MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart has announced three Professor Amar G. Bose Research Grants to support bold research projects across diverse areas of study including engineering, animal behavior, and human movement. This year’s recipients are Kaitlyn Becker, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and the d’Arbeloff Career Development Professor in Mechanical Engineering; Canan Dagdeviren, associate professor and […]
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The Uproxx 2023 Fall Travel Hot List is live! Visit here for the full experience! The phrase “destination festival” has had a great couple of years. Over the past half-decade, we’ve seen a flood of images on Instagram featuring stages overlooking the beach, DJs on catamarans, and all-inclusive resorts. And those are all great. But […]
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Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun. In a paper appearing today in the journal Joule, the team outlines the design for a new solar desalination system that takes in saltwater and […]
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Decarbonization of national economies will be key to achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050, a major stepping stone to the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (and ideally 1.5 C), and thereby averting the worst consequences of climate change. Toward that end, the United States has pledged to […]
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This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week. Alan Ohnsman moderated a panel on the hydrogen revolution. Jamel Toppin for Forbes This past week, Forbes hosted its second Sustainability Leaders Summit, which brought together business leaders, […]
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By the time she started high school, Avni Singhal had attended six different schools in a variety of settings, from a traditional public school to a self-paced program. The transitions opened her eyes to how widely educational environments can vary, and made her think about that impact on students. “Experiencing so many different types of […]
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On a crisp Tuesday afternoon, representatives from MIT, the state and federal government, and the Cambridge community celebrated the official opening of the new John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Kendall Square. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was the culmination of nearly a decade of collaboration in which MIT designed and constructed the highly energy-efficient […]
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The MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology has selected five new research fellows for 2023-24. Now in its third year, the initiative underscores the ways in which industry and research can collaborate to spur technological innovation. Through its partnership with the School of Engineering, Accenture provides five annual fellowships awarded to graduate […]
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Imagine if France, Germany, and Spain were completely blanketed in forests — and then all those trees were quickly chopped down. That’s nearly the amount of deforestation that occurred globally between 2001 and 2020, with profound consequences. Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change, producing between 6 and 17 percent of global greenhouse gas […]
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This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week. AFP via Getty Images Electric vehicles are fun and fast to drive and have the added benefit of no tailpipe exhaust or carbon pollution. But driving them cross […]
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Investments in new technologies and infrastucture that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions — everything from electric vehicles to heat pumps — are growing rapidly in the United States. Now, a new database enables these investments to be comprehensively monitored in real-time, thereby helping to assess the efficacy of policies designed to spur clean investments and […]
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Chromebooks don’t have a reputation for lasting forever—it’s well-known that they have an expiration date, one that sometimes trips up parents and schools alike and creates tons of e-waste. Now, Google is taking steps to ensure the deadline is at least a little further out in the future. On Thursday, the company revealed that all […]
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Gov. Newsom should seize this opportunity to help protect investors, consumers, employees, … [+] communities, and the entire state economy from the clear risks of climate change Canva For generations, investors have demanded and received information from companies about the financial risks and opportunities they face. This kind of disclosure is a basic tenet of […]
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Desirée Plata, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, has been named co-director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC), effective Sept. 1. Plata will serve on the MCSC’s leadership team alongside Anantha P. Chandrakasan, dean of the MIT School of Engineering, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, […]
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Farm getty Many of us hold romantic ideas about farming. We imagine wise stewards of the land who preserve soil for future generations. We think of gentle nurturers of livestock who ruefully cull it for food for the world. We think of farms as bucolic and climate friendly places. Most of that is utter nonsense. […]
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This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week. Getty Images If it feels like you’re seeing more and more electric cars on the road, you’re not wrong. According to a report from the Energy Information Administration, […]
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Smart thermostats have changed the way many people heat and cool their homes by using machine learning to respond to occupancy patterns and preferences, resulting in a lower energy draw. This technology — which can collect and synthesize data — generally focuses on single-dwelling use, but what if this type of artificial intelligence could dynamically […]
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After three years leading biking tours through U.S. National Parks, Jackson Jewett decided it was time for a change. “It was a lot of fun, but I realized I missed buildings,” says Jewett. “I really wanted to be a part of that industry, learn more about it, and reconnect with my roots in the built […]
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Rafts and kayaks drift down the Karnali River in western Nepal. getty Next week the Supreme Court of Nepal is hearing a case focused on whether to move forward with construction of hydropower dams on the Karnali River, the country’s last major river that remains undammed. The Court’s decision will go a long way toward […]
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The transportation of goods forms the basis of today’s globally distributed supply chains, and long-haul trucking is a central and critical link in this complex system. To meet climate goals around the world, it is necessary to develop decarbonized solutions to replace diesel powertrains, but given trucking’s indispensable and vast role, these solutions must be […]
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The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) provides Solutions Grants to help MIT researchers launch startup companies or products to commercialize breakthrough technologies in water and food systems. The Solutions Grant Program began in 2015 and is supported by Community Jameel. In addition to one-year, renewable grants of up to $150,000, the […]
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Elsa Olivetti, the Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor in Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been appointed as associate dean of engineering, effective Sept. 1. As associate dean, Olivetti will oversee a number of strategically important programs and initiatives across MIT’s School of Engineering. She will help lead and shape school-wide efforts […]
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July 2023 was the hottest month globally since humans began keeping records. People all over the U.S. experienced punishingly high temperatures this summer. In Phoenix, there were a record-setting 31 consecutive days with a high temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more. July was the hottest month on record in Miami. A scan of high […]
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The summer of 2023 has been a season of weather extremes. In June, uncontrolled wildfires ripped through parts of Canada, sending smoke into the U.S. and setting off air quality alerts in dozens of downwind states. In July, the world set the hottest global temperature on record, which it held for three days in a […]
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Growing up in the Tidewater region of Virginia, Dyanna Jaye had a front row seat to the climate crisis. She recalls beach stabilization efforts that pumped sand from the bottom of the ocean to the shore in response to rising sea levels. And every hurricane season, the streets would flood. “I was thinking at a […]
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Valuing and Protecting Our People Built on the foundation of providing equal opportunities for all employees, valuing and protecting our people is about fostering a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace. IGT recently added “Equity” to the official name of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) organization, ensuring a focus remains on providing all employees with […]
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The Venice Architecture Biennale, the world’s largest and most visited exhibition focusing on architecture, is once again featuring work by many MIT faculty, students, and alumni. On view through Nov. 26, the 2023 biennale, curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist Lesley Lokko, is showcasing projects responding to the theme of “The Laboratory of Change.” […]
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The explosion of renewable energy projects around the globe is leading to a saturation problem. As more renewable power contributes to the grid, the value of electricity is plummeting during the times of day when wind and solar hit peak productivity. The problem is limiting renewable energy investments in some of the sunniest and windiest […]
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