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Remembering Ron McNair

Video: Melanie Gonick; still images: NASA

On the 25th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, AeroAstro professor Jeffrey Hoffman remembers his colleague.

Remembering Ron McNair
On the 25th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, AeroAstro professor Jeffrey Hoffman remembers his colleague.

Break the tension
A block of wood is attached vertically between two strings. When the bottom string is pulled slowly, the top string breaks. When the bottom string is ...

Spring paradox
A mass hangs from two identical springs. First, the springs are attached in series by a short string between them. The center string is cut, changing ...

Double cone and plane
A double cone is placed on the bars of an inclined plane. Instead of rolling down the plane the cone rolls up. Although the plane slants upward, the b...

Greenhouse gas
David Simchi-Levi, a professor in MIT's Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil Engineering, discusses lowering greenhouse emissions gene...

New Koch Institute
A peek into the development of the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. The formal dedication ceremony will be held on March 4...

Solar fuel
MIT Professor Jeffrey Grossman explains how this material can be used to store and release energy in the form of heat.

Breakdown air
Grounding rod tips of different sizes are used to discharge a large Van de Graaff generator. The larger the curvature of the tip, the more charge must...

Rotating candles
A row of candles are placed inside a see-through dome on a rotating platform. When the platform rotates, air inside the dome gets pushed to the sides ...

Rolling ribbons
This video illustrates the shape transformation of a flexible polymer ribbon, otherwise circular, when rotated on a treadmill.

Stick ball
Two wood boards are connected by a hinge. A small cup is mounted near one end of the upper board with a tee for a ball on the end. The board is lifted...

Beads on a string
Gareth McKinley, professor of mechanical engineering, describes how a material such has saliva can be "stringy."

MIT neuroscientists used light to control the activity of neurons involved in compulsive behavior.

Awardee David Benjamin (right) with (from far left) advisor Richard O. Hynes, the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT; Anne E. Deconinck, interim executive director of the Koch Institute; and Greg Safko, Susan Bancroft and Regina Bodnar of the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation

Vials containing colloidal semiconductor quantum dot nanocrystals (NCs) emit colors that are determined by the exact size of the particles. In this image, curves in front of each vial show the measurements made by the MIT team: The outer, wider curve shows the spectrum of colors from all the NCs in that vial, while the narrower curve shows the average single-particle spectrum within that vial. Until this new technique was developed, there was no way to tell whether the width of the spectrum in a given batch was caused by different NCs in the batch having slightly different colors, or whether each particle's emissions had a wider spectrum.

Using a precision formation-flying technique, the twin GRAIL spacecraft have mapped the moon's gravity field, as depicted in this artist's rendering.

Diagram shows a gold surface (in yellow) with carbene anchors (green) attaching polymer molecules (purple ribbons) to the surface. MIT researchers found that such carbene anchors can be used to attach many different kinds of materials to a variety of surfaces.

Graduate student winners (from top left): Marcus Parrish (first place); Anthony Soltis and Fabio Caiazzo (second-place tie); and Bridget Wall and Jun Jie Ian Tay (third-place tie). Postdoctoral scholar winners (from bottom left): Bogdan Fedeles (first place); Zachary Nagel (second place); and Nicole M. Iverson and Stephanie E. Woods (third-place tie).