Welcome to another academic year, filled with excitement for our scientific research program and fraught with the perils of an unpredictable funding landscape.
We are lucky at the School of Science to have partners who see the long-term vision that brought us—and the world— major scientific discoveries. We honored one such visionary, Marilyn Simons, with the school’s inaugural 1932 Award. Together with her husband, the late Jim Simons ’58, the Simons Foundation has helped us in innumerable ways.
A new iPhone 18 Pro starts out charging to 100 percent, with Optimized Battery Charging switched on. If you’d rather cap it, open Settings, tap Battery, tap Charging, and choose a limit between 80 and 100 percent in 5 percent steps. It’s worth deciding during setup. Charge limits aren’t new: Apple’s guide lists them for […]
Ancient meteorite minerals reveal a surprisingly strong magnetic field from the solar system’s first 200,000 years. About 4.6 billion years ago, before the Sun and planets existed in their familiar forms, the solar system was a vast cloud of gas and dust. Within a few million years, this “solar nebula” collapsed and flattened into a [...]
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to behave like transistors, making it possible to build living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto growth material in a Petri dish. In conventional electronics, transistors act as switches that control whether electrical current flows. In the biological system developed at MIT, engineered bacteria perform a similar role by [...]
A Lampsy Health, fundada por Vicente Garção, Leonor Pereira e Joana Pinto, vai representar Portugal na final internacional do Global Tech Innovator, em novembro, durante a Web Summit, onde vai competir com os vencedores nacionais de mais de 20 países.
The normally genteel world of international space policy turned ugly this week as several prominent US space companies—including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, K2, and Starcloud—pulled out of a high-profile French space summit organized by the country's president, Emmanuel Macron.
Politico first reported the diplomatic turmoil, saying that the White House "pressured" US space companies to skip Macron's space summit in Paris next week. Since then, the companies have largely pulled out of the meeting without commenting publicly, though some US representation remains on the two-day program.
Multiple sources confirmed to Ars that an official with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, led the call with US space companies late last week. The call was convened in response to queries from US industry about the French meeting, which is not part of the traditional circuit of international space conferences.
The human brain is remarkably adept at juggling different kinds of information, allowing us to switch rapidly between tasks and adapt our behavior as circumstances change. A new study by MIT neuroscientists takes a closer look at how the brain accomplishes this, providing evidence for flexible neural modules that may help support this cognitive versatility.
Using mice, scientists found that a group of neurons in the prefrontal cortex could switch between retaining sensory information and maintaining an action plan in working memory.
“We found that the brain doesn’t dedicate a separate group of neurons for every type of information,” says Yuma Osako, an MIT postdoc and the lead author of the new study. “Instead, it uses the same populations of neurons to perform the same computation on different kinds of information, which means the same subset of neurons can hold both an action and a sensory stimulus in working memory,”
The findings also lend support to a longstanding theory known as compositionality—the idea that cognition can be constructed by combining and reusing neural components.
“One of the solutions that’s always been proposed has been this idea of compositionality — that you can take pieces of cognition that perform part of a task and reuse them in another task,” says Timothy Buschman, a professor at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and the senior author of the paper, in a statement.
Another way to see this is to view it as “cognitive Legos,” Buschman suggests. Instead of building a new neural circuit when a new task starts, the brain reuses existing circuits and combines them in different ways.
The Test
To see how this neural network operates, the scientists trained mice to compare two tones and respond depending on whether the sounds matched. As the mice performed the tasks, the scientists recorded electrical activity from thousands of neurons.
“When mice do tasks that test whether memory computations can be reused, the answer is they are,” notes Mriganka Sur, the Newton Professor of Neuroscience at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. “There are subspaces of functional activity in the prefrontal cortex that can be the substrate of mixing and matching toward flexible cognition.”
Two important components of the task allowed the researchers to examine how different kinds of information were maintained. First, the mice had to remember the initial tone for a short period. They then had to retain their decision and form an action plan.
In the parietal cortex, neurons were dedicated to storing information about the tone. However, researchers found something different in the prefrontal cortex: a specific group of neurons could switch roles.
During one stage of the task, the circuit helped maintain a sensory memory. During another, the same population was involved in maintaining an action plan. This flexibility may help explain how a finite number of neurons can support an enormous range of behaviors.
“Our everyday life requires us to temporarily hold many different kinds of information. One big question is how the brain can represent an unlimited variability of information using only a finite number of neurons,” Osako says.
The researchers view these reusable neural circuits as potential building blocks for flexible cognition. More broadly, the findings suggest that the brain may be less like a machine filled with components dedicated to individual tasks and more like an interconnected system that continually repurposes its existing neural resources.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.
2,000 years ago, ancient Roman engineers were building structures that have withstood the test of time remarkably well, many of which remain standing today. At the heart of their success lies a mystery: what were the secrets of ancient Roman concrete that made these buildings so durable?
Now, MIT researchers are drawing from this curiously durable technology of the ancient world to help them develop modern building materials that can last longer, and potentially even reduce the carbon footprint of modern construction—all while managing to self-repair itself by healing small cracks.
Reverse-Engineering Roman Concrete
The mystery of Roman concrete became a fascination for MIT Associate Professor Admir Masic, who has spent many years now investigating the chemistry and other properties of this durable ancient technology. Based on his research, the material’s longevity isn’t just a product of the ingredients used by its ancient creators: the secret of Roman concrete also has to do with its manufacturing process.
This, according to Masic, seems to be at the heart of the material’s unusual ability to repair itself after cracks begin to form.
In 2023, Masic and his colleagues began looking at samples of lime that were very rich in calcium, which researchers call “lime clasts.” These clasts are ubiquitous throughout concrete found in ancient Roman constructions, although they were long discounted as being the byproducts of imperfections in the mixing process.
However, closer inspection revealed something remarkable about these lime clasts: as cracks form in the concrete, water can gradually enter the material, allowing calcium within the lime casts to dissolve and then recrystallize, effectively sealing the newly formed openings.
Applying Ancient Technology to Modern Engineering
Now, that discovery is propelling the development of modern concrete that incorporates calcium-rich lime clasts, thanks to a partnership between Masic and Italian entrepreneur Paolo Sabatini, who joined forces to develop a commercial version now being produced by Dmat, a company they co-founded in 2021.
Dmat’s unique material can be added to existing forms of concrete to introduce self-healing properties observed in ancient Roman concrete (Image Credit: Dmat)
Part of the strength of Dmat’s approach is the fact that they have developed additives that can be added to existing kinds of concrete and mortar, rather than requiring builders to acquire new and unfamiliar materials.
“We can now offer an extremely competitively priced, self-healing product that is easy to implement and available worldwide,” Masic recently told MIT News.
“What’s exciting to me is that this material could become the industry standard without requiring companies to change how they operate,” he added.
Increased Structural Lifespan and Environmentally Friendly
Beyond its ability to strengthen the durability of concrete, Dmat’s new technology can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40 percent compared to those in traditional concrete. Presently, the new material is already being used in several infrastructure projects in parts of Europe, with eventual plans for expansion into the United States and other countries.
Widespread implementation and scalability like this is important, according to Masic and his colleagues, since large volumes of concrete are produced throughout the world, the production of which accounts for as much as 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Extending the life of structures while simultaneously reducing the emissions associated with their construction would therefore hold significant environmental benefits.
Building the Future with Lessons from the Past
“At Dmat, we like to view concrete as an ecosystem,” Sabatini recently said in a statement. Successfully introducing a new material, he argues, requires considering not merely its chemistry, but cost, transportation, certification, and compatibility with established construction practices.
Dmat co-founder Paolo Sabatini (Image Credit: Dmat)
Notably, Dmat’s approach differs from other examples of modern experimental self-healing concretes, which generally rely on bacteria or polymers. Instead, by placing the focus on ancient techniques used by Roman engineers that long remained overlooked and misunderstood, Masic and his colleagues have developed an innovative new technology with roots that go back almost two millennia.
“There’s something profound about how ancient builders, without our modern chemistry, engineered self-healing material that still stands today,” Masic notes.
“My group research and work with Dmat is to make the modern built environment better by applying the best lessons from the past to today’s challenges,” he adds.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
Une équipe scientifique vient de dévoiler MatrAIx, une infrastructure open source capable de simuler 8,3 milliards d’individualités virtuelles. Cette modélisation est essentiellement tournée vers le business, car le jumeau numérique de la population mondiale promet de révolutionner le test de...
The Federal Communications Commission will vote to repeal the National Television Ownership Rule that is supposed to prevent a single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. The proposed change sets up a likely court battle over the FCC claim that it has authority to repeal a limit set by Congress.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has already treated the rule as more of a suggestion. In March, the Carr FCC granted a waiver allowing Nexstar Media Group to buy Tegna in a deal that let it reach over half of TV households. The Carr FCC argued that Congress gave it authority to modify or waive the rule.
Carr now plans to repeal the 39 percent limit and replace it with a "case-by-case review" of each proposed merger, the chairman announced today in an op-ed published on Breitbart. The change would make it easier for the FCC to pick and choose which station groups get to surpass the limit. Under Carr, this would likely benefit news companies that provide favorable coverage for President Trump.
Engineers have developed a new robot that can swim underwater, then rise to the surface and take flight, in an aerial-aquatic feat that mimics some of nature’s most formidable fliers and swimmers.
Developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the new robot’s capabilities could help launch a new generation of aerial-aquatic exploration vehicles.
Dubbed the “Flapping-Wing Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle” (FAAV), this lightweight robotic platform weighs less than 300 grams and can transition seamlessly between water and air with its very flexible flapping wings. Now, the team’s findings, published in the journal Science, could help scientists better understand how diving birds, which include puffins, petrels, loons, and gulls, are so adept at navigating two vastly different environments.
Such capabilities, the team says, could also pave the way toward advanced drones in the coming years that could transform ocean research.
Inspired by Diving Birds
Departing from conventional modern designs employed for aircraft or underwater vehicles, the team based their design on diving birds, which evolved to fly over water, then plunge beneath the waves to hunt for food, before surfacing and resuming flight.
MIT’s new aerial aquatic robot seen launching from water into the air (Image Credit: Raphael Zufferey/MIT)
One problem when it comes to replicating these abilities in robots involves the density of water, which is around 1,000 times denser than air. Because of this, the engineering team had to carefully balance the flexibility of the robotic wings in their design, along with flapping frequency, tail angle, and other factors that allowed the robot to move efficiently through both environments without requiring propellers or separate propulsion systems.
Finding the Sweet Spot for Transmedium Travel
Experiments were undertaken by the team in the lab and in Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, and helped the team determine that the robot achieved best performance with medium-sized wings that flap at approximately five times per second. Under such conditions, the robot was able to swim one meter per second, then by pitching upward at a 70-degree angle, it could break through the surface, and continue this same movement to propel itself through the air.
Although the robot still has some limitations compared to the avian examples that inspired it, interestingly, it does appear to have one advantage: unlike diving birds, which paddle using their feet to achieve aquatic launches into the air, the new robot has no such requirement, and can transition from water to air relying only on its wings and adjustable tail.
Future Drones with “Aerial-Aquatic” Abilities
In the future, drones equipped with such capabilities could be leveraged to monitor marine ecosystems in a variety of ways. The team also says it could help to observe environmental concerns, such as water near glaciers or offshore infrastructure, or even collect data from hazardous locations that are either too difficult or simply too costly for ships to reach.
“Our dream vision is for oceanographers, marine biologists, and members of coastal communities to launch this robot from a boat, or from shore, and it would fly close to the area of interest, such as an iceberg or a port facility, or over a pod of whales,” according to Raphael Zufferey, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.
“It would dive into the water to take a measurement or collect a sample, and fly back to deliver the data at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Then it could go back out to dive for more,” Zufferey recently told MIT News.
Drawing from movements in nature influenced by evolution, the researchers hope their bird-inspired design may eventually help scientists by introducing cost-effective, but formidable new tools to help obtain information from some of the most challenging environments, all with help from robots that can do what only nature’s diving birds could once achieve.
The achievement is detailed in a new paper, “Leaping out of the water: aerial-aquatic locomotion with flapping wings,” which appeared in the journal Science.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
MIT’s new two-in-one space engine could turn tiny satellites into surprisingly capable deep-space explorers. Researchers at MIT are testing a new propulsion technology that could give small satellites a major boost in capability. The system combines two very different forms of spacecraft propulsion in a single package, allowing satellites to perform both rapid maneuvers and [...]
A conferência anual da Agência Espacial Portuguesa regressa a Lisboa este mês e segue o tema "A Arquitetura do Poder: Geopolítica na Segunda Era da Exploração Espacial”. A participação é gratuita, com inscrição obrigatória.
The team behind the novel propulsion technology said that electrospray thrusters could allow mission planners to design smaller, more nimble satellites and spacecraft capable of performing faster, more powerful maneuvers or slower, more precise adjustments, depending on mission requirements.
Electrospray Combines the Best of Chemical and Electric Propulsion
Launching rockets into space still requires chemical thrusters, but once spacecraft and satellites reach orbit, engineers continue to develop novel propulsion methods that are more efficient than chemical propulsion technologies. Given the strict weight requirements of spacecraft launches, finding alternatives to chemical propellants has opened up a wider range of mission profiles.
Among the most common alternatives to chemical thrusters are designs that combine electrical energy with small amounts of propellant to produce small but sustainable thrust. Although electric thruster designs require less fuel, saving significantly on launch weight, they also lack both the power and the rapid, quick burst performance of chemical thrusters.
According to study author Amelia Bruno, a former postdoc in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), combining chemical and electrical propulsion into a single system is “the best of both worlds.”
“This opens the door for small satellites to do even more science, more observations, and more interesting missions, all on a smaller and cheaper platform,” Bruno explained to MIT News.
Study co-author Paulo Lozano, the Miguel Alemán Velasco Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, agreed, noting that combining both technologies could enable a CubeSat mission to Mars “where they could make the journey slowly, using electrospray thrusters.”
“You could then use your chemical thrusters to quickly move to look at interesting features,” the professor added. “You could have a lot more flexibility to do a lot more things.”
ASCENT Rocket Fuel as the Thruster’s Ionic Liquid Propellant Enables Hybrid Design
According to a statement detailing the new electrospray thruster’s design, the ones developed by the MIT team are about the size of a thumbnail. Each thruster is also placed directly above a small fuel reservoir. For the MT electrospray thrusters, the fuel is an ionic liquid propellant, a liquid composed of salts that remain dissolved in a solution.
These four flight-unit electrospray thrusters were delivered by the MIT Space Propulsion Laboratory to NASA for the upcoming Green Propulsion Dual Mode (GPDM) mission. Image Credit: Amelia Bruno
“Ionic liquids are very stable and can even remain a liquid in space, which not a lot of materials can do,” Bruno explained. “And it’s basically a sea of ions, which is why we base our technology around it, so we can pull those ions out into an electrospray.”
When a spacecraft’s battery delivers an electric charge to the fuel reservoir, the ions within the fuel also become charged. The thruster’s design channels the charged particles from the reservoir and through the thruster tips, expelling them into space.
Although the team has tested several types of ionic propellant in its electrospray propulsion thrusters, Bruno and Lozano have collaborated with the U.S. Air Force to synthesize an all-new ionic liquid propellant, which they are calling the Advanced SpaceCraft Energetic Non-Toxic propellant, or ASCENT.
Originally designed as a “green” alternative to extremely hazardous hydrazine rocket fuel that has been the staple in the rocket industry for decades, Bruno notes that ASCENT “happens to be an ionic liquid mixture.”
“And we said, hey, that’s the stuff we typically use,” the researcher added. “Theoretically, this should work. Let’s go figure out how.”
Tests: Chemical Propellant Equally Efficient as Conventional Ionic Liquids
To test their electrospray design, each tested thruster was attached to a small reservoir about the size of a single Lego brick, and then the reservoir was filled with ASCENT. Next, electrospray thrusters were mounted on opposite sides of a traditional CubeSat.
To simulate the microgravity environment of Near-Earth Orbit, the team placed the thruster-equipped CubeSat on a MagLev stand. The team noted that the MagLev in Lozano’s lab is installed inside a large vacuum chamber. This design allows the researchers to fine-tune the environment to best mimic the conditions in space.
During a series of tests, the team applied varying voltage levels to the electrospray thrusters. As expected, the reaction produced a spray from the thruster nozzles, which spun the CubeSat around on the MagLev stand like a freely spinning top.
During each thruster firing, the team measured the amount of thrust produced. This data, combined with the voltage and fuel data, allowed the team to calculate ASCENT’s fuel efficiency during continuous operation. Some tests lasted up to 100 hours.
When the MIT group evaluated the results, they first determined that the choice of ASCENT was correct, as it successfully fueled each electrospray thruster. Even more significantly, the tests revealed that the readily available chemical propellant was equally efficient as conventional ionic liquids.
“Compared to our normal electrospray propellants, ASCENT can provide similar performance in terms of thrust,” Bruno explained. “Now that we know our thrusters work with ASCENT, we can start thinking of all the ways we can make them even better.”
Testing Electrospray Thrusters on NASA’s Green Propulsion Dual Mode Mission
When discussing the benefits of their successful electrospray thruster tests, Lozano noted that a spacecraft with electric and chemical thrusters can share a single fuel tank. Due to its compact design, this hybrid electrospray thruster could be mounted on a small satellite.
Fortunately, the team won’t have to wait long to see their thruster in action. According to the research team, whose work was partially supported by NASA, their design will be incorporated into NASA’s upcoming Green Propulsion Dual Mode mission scheduled to launch in November. The Green Propulsion Dual-Mode mission will carry a briefcase-sized CubeSat with a primary chemical thruster and specially designed electrospray thrusters, making it the first attempt to combine electrical and chemical propulsion in a small spacecraft.
“This will be the first time that a satellite will have a shared propellant tank,” Lozano explained.
Although a large portion of proposed electric propulsion missions that might employ the new electrospray thruster are designed to explore deeper into the Solar System and beyond, Lozano also highlighted the technology’s possible applications closer to home. For example, satellites equipped with both technologies could rapidly respond to environmental or climate changes in real time with a speed and efficiency unavailable with current propulsion options.
“Say there’s a storm coming, and you’d want to deploy your constellation of small satellites to observe over one location,” the researcher explained. “You could choose to send them quickly or slowly, depending on the nature of the observation.”
“And the only way to do that is if you have two propulsion systems, which is now possible,” he added.
Although the mission will not launch before November, Bruno noted that a successful test could allow engineers to consider missions they never thought possible.
“Now that we know our thrusters work with ASCENT, we can start thinking of all the ways we can make them even better,” the researcher explained.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
Selecionadas pela Startup Portugal e pela Unicorn Factory Lisboa, as 27 empresas vêm de sectores como IA, Machine Learning ou Tecnologia da Saúde, empregando mais de 200 pessoas e com investimentos captados superiores a 20 milhões de euros.
Criado em 2022 como Non Fungible Conference, numa altura em que os NFTs estavam no auge da popularidade, o NFC Summit tem vindo a evoluir e, este ano, a arte digital, a IA e a cultura contemporânea estão no centro da programação, numa edição que, pela primeira vez, teve como palco a Unicorn Factory Lisboa.
The giant planet’s bow shock isn’t just deflecting the solar wind, it’s acting as a powerful particle accelerator, firing electrons to relativistic energies of at least 1 MeV, according to a new analysis of data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Une équipe de chercheurs américains présente une nouvelle approche du pacemaker sans intervention invasive. Leur technologie, encore expérimentale, pourrait ouvrir la voie à une nouvelle génération de dispositifs médicaux portables.
A new MIT-designed lidar chip uses specially engineered antennas to reduce interference and widen the sensor’s field of view. From self-driving cars navigating busy streets to drones surveying disaster zones, lidar has become one of the most important technologies for helping machines perceive the world in three dimensions. By sending out rapid pulses of infrared [...]
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