News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

Time-lapse series of images shows the new type of battery becoming fully discharged over a period of days. In the process of discharging, the new "catholyte" material in the battery cell gets chemically coverted into a reddis...

MIT News Office

November 4, 2022

New materials could enable longer-lasting implantable batteries

Pacemakers and other medical devices, as well as long-distance drones and remote sensors, could require fewer battery replacements with new approach.

Long thought to rely solely on photosynthesis, the microbe Prochlorococcus may get as much as one-third of its carbon through a second strategy: consuming the dissolved remains of other dead microbes.
Image: Jose-Lui...

MIT News Office

November 3, 2022

Ocean microbes get their diet through a surprising mix of sources, study finds

Up to one-third of the carbon consumed by Prochlorococcus may come from sources other than photosynthesis.

“The goal of MIT Methane Network is to reduce methane emissions by 45 percent by 2030, which would save up to 0.5 degree C of warming by 2100,” says Associate Professor Desiree Plata. “When you consider that governments ar...

MIT News Office

November 2, 2022

Methane research takes on new urgency at MIT

Desiree Plata's research focuses on developing technologies and strategies for environmental sustainability.

A team of researchers has demonstrated the use of computer vision models to monitor turbulent structures, known as "blobs," that appear on the edge of the super-hot fuel used in controlled-nuclear-fusion research. The super-hot fuel...

MIT News Office

November 1, 2022

Machine learning facilitates “turbulence tracking” in fusion reactors

A new approach sheds light on the behavior of turbulent structures that can affect the energy generated during fusion reactions, with implications for reactor design.

A new tool developed by MIT researchers can be used to estimate the likely air-quality and health outcomes of a wide range of climate and air-quality policies at the regional, sectoral, and fuel-based level.
Photo...

MIT News Office

October 26, 2022

Coordinating climate and air-quality policies to improve public health

New MIT tool pinpoints policy combinations that maximize health benefits.

As Rise Global Winners, first-years Jacqueline Prawira (left) and Safiya Sankari will have access to opportunities for funding, mentoring, and other resources throughout their careers.

MIT News Office

October 26, 2022

Two first-year students named Rise Global Winners for 2022

Now in its second year, the Rise program targets exceptional teenage scholars from around the world for their potential as future change-makers.

“The city is a universe,” says MIT professor of the practice Carlo Ratti. “It can be viewed through the lens of economics or sociology or architecture and design. But a lab focused on cities truly requires an omni-disciplinar...

MIT News Office

October 25, 2022

Designing the cities of tomorrow

Carlo Ratti investigates how digital technologies transform our urban spaces and how they can be harnessed to design sustainable cities for the future.

The main event of this year's Kendall Square Association meeting was a panel discussion about sustainability initiatives in the area. The panelists were, from left to right, Joe Higgins, vice president for campus services an...

MIT News Office

October 24, 2022

Doubling down on sustainability innovation in Kendall Square

The Kendall Square Association’s annual meeting highlights local efforts to develop and shift toward clean energy solutions.

"It was a shot in the dark,” says Skylar Dannhoff about taking a chance on high-energy-density physics. Now she finds herself supporting a history-making fusion experiment.
Photo: Paul Rivenberg

MIT News Office

October 21, 2022

Finding community in high-energy-density physics

Graduate student Skylar Dannhoff discovers the collaborative world of fusion research.