Science

Why happiness is not the best indicator of well-being

Achieving values and pursuing growth is the real secret to a fulfilled life.

Jason Crawford

How Arc Institute is bringing science into the century of biology

Stephen Johnson

A vibrant graphic illustration featuring a large leafy plant with integrated plant sensors, comic-style speech bubbles containing exclamation marks, and a round bubble depicting ants, set against a blue textured background.

Agriculture

Plant sensors could act as an early warning system for farmers

Using sensors made from carbon nanotubes, researchers discovered signals that help plants respond to stresses like heat, light, or attack.

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office

A still of Caitlin Stasey smiling from the horror movie, 'SMILE.'

Mental Health

Scientists scrutinize happiness research

Scientists dig into the research on happiness and find there isn’t always sound evidence behind recommended strategies for achieving it.

Amber Dance | Knowable Magazine

A man using a machine to control a surgical robot. Wires are connected to the back of his head.

Neuroscience

Brain stimulation could boost learning

Noninvasive brain stimulation while a person learns a new task in VR can improve their performance in the “real world.”

Kristin Houser

An image of a spiral galaxy with a purple light coming out of it.

Physics

Google’s quantum computer suggests that wormholes are real

Until recently, wormholes were considered a mathematical curiosity, but Google's quantum computer suggests that wormholes might be real.

Don Lincoln

A blue and green image of a mouse brain.

Memory

Bioengineered protein could enhance memory

Memory-related conditions are notoriously hard to treat, but there may be a way to boost recall in the brain.

Sam Jarman

The puffs of white condensation on glass is water being evaporated from a hydrogel using green light, without heat.

Physics

Light may cause water to evaporate (even without heat)

MIT researchers propose a new phenomenon that causes to water evaporate without heat. They call it the “photomolecular effect.”

Kevin Dickinson

Animals

Mice could someday become venomous, suggests study on the evolution of oral venom systems

Although scientists have a good understanding of the composition of snake venom, little is understood about the origins of venom systems.

Stephen Johnson

a close up of a human hand about 8 weeks into development

Biology

Stunning video reveals how our fingers form in the womb

A first-of-its-kind map of human limb development could help prevent a common type of birth defect in the future.

Kristin Houser

An image of a tree paired with an image of smoke billowing out of a group of smoke stacks.

Climate Crisis

Plants are likely to absorb more CO₂ in a changing climate than we thought – here’s why

New research shows that plants might take up more CO₂ than previously thought, but still can't do the heavy lifting to stop climate change.

Jürgen Knauer

a colorful close up image of an anthrobot

Biology

Tiny biobots surprise their creators by healing wound

Tiny “biobots” made from human windpipe cells, amazingly, helped damaged neural tissue to repair itself in a new study.

Kristin Houser

a colorful gif of lab-grown pancreatic cells

Biology

This startup is solving the biggest problem to creating drugs that work

Lab-grown human tissues could revolutionize drug development. This AI-powered robot can create and test 10,000 of them at once.

Kristin Houser

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