Turning Heat into Power Powering smartphones and spacecraft with high-temperature photonic crystal
Thu, 02/09/2012 - 15:35
A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum. The new materials—which can operate at temperatures up to 1,200°C—could… Production in the Innovation Economy A two-year study tackles hard questions about what it will take to stoke U.S. manufacturing
Wed, 01/25/2012 - 12:11
Not long ago, MIT political scientist Suzanne Berger was visiting a factory in western Massachusetts, a place that produces the plastic jugs you find in grocery stores. As she saw on the factory floor, the company has developed an innovative… Simple, Cheap 3-D Cameras for CellphonesClever math could enable high-quality 3-D technology in handheld devices
Mon, 01/16/2012 - 15:02
When Microsoft’s Kinect—a device that lets Xbox users control games with physical gestures—hit the market, computer scientists immediately began hacking it. At MIT alone, researchers have used the Kinect to create a Minority Report-style computer… The Case of the Missing Gas MileageDespite automakers’ progress in fuel efficiency, vehicles’ mileage have barely increased
Mon, 01/09/2012 - 12:02
Contrary to common perception, the major automakers have produced large increases in fuel efficiency through better technology in recent decades. There’s just one catch: All those advances have barely increased the mileage per gallon that autos… Data Mining Without PrejudiceA new technique for finding relationships between variables makes no prior assumptions
Mon, 01/02/2012 - 15:24
The information age is also the age of information overload. Companies, governments, researchers, and private citizens are accumulating digital data at an unprecedented rate, and amid all those quintillions of bytes could be the answers to questions… Systems Thinking Conference: Applications in Health Care, Product DevelopmentAn overall system’s ‘emergent properties’ are what produce value
Tue, 12/13/2011 - 13:07
(MIT News: Cambridge, MA) -- Whatever your profession, systems thinking is critical for success in the global economy, according to speakers at the 2011 MIT SDM Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges.
The annual event,… How to Get the Message Across on Climate ChangeAs the science of climate change gets clearer, the public gets more confused
Mon, 12/05/2011 - 14:19
For many scientists working in the field of climate research, one of the most alarming trends has nothing to do with the climate itself: It’s the poll numbers showing that even as scientific projections of global climate change get ever more… A Novel Way to Concentrate the Sun’s HeatResearchers find a way to generate power without the usual mirror arrays
Mon, 12/05/2011 - 13:47
Most technologies for harnessing the sun’s energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials. Others use the sun’s thermal energy, usually concentrating the sunlight with mirrors to generate enough heat… The Importance of Ongoing Innovation for ManufacturingWe must bring together multiple disciplines where product development and initial prototyping overlap
Thu, 11/17/2011 - 08:12
Continual product and process innovation are crucial for commercially successful products to maintain their industry dominance, according to MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) industry co-director Vah Erdekian.
At the MIT Laboratory for… Seeing Through Walls New radar technology provides real-time video of what’s going on behind solid walls
Fri, 10/21/2011 - 14:20
The ability to see through walls is no longer the stuff of science fiction, thanks to new radar technology developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.
Much as humans and other animals see via waves of visible light that bounce off objects and then…
