers in MIT’s Education Arcade, players rescue pets from an underground lair inhabited by monsters. In so doing, they solve mathematical puzzles,
>>Real-word driving produces up to 16 times more emissions, causing 2,700 premature deaths across the EU, researchers estimate In September 2015, the German automaker Volkswagen was found to have illegally cheated federal emissions tests in the United States, by intentionally programming emissions control devices to
>>Model learns to pick out objects within an image, using spoken descriptions MIT computer scientists have developed a system that learns to identify objects within an image, based on a spoken description of the image. Given an image and an audio caption, the model