All Features
NIST
To combat global warming, companies are building direct air capture (DAC) facilities worldwide to remove carbon from the atmosphere. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a new method for testing the materials used in these plants to capture carbon. The agency…
Gabriel Popkin
They’re called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of thousands of compounds that contain a chemical bond between fluorine and carbon. That bond has proved to be one of the most stable and unbreakable known to chemistry—a fact baked into the common nickname “forever chemicals,”…
Elizabeth Norwood
In manufacturing, selecting the right cleaning fluids is a critical determinant of product quality, reliability, and environmental impact. As industries increasingly prioritize sustainability, the transition to environmentally friendly cleaning fluids is imperative. This article delves into…
Gleb Tsipursky
In the evolving landscape of work, the push for federal employees to return to office spaces has sparked a complex dialogue about productivity, workplace culture, and the very nature of work itself. The forced shift back to office environments under the Biden administration—under pressure from…
James Morton Turner
Panasonic’s new $4 billion battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, is designed to be a model of sustainability—it’s an all-electric factory with no smokestack. When finished, it will cover the size of 48 football fields, employ 4,000 people, and produce enough advanced batteries to supply half a…
Zach Winn
In a large, open space on the first floor of 750 Main St. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a carbon-capture company is heating up molten salts to 600°C right next to a quantum computing company’s device for supercooling qubits. The difference is about 900° across 15 feet.
It doesn’t take long during a…
George Caceres
Because I’m a microplastics researcher, my friends sometimes jokingly ask me, “How many microplastics do you think I consumed this week?”
I can’t give an exact answer. Unfortunately, it’s not zero.
Microplastics—the tiny plastic particles that break down from plastic products—are everywhere. And…
David L. Chandler
In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale…
William A. Levinson
In his Quality Digest article published in February 2023, Michael Mills1 reported that the next version of ISO 9001 will add to clause 4.1, “Understanding the organization and its context” the words, “the organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”
Although nothing in…
NIST
Stain-resistant clothing, fast-food wrappers, and extreme weather gear such as certain jackets and pants—these products get many of their desirable features from a class of manufactured chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). But there’s a major downside: Researchers have found…
Michael Mills
Superficially, ISO 9001 and climate change sound different: ISO 9001 is about how to do things well so your organization satisfies its customers; climate change is about physical and chemical interactions in the atmosphere, and the consequences for our lives in the future.
But ISO is adding…
Zach Grey
There is something wonderfully simple about a wind turbine gently turning in the breeze.
As the wind flows by the blades of the turbine, a rotating force is created that spins the giant assembly. The rotation is then converted into electricity, just like conventional power generation.
A wind…
Silke von Gemmingen
Smart waste management is one of the core tasks within smart cities, i.e., those urban areas in which innovative technologies and data-driven solutions are used. They aim to improve residents’ quality of life, minimize environmental impact, and use resources more efficiently. Conserving resources…
Industrial Inspection and Analysis
Unlike the traditional engineering process of designing a part, product, or component from the ground up, many times in life we need to start with an existing item and work backward to solve a problem. It’s a process known as reverse engineering, and it begins by obtaining accurate data about the…
Rina Hoffman
The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement last month on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.
“The first element that makes a product green is the brain that designs it,” Spanish Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, says. “…
Zach Winn
For professor Elsa Olivetti, tackling a problem as large and complex as climate change requires not only lab research but also understanding the systems of production that power the global economy.
Her career path reflects a quest to investigate materials at scales ranging from the microscopic to…
James Barai
Environmental consciousness is a priority for both consumers and businesses, now more than ever. Sustainable business practices continue to gain popularity across various industries, including the nutrition and food industry. In this realm, scientific laboratories are a resource-intensive space as…
Leah Chan Grinvald, Ofer Tur-Sinai
Cars are no longer just a means of transportation. They have become rolling hubs of data communication. Modern vehicles regularly transmit information wirelessly to their manufacturers.
However, as cars grow “smarter,” the right to repair them is under siege.
As legal scholars, we find that the…
Gad Allon
Amazon’s incredible growth over the years has made it a textbook example of what it means for a business to scale, going from a scrappy startup in Jeff Bezos’ garage to a multinational corporation with more than 1.5 million employees.
The retailer recently announced it’s hiring 250,000 full- and…
Poornima Apte
When Alexander O’Brien sent in his application for graduate school at MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, he had a germ of a research idea already brewing. So when he received a phone call from Professor Mingda Li, he shared it: The student from Arkansas wanted to explore the…
Mike Figliuolo
Have you ever met someone who was fired from their job? I’ll bet you $50 they said, “Yeah, I never saw it coming.” For some reason, getting canned always comes as a shock to people. They’re clueless as to how bad they’re doing and how close to the door they are.
Makes you wonder: Are you close to…
Ron Soonieus
Driven by geopolitical uncertainty, trade risks, and new technologies such as generative AI, the most profound business transformation in 50 years is underway. Alongside these factors, pressures from regulators and stakeholders are mounting around the reporting, transparency, and accountability of…
Mike Figliuolo
I’m going to take over the world! It’s really fun to say that. It’s even more fun to take action toward that goal.
Our world has gotten smaller. Way smaller. Globalization is an unstoppable trend. But as they say, the trend is your friend, so why not take advantage of it? I don’t care how big or…
William A. Levinson
Valuable American manufacturing jobs were sent offshore under the dysfunctional belief that low-wage labor would result in lower product costs and higher profits. Although it may seem counterintuitive, manufacturers do better with high-wage workers who will acquire skills, follow work standards,…
Matthew T. Hughes, Srinivas Garimella
Not only people need to stay cool, especially in a summer of record-breaking heat waves. Many machines, including cellphones, data centers, cars, and airplanes, become less efficient and degrade more quickly in extreme heat. Machines generate their own heat, too, which can make hot temperatures…
