Plants can sense the sound of rain, engineers have found, showing that rice seeds sprout faster when exposed to the sound of rainfall. The team’s findings are the first direct evidence that seeds and seedlings can sense sounds in nature.
A new book by MIT faculty shows how the U.S. can move ahead in six key sectors, from semiconductors to biotechnology. “In each of these areas, there are breakthroughs to be had, where the U.S. can leapfrog competitors and gain an advantage,” Elisabeth Reynolds says.
Richard Linares is helping satellites safely navigate in increasingly congested orbits. “We want to enable all these economic opportunities that satellites give us,” he says. “And we are figuring out engineering solutions to make that possible.”
Ocean acidification threatens shellfish in Maine; MIT scientists are helping by working with fisheries to pull CO2 from seawater using electrodes. “Without science, we don’t have a prayer of continuing this industry,” oyster farmer Bill Mook says.
Hydrogen is key to many industrial processes, but its production is energy-intensive. But 1s1 Energy, co-founded by alumnus Dan Sobek, has developed an electrochemical cell material for hydrogen electrolyzers that it says reduces energy use by 30 percent.
In a world without MIT, radar wouldn’t have been available to help win World War II. We might not have email, CT scans, time-release drugs, photolithography, or GPS. And we’d lose over 30,000 companies, employing millions of people. Can you imagine?
Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.