[fusion_text]When the Chinese first discovered silk, its superior quality and properties were thought so special, it was reserved exclusively for clothing the emperor, his relatives, and dignitaries. And for more than two millennia, the mechanisms of […]
By Denise Brehm Civil & Environmental Engineering In most cities, traffic growth has outpaced road capacity, leading to increased congestion, particularly during the morning and evening commutes. In 2007, congestion on U.S. roads was responsible for […]
By Denise Brehm Civil and Environmental Engineering Concrete may be one of the most familiar building materials on Earth, but its underlying structure remains a bit of a mystery. Materials scientists and concrete engineers still don’t […]
By Denise Brehm Civil and Environmental Engineering Competition is a strong driving force of evolution for organisms of all sizes; those individuals best equipped to obtain resources adapt and reproduce, while others may fall by the […]
By Denise Brehm Civil & Environmental Engineering Public health crises of the past decade — such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, which spread to 37 countries and caused about 1,000 deaths, and the 2009 H1N1 flu […]
“It has long been known that malaria can be fought by draining swamps and paving streets,” Donald McNeil Jr. writes in the Dec. 22 issue of the New York Times. “But a new study by scientists […]
It’s no simple matter to figure out how regional changes in precipitation, expected to result from global climate change, may affect water supplies. Now, a new analysis led by MIT researchers has found that the changes […]
MIT researchers are working with Portuguese colleagues to design a pilot-scale device that will capture significantly more of the energy in ocean waves than existing systems, and use it to power an electricity-generating turbine. Wave energy […]
By Denise Brehm Civil & Environmental Engineering Researchers at MIT recently found an elegant solution to a sticky scientific problem in basic fluid mechanics: why water doesn’t soak into soil at an even rate, but instead […]
Many lives and dollars could be saved if emergency managers could make better decisions when faced with an approaching hurricane. Now, MIT student Michael Metzger, who works with Professor Richard Larson of CEE and the Engineering […]
Microbes living in the oceans play a critical role in regulating Earth’s environment, but very little is known about their activities and how they work together to help control natural cycles of water, carbon and energy. […]
