In 2025, MIT’s research neighborhood had one other prolific yr crammed with thrilling scientific and technological advances. To have fun the achievements of the previous 12 months, MIT News highlights some of our most-read stories from this yr.
- More powerful concrete “batteries”: MIT researchers mixed cement, water, ultra-fine carbon black, and electrolytes to create electron-conducting carbon concrete. The researchers say the fabric might allow on a regular basis buildings like partitions, sidewalks, and bridges to retailer and launch electrical power.
- Confirming the famous double-slit experiment: Physicists carried out an idealized model of one of probably the most well-known experiments in quantum physics, demonstrating with atomic-level precision the twin nature of mild. The experiment confirmed that mild exists as each a particle and a wave, although that duality can’t be concurrently noticed.
- Periodic table of machine learning: Researchers created a desk that reveals connections amongst greater than 20 classical machine-learning algorithms. The desk stems from the concept all algorithms study a selected variety of relationship between knowledge factors. The framework might assist scientists fuse totally different strategies to enhance current AI fashions or give you new ones.
- Photographing “free range” atoms: Physicists captured the primary photos of particular person atoms freely interacting in area. The experiment used single-atom microscopy and ultracold quantum gases to disclose correlations between the particles that had been predicted however by no means earlier than noticed.
- Pulling drinking water from air: Engineers developed a window-sized machine that acts as an atmospheric water harvester to provide recent water wherever. The origami-inspired machine makes use of a hydrogel materials that swells to soak up water — it even works in Death Valley, California.
- Generative AI versus drug-resistant bacteria: With assist from synthetic intelligence, researchers designed novel antibiotics that may fight two drug-resistant infections. First, a generative AI algorithm designed greater than 35 million compounds. Then, the researchers screened them for antimicrobial properties, discovering drug candidates which are structurally distinct from any current antibiotics.
- Tracking the ozone recovery: A research confirms the Antarctic ozone layer is therapeutic as a direct consequence of world efforts to cut back ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons — chemical substances that had been utilized in refrigeration, air con, insulation, and aerosol propellants.
- First evidence of “proto Earth”: Scientists found extraordinarily uncommon remnants of an early model of our planet that shaped about 4.5 billion years in the past, earlier than a colossal collision irreversibly altered its composition and produced the Earth as we all know in the present day. The findings will assist scientists piece collectively the primordial beginning components that solid early Earth and the remaining of the photo voltaic system.
- Restoring movement with a bionic knee: Researchers developed a bionic knee that may assist individuals with above-the-knee amputations stroll sooner, climb stairs, and keep away from obstacles. In a small research, customers navigated extra simply and mentioned the limb felt extra like a component of their physique in comparison with conventional prostheses.
- How people walk in crowds: Mathematicians studied the circulate of human crowds and developed a first-of-its-kind technique to predict when pedestrian paths will transition from orderly to entangled. The findings might assist inform the design of public areas and promote secure and environment friendly thoroughfares.