Plants protect themselves from intense sunlight by rejecting much of it as heat — sometimes far more than needed to prevent damage. Engineering plants to be less cautious could significantly increase yields of biomass for fuel and crops for food, but exactly how the photoprotection system turns on and off has remained unclear. MIT researchers…

Using electrodes made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can significantly improve the performance of devices ranging from capacitors and batteries to water desalination systems. But figuring out the physical characteristics of vertically aligned CNT arrays that yield the most benefit has been difficult. Now an MIT team has developed a method that can help. By combining…

Researchers at MIT are making fluorescent polymer gels that change color when they’re shaken, heated, exposed to acid, or otherwise disrupted. Given such a response, these novel materials could be effective sensors for detecting changes in structures, fluids, or the environment. To create the gels, the researchers combine a widely used polymer with a metal…