Physics

7 win presidential early career honorsMIT has greatest number of recipients from a single institution.

First heavy ion collisions in the Large Hadron ColliderMIT physicists are leading one of the experiments analyzing new data.

Four from MIT are Stewardship Science Graduate fellowsGraduate students take practicum at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

A decade of OCW benefits: Drawing talent to MITOpenCourseWare gives student confidence that he can work at the MIT level.

Physicist Martin Zwierlein wins Packard Fellowship

MIT undergraduate showcases work at White House science fairEvent also features 2 high-school teams that won grants from the Lemelson-MIT Program.

Physics postdoc Lindley Winslow wins L’Oreal USA fellowshipAccompanying research grant will allow the particle physicist to design and build a novel particle detector based on quantum dots.

A step closer to Big Bang conditions?More study is needed to confirm the latest findings from the Large Hadron Collider, reported by CERN physicists last week.

Nergis Mavalvala wins MacArthur ‘genius’ grantPhysics professor and 2 alumni are awarded $500,000 in no-strings-attached funding.

Robert J. Butler, former design research engineer at MIT, dies at 89An MIT engineer for 25 years, he helped design instruments for NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.

Galileo revisited: How ribbons rollIn a twist on a classic experiment, MIT researchers discover how flexible cylinders behave when rolling down a slope.

Gates named MLK Visiting Professor in PhysicsSupersymmetry pioneer will conduct research this year at MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics.

Walter Lewin on 20th century artMIT physicist gives art history lecture

Zwierlein a winner of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award competitionWill receive two-year research grant of approximately $300,000

New evidence that matter and antimatter may behave differentlySurprising neutrino finding could force physicists to rethink the foundations of particle physics.

Why saliva forms beads on a stringResearchers’ solution to longstanding mystery could enable better inkjet printing and drug-dispensing systems.

15 MIT students awarded DOE-funded Science Graduate FellowshipsAmong 150 students nationwide awarded fellowships in program's first year

Shining a light — literally — on diabetesDevice from MIT lab could help diabetic patients monitor their blood glucose levels without finger pricks.

Stringing together a picture of superconductorsMIT physicists use an offshoot of string theory to describe the strange behavior of superconducting materials.

Explained: the Doppler effectThe same phenomenon behind changes in the pitch of a moving ambulance’s siren is helping astronomers locate and study distant planets.

Silicon can be made to melt in reverseMaterial that shows melting while cooling might someday lead to applications in solar cells and other devices

Porkolab selected for Fusion Power Associates Distinguished Career Award

Explained: BandgapUnderstanding how electrons get excited is crucial to creating solar cells and light-emitting diodes

Explained: PhononsWhen trying to control the way heat moves through solids, it is often useful to think of it as a flow of particles.

New housemasters for East Campus, The Warehouse

Explained: Quark-gluon plasmaBy colliding particles, physicists hope to recreate the earliest moments of our universe, on a much smaller scale.

Explained: The Carnot LimitLong before the nature of heat was understood, the fundamental limit of efficiency of heat-based engines was determined

Mysterious quantum forces unraveledMIT researchers find a way to calculate the effects of Casimir forces, offering a way to keep micromachines’ parts from sticking together.

New project aims for fusion ignitionMIT-led Ignitor reactor could be the world’s first to reach major milestone, perhaps paving the way for eventual power production.