MIT News

Physicists across the globe are on a quest for a particle that makes up nearly 85 percent of all matter in the universe, yet no one has ever directly detected it. Jessica Fry, a fifth-year physics PhD candidate in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS), is one such hunter. Fry grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, not far from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She began dancing at age 3 and by elementary school was competing nationally.

Artificial intelligence models are jacks of many trades, including writing, generating images, and creating 3D models. But they aren’t as helpful when it comes to testing robots or designs for vehicles in diverse environments, since they don’t understand physics as well as they do pixels or text. To build an AI system that can reliably simulate a variety of physical scenarios, engineers need a range of physics data at a scale that isn’t yet feasible.

On Earth, the processes behind navigation are made nearly invisible by global positioning satellites (GPS). In cislunar space — the region between Earth and the moon — spacecraft do not have that kind of always-available positioning service. Missions beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit still rely heavily on NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), an accurate but limited Earth-based international array of radio antennas shared across many missions and nations.

In the last decade, scientists have shown that fusion energy can work, as a physical process. Next question: Can it work economically? A study co-authored by MIT professors Dennis Whyte and Andrew W. Lo proposes a framework for understanding what’s needed to make fusion energy commercially viable in the marketplace. The method considers the physical inputs needed to sustain controlled fusion energy production, as well as the cost of building power plants that can compete in energy markets.

A tall glass of ice water isn’t just a thirst quencher; it’s also an everyday example of coexisting phases. Water’s molecular makeup can exist simultaneously in both a liquid and solid phase. And as it turns out, this phase duality can exist in more exotic, quantum materials, and in ways that are far more complicated to tease apart. A new study by MIT physicists sheds light on how two different phases of electron behavior can emerge and coexist in the same quantum material.

MIT has appointed Akirah Bradley-Armstrong as vice chancellor for student life, effective Oct. 19, 2026. The appointment, following a national search, was announced yesterday in a letter sent to the MIT community from Chancellor Melissa Nobles, to whom Bradley-Armstrong will report. Bradley-Armstrong will succeed Vice Chancellor for Student Life Suzy M. Nelson, who transformed student life at MIT during her 10 years in the role. Nelson announced her retirement earlier this year.

The same overheating problem that happens to our laptops also plagues computer servers and data centers around the world — and heat management is only getting harder as computer chips get more compact and powerful. Understanding how heat moves through chips at the micro scale is essential for continuing to improve their performance. Unfortunately, most methods for measuring heat flow struggle with multilayered devices like the electronics that power our modern world.

On July 26, 1951, the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy signed a charter establishing Project Lincoln, an R&D program managed by MIT to develop the nation's first continent-wide air defense system, SAGE. The charter called for a research center to be opened within the towns of Bedford, Lincoln, and Lexington, Massachusetts, to support Project Lincoln, which was subsequently renamed MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, affecting 15 million people each year and leaving 5 million with long-term impairments. There’s also a growing shortage of physical therapists, making it harder for patients to access consistent, high-quality care. A new approach developed by MIT mechanical engineers combines cutting edge artificial intelligence with real human care practices.

Super-thin superconducting materials, which are only one or a few atoms thick, have unique properties scientists can leverage to produce more compact, scalable, and efficient quantum devices. But these fragile materials degrade so rapidly in air that they are difficult to study or manufacture. Now, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have discovered and harnessed a method to generate a large, uniform area of ultrathin superconducting material that remains stable in air.