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Scary Stories: Establishing a Field Amid Skepticism

October 30, 2024
Biotechnology & Biomedical

In the spirit of the Halloween season, IEEE Spectrum presents a pair of stories that—although grounded in scientific truth rather than the macabre—were no less harrowing for those who lived them. In today’s installment, Robert Langer had to push back against his field’s conventional wisdom to pioneer a drug-delivery mechanism…

September 18, 2024
Aerospace & Aeronautical

Wesley L. Harris’s life is a testament to the power of mentorship and determination. Harris, born in 1941 in Richmond, Virginia, grew up during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights Movement and faced an environment fraught with challenges. His parents, both of whom only had a third-grade education, walked…

09 Feb 24

Video Friday: Monocycle Robot with Legs

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICHHRI 2024: 11–15 March 2024, BOULDER,…

05 Oct 23

Your Guide to the Newest Nobel Prize: Quantum Dots

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Today, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to scientists from MIT, Columbia University, and the New York–based company Nanocrystals Technology for “the development of quantum dots, nanoparticles so tiny that their size determines their properties.”It’s a welcome development. IEEE Spectrum has been following…

15 Sep 23

MIT Makes Low-Power Underwater Communication Practical

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Underwater sensor networks could prove invaluable for applications as diverse as monitoring fish farms, hurricane forecasting, and detecting enemy submarines. Transmitting data through liquids is much trickier than sending it through air, however. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a solution that could enable…

19 Jun 23

MIT Unveils a Megawatt Motor for Electric Aircraft

Aerospace & Aeronautical

Aviation aims to slash some of its substantial carbon emissions by electrifying aircraft, but the industry’s stringent weight restrictions make this difficult. Building electric motors that match the power-to-weight ratios of jet engines has proven especially challenging, so most efforts have been restricted to smaller aircraft. A new compact lightweight…

30 Mar 23

MIT Turbocharges Python’s Notoriously Slow Compiler

Computer & Information Technology

Python has long been one of—if not the—top programming languages in use. Yet while the high-level language’s simplified syntax makes it easy to learn and use, it can be slower compared to lower-level languages such as C or C++.Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) hope to…

Scary Stories: Establishing a Field Amid Skepticism

Barrier Breaker Shapes Aerospace Engineering’s Future

Video Friday: Monocycle Robot with Legs

Your Guide to the Newest Nobel Prize: Quantum Dots

MIT Makes Low-Power Underwater Communication Practical

MIT Unveils a Megawatt Motor for Electric Aircraft

MIT Turbocharges Python’s Notoriously Slow Compiler

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law