MIT

MIT researchers have proposed a new system that uses recycled car battery materials to make low-cost photovoltaic solar cells. Lead from old car batteries is currently being recycled for new batteries, but the production of new lead-acid batteries will likely decline due to new battery technologies, leaving a surplus of lead.

Researchers at MIT created two new equations to describe magnon transport and have developed a theory of how quasi-particles in magnets spin to predict a new cooling effect.

Over 100 years ago, Nikola Telsa planned for a system that would offer wireless electricity, but many researchers have struggled with the losses from transferring power over long distances. A group of MIT researchers are working to make Telsa’s vision of a system that offers wireless electricity a reality.

A team of MIT researchers created a phase-changing material built from wax and foam that could be used to build deformable surgical robots. These robots could switch between hard and soft states without damaging organs or vessels as it travels through the body.