For decades, scientists with big questions about biology have found answers in a tiny worm. That worm — a millimeter-long creature called Caenorhabditis elegans — has helped researchers uncover fundamental features of how cells and organisms work. The impact of that work is enormous: Discoveries made using C. elegans have been recognized with four Nobel […]
Read MoreTag: History of science
Professor Ioannis Yannas, pioneer of regenerative medicine who invented artificial skin for the treatment of severe burns, dies at 90
Professor Ioannis V. Yannas SM ’59, a physical chemist and engineer known for the invention of artificial skin for the treatment of severe burns, and a longtime member of the MIT faculty, died on Oct. 19 at the age of 90. “Professor Yannas was a beloved and distinguished colleague, teacher, and mentor. The impact of […]
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A better understanding of debilitating head pain
Everyone gets headaches. But not everyone gets cluster headache attacks, a debilitating malady producing acute pain that lasts an hour or two. Cluster headache attacks come in sets — hence the name — and leave people in complete agony, unable to function. A little under 1 percent of the U.S. population suffers from cluster headache. […]
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Remembering David Baltimore, influential biologist and founding director of the Whitehead Institute
The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research fondly remembers its founding director, David Baltimore, a former MIT Institute Professor and Nobel laureate who died Sept. 6 at age 87. With discovery after discovery, Baltimore brought to light key features of biology with direct implications for human health. His work at MIT earned him a share of […]
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Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, influential physicist who forged new paths to understanding the universe, dies at 92
MIT Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss ’55, PhD ’62, a renowned experimental physicist and Nobel laureate whose groundbreaking work confirmed a longstanding prediction about the nature of the universe, passed away on Aug. 25. He was 92. Weiss conceived of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) for detecting ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, and […]
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Professor John Joannopoulos, photonics pioneer and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies director, dies at 78
John “JJ” Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics at MIT and director of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), passed away on Aug. 17. He was 78. Joannopoulos was a prolific researcher in the field of theoretical condensed-matter physics, and an early pioneer in the study and application of photonic crystals. Many […]
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Famous double-slit experiment holds up when stripped to its quantum essentials
MIT physicists have performed an idealized version of one of the most famous experiments in quantum physics. Their findings demonstrate, with atomic-level precision, the dual yet evasive nature of light. They also happen to confirm that Albert Einstein was wrong about this particular quantum scenario. The experiment in question is the double-slit experiment, which was first […]
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Professor Emeritus Daniel Kleppner, highly influential atomic physicist, dies at 92
Daniel Kleppner, the Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics at MIT whose work in experimental atomic physics made an immense mark on the field, died on June 16 at the age of 92, in Palo Alto, California. Kleppner’s varied research examined the interactions of atoms with static electric and magnetic fields and radiation. His work included creating […]
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Tiny organisms, huge implications for people
Back in 1676, a Dutch cloth merchant with a keen interest in microscopes, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, discovered microbes and began cataloging them. Two hundred years later, a German doctor in current-day Poland, Robert Koch, identified the anthrax bacterium, a crucial step toward modern germ theory. Those two signal advances, with others, have helped create the […]
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