Energy

“If one advance could transform America's prospects, it would be ready access, at scale, to a range of affordable, renewable, low-carbon energy technologies. Only one path will lead to such transformative technologies: research.”                                                                                       - Susan Hockfield

March 16, 2015

Several years ago, as an incoming freshman, current MIT senior Sterling Harper had no inkling that he’d find his passion in writing nuclear engineering software. But after signing up on a whim for...

March 16, 2015

Several years ago, as an incoming freshman, current MIT senior Sterling Harper had no inkling that he’d find his passion in writing nuclear engineering software. But after signing up on a whim for...

March 06, 2015

The Materials Processing Center (MPC) celebrates 35 years of service to the MIT faculty and materials research community during 2015. Current MPC research topics include synthesis of...

March 06, 2015

The Materials Processing Center (MPC) celebrates 35 years of service to the MIT faculty and materials research community during 2015. Current MPC research topics include synthesis of...

March 05, 2015

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its capacity to trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere for a long time. The gas can originate from lakes and swamps, natural-gas...

March 05, 2015

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its capacity to trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere for a long time. The gas can originate from lakes and swamps, natural-gas...

March 05, 2015

It was apparent even before the meeting began that this would be a different kind of event: The cups and plates were compostable, the name badges were plain paper, and there were no programs at...

March 05, 2015

It was apparent even before the meeting began that this would be a different kind of event: The cups and plates were compostable, the name badges were plain paper, and there were no programs at...

March 04, 2015

A longstanding problem in designing nanoscale electromechanical switches is the tendency for metal-to-metal contacts to stick together, locking the switch in an “on” position. MIT electrical...

March 04, 2015

A longstanding problem in designing nanoscale electromechanical switches is the tendency for metal-to-metal contacts to stick together, locking the switch in an “on” position. MIT electrical...

March 03, 2015

At the conclusion of MIT’s 10th annual Energy Conference, panelist Cheryl Martin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E research program, declared, “There is no more important issue...

March 03, 2015

At the conclusion of MIT’s 10th annual Energy Conference, panelist Cheryl Martin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E research program, declared, “There is no more important issue...

March 02, 2015

Solar cells made out of lead sulfide quantum dots could eventually offer a cheaper, more flexible alternative to ones made using silicon, but they are currently much less efficient. However,...

March 02, 2015

Solar cells made out of lead sulfide quantum dots could eventually offer a cheaper, more flexible alternative to ones made using silicon, but they are currently much less efficient. However,...

February 25, 2015

The frenetic dance of neutrons inside a nuclear reactor generates heat and produces electricity. Reactor physicist Lulu Li wants to make...

February 25, 2015

The frenetic dance of neutrons inside a nuclear reactor generates heat and produces electricity. Reactor physicist Lulu Li wants to make...

January 20, 2015

Carbon sequestration promises to address greenhouse-gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it deep below the Earth’s surface, where it would permanently...

January 20, 2015

Carbon sequestration promises to address greenhouse-gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it deep below the Earth’s surface, where it would permanently...

January 15, 2015

Biofuels like ethanol and other forms of bioenergy are often seen as a key part of a low-carbon future. But large-scale production of these fuels, which are usually made from either food crops...

January 13, 2015

One day in the 1990s, as he was riding home from high school in São Paulo, Tonio Buonassisi looked out the bus window at the Brazilian city’s long lines of traffic, and its smoggy haze. In that...

January 08, 2015

Back in 2009, alumna Jodie Wu ’09 launched Global Cycle Solutions (GCS) in Tanzania to bring small-scale farmers an innovative product she designed in MIT’s D-Lab: a bike-mounted maize...

January 05, 2015

In 2007, Google unleashed a fleet of cars with roof-mounted cameras to provide street-level images of roads around the world. Now MIT spinout Essess is bringing similar “drive-by” innovations to...

December 31, 2014

Over the past two summers, Materials Processing Center-Center for Materials Science and Engineering Summer Scholars Megan Beck (2013) and Sarah Arveson (2014) worked in the Tisdale Lab...

December 30, 2014

Lead sulfide nanocrystals suitable for solar cells have a nearly one-to-one ratio of lead to sulfur atoms, but MIT researchers discovered that to make uniformly sized quantum dots, a higher ratio...

December 23, 2014

Extremely fast movement of energy over extremely short distances underlies the performance of solar cells, LEDs, and thermoelectric devices, but different devices demand different, and sometimes...

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