Assistant professor of physics Mikhail Ivanov will receive the 2024 New Horizons in Physics Prize, which he will share with Marko Simonović from the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the University of Florence, and Oliver Philcox from Columbia University and the Simons Foundation. The New Horizons Prize, which is given to promising early-career physicists […]
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Something Mysterious Appears to Be Suppressing the Universe’s Growth, Scientists Say
Artist’s depiction of the cosmic web. Image: Andriy Onufriyenko via Getty Images ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Something unknown appears to be suppressing the growth of the gargantuan structures that connect the universe in a cosmic web, a finding that challenges our current understanding of physics, according to […]
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Canceling noise to improve quantum devices
For years, researchers have tried various ways to coax quantum bits — or qubits, the basic building blocks of quantum computers — to remain in their quantum state for ever-longer times, a key step in creating devices like quantum sensors, gyroscopes, and memories. A team of physicists from MIT have taken an important step forward […]
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Uncovering how biomes respond to climate change
Before Leila Mirzagholi arrived at MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) to begin her postdoc appointment, she had spent most of her time in academia building cosmological models to detect properties of gravitational waves in the cosmos. But as a member of Assistant Professor César Terrer’s lab in CEE, Mirzagholi uses her physics […]
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Fast-tracking fusion energy’s arrival with AI and accessibility
As the impacts of climate change continue to grow, so does interest in fusion’s potential as a clean energy source. While fusion reactions have been studied in laboratories since the 1930s, there are still many critical questions scientists must answer to make fusion power a reality, and time is of the essence. As part of […]
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3 Questions: A bigger, better space-ripple detector
The search for space-shaking ripples in the universe just got a big boost. An MIT-led effort to build a bigger, better gravitational-wave detector will receive $9 million dollars over the next three years from the National Science Foundation. The funding infusion will support the design phase for Cosmic Explorer — a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory that […]
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Newly discovered planet has longest orbit yet detected by the TESS mission
Of the more than 5,000 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, most orbit their stars at surprisingly close range. More than 80 percent of confirmed exoplanets have orbits shorter than 50 days, placing these toasty worlds at least twice as close to their star as Mercury is to our sun — and some, […]
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