Jennifer Chu

The new discrete grid imaging technique, or DIGIT, enables optical microscopes to resolve individual atoms and zero in on their exact locations in a crystal structure. The research could help guide the design of quantum devices and provide new insights into how defects and impurities shape the behavior of advanced materials.

Scientists have discovered extremely rare remnants of “proto Earth,” which formed about 4.5 billion years ago, before a colossal impact irreversibly altered the primitive planet’s composition and produced Earth as we know today. Their findings will help scientists piece together the primordial starting ingredients that forged early Earth and the solar system.

SpectroGen, a new AI tool, serves as a virtual spectrometer for assessing a new material’s quality, offering a faster and cheaper option for certain materials-driven industries.

MIT physicists improved the stability of optical atomic clocks by reducing “quantum noise” — a fundamental measurement limitation. The work could enable more precise, portable optical atomic clocks that track even tinier intervals of time, up to 100 trillion times per second.

MIT engineers have developed a recipe for a printable aluminum alloy that can withstand high temperatures and is five times stronger than traditionally manufactured aluminum.

MIT scientists developed a method to predict how plasma in a tokamak fusion machine will behave during a rampdown, when the reactor’s plasma current is shut off. The research could improve the safety and reliability of future fusion power plants.

MIT engineers developed a palladium membrane, used for filtering gas mixtures to produce pure hydrogen, that remains resilient at much higher temperatures. The filters could be used in advanced separation methods that enable cheaper, more efficient generation of hydrogen fuel.

MIT physicists have put forth a strong theoretical case that a recently detected highly energetic neutrino may have been the product of a primordial black hole exploding outside our solar system.

Studying miniature analogs of natural earthquakes in the lab, MIT geologists quantified how much energy from the quake goes into heat, shaking, and fracturing. The research could help seismologists predict the likelihood of quakes in seismically active regions.

In a new study, MIT engineers report that a cell’s memory is set not by on/off switching but through a more graded, dimmer-like dial of gene expression.