News & Stories

Helping artisanal miners in Colombia face the Covid-19 crisis

Informal, small-scale gold miners extract 20 to 30 percent of all gold worldwide, and in Colombia, they produce 60 percent of all gold extracted nationally. As a rule, small-scale miners in remote communities face myriad challenges: Intermediaries demand low prices, there are few alternative ways to earn an income, and serious health problems related to […]

Technique could enable cheaper fertilizer production

Most of the world’s fertilizer is produced in large manufacturing plants, which require huge amounts of energy to generate the high temperatures and pressures needed to combine nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia. MIT chemical engineers are working to develop a smaller-scale alternative, which they envision could be used to locally produce fertilizer for farmers in […]

Engineers develop precision injection system for plants

While the human world is reeling from one pandemic, there are several ongoing epidemics that affect crops and put global food production at risk. Oranges, olives, and bananas are already under threat in many areas due to diseases that affect plants’ circulatory systems and that cannot be treated by applying pesticides. A new method developed […]

3 Questions: Areg Danagoulian on a new arms control tool and the future of nuclear security

Areg Danagoulian, associate professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, has built a career around nuclear detection technology. His work has focused, among other things, on a system that could greatly improve the current process for verifying compliance of nuclear warheads. Earlier this year, he published new work on physical cryptographic nuclear […]

MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem steps up to the challenge of Covid-19

Innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t easy. New companies are forced to make due with minimal resources. Decisions must be made in the face of great uncertainty. Conditions change rapidly. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, MIT’s I&E community has stepped up to the unforeseen challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Groups from many corners of the Institute are adapting to […]

Supply chain outlook: The timing of the slowdown

With the Covid-19 virus disrupting the global economy, what is the effect on the international supply chain? In a pair of articles, MIT News examines core supply-chain issues, in terms of affected industries and the timing of unfolding interruptions. The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus is already having a huge impact on the global […]

Protecting seafarers and the global supply chain during Covid-19

The offshore and shipping industries are grappling with unique challenges in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus’ rapid spread on ships like the Diamond Princess and USS Theodore Roosevelt highlighted the health risks that the 1.2 million workers currently at sea face. Travel restrictions and closed borders offer an additional challenge by not […]

Empowering faculty partnerships across the globe

MIT faculty share their creative and technical talent on campus as well as across the globe, compounding the Institute’s impact through strong international partnerships. Thanks to the MIT Global Seed Funds (GSF) program, managed by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), more of these faculty members will be able to build on these […]

How door-to-door canvassing slowed an epidemic

Liberia was the epicenter of a high-profile Ebola outbreak in 2014-15, which led to more than 10,000 deaths in West Africa. But for all the devastation the illness caused, it could have been worse without an innovative, volunteer-based outreach program Liberia’s government deployed in late 2014. Now, a study co-authored by an MIT professor shows […]

Instrument may enable mail-in testing to detect heavy metals in water

Lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals are increasingly present in water systems around the world due to human activities, such as pesticide use and, more recently, the inadequate disposal of electronic waste. Chronic exposure to even trace levels of these contaminants, at concentrations of parts per billion, can cause debilitating health conditions in pregnant women, […]