MIT Alumni News

Concrete already builds our world, and an MIT-invented variant known as electron-­conducting carbon concrete (ec3, pronounced “e c cubed”) holds out the possibility of helping power it, too. Now that vision is one step closer.  Made by combining cement, water, ultra-fine carbon black, and electrolytes, ec3 creates a conductive “nanonetwork” that could enable walls, sidewalks, […]

Lithium-ion batteries produce faint sounds as they charge, discharge, and degrade. But until now, nobody could interpret those sounds to detect when a battery might be about to lose power, fail, or burst into flames. Now, MIT engineers have found a way to do that, even with noisy data. The findings could provide the basis

Earthquakes are driven by energy stored up in rocks over millennia—energy that, once released, we perceive mainly in the form of the ground’s shaking. But a quake also generates a flash of heat and fractures and damages underground rocks. And exactly how much energy goes into each of these three processes is exceedingly difficult to

Nearly everyone has experienced it—after a night of poor sleep, your brain might seem foggy, and your mind drifts off when you should be paying attention. A new MIT study reveals what happens biologically as these momentary lapses occur: Your brain is performing essential maintenance that it usually takes care of while you sleep.  During