In 1896, the Swedish physicist Svante Arrhenius realized that carbon dioxide (CO2) traps heat in Earth's atmosphere'the phenomenon now called the greenhouse effect. Since then, increasingly sophisticated modern climate models have verified Arrhenius' central conclusion: that every time the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere doubles, Earth's temperature will rise between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius. First, in 2022, physicists settled a dispute over the origin of the 'logarithmic scaling' of the greenhouse effect. That refers to the way Earth's temperature increases the same amount in response to any doubling of CO2, no matter the raw numbers. Then, this spring, a team led by Robin Wordsworth of Harvard University figured out why the CO2 molecule is so good at trapping heat in the first place. The researchers identified a strange quirk of the molecule's quantum structure that explains why it's such a powerful greenhouse gas'and why pumping more carbon into the sky drives climate change. The findings appeared in The Planetary Science Journal....

Over a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades at the Institute, Connor was a prolific scholar and highly respected mentor to several generations of students, many of whom now hold notable positions in academia and industry around the world. His earliest research contributed to the pioneering numerical methods widely used today in structural engineering, such as the finite element method, and was also an early pioneer of the boundary element method. In addition, Connor was the lead proponent of the technical discipline referred to as motion-based design, which is based on limiting displacements against earthquake effects by means of structural control. His leadership role in the application of numerical methods to structural engineering led to significant advances in the numerical simulation of structural and material behavior. 'He was well-known for his intellectual leadership, exceptional dedication to the department, and extraordinary mentoring of students, faculty, and staff,' says Oral Buyukozturk, the George Macomber Professor in Construction Management, who first met Connor when he was an adjunct associate professor at Brown University and was invited to lecture at MIT....

Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese engineer who helped to create the Toyota Production System, once described a five-step system to identify the root cause of a problem. It's called the Five Whys, and it works like this: A car doesn't start. A mechanic begins their diagnosis by asking 'Why does the car not start'' and finds the culprit: a dead battery. A good mechanic continues the interrogation and probes deeper, asking, 'Why is the battery dead'' It's because the alternator is broken. The mechanic evaluates each issue as it comes up, one-by-one, and asks 'why'' each time. Eventually, several whys down, it becomes clear that the alternator was not maintained on a proper service schedule. This is the root cause. The trickiest problems that we face in life are often multifactorial, yet we tend to address only the most proximate causes. But when it comes to solving complex problems, diagnosing and addressing them from the onset is usually more effective than firefighting after a spark has grown into an inferno. This is especially true in medicine, where the temporal gap between the initiation of the disease (a random genetic mutation, say) and the appearance of symptoms makes finding the root cause difficult....

'You can't extract energy directly from the vacuum because there's nothing there to give,' said William Unruh, a theoretical physicist at the University of British Columbia, describing the standard way of thinking. Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research develop'ments and trends in mathe'matics and the physical and life sciences. At first, many researchers ignored this work, suspicious that pulling energy from the vacuum was implausible, at best. Those who took a closer look, however, realized that Hotta was suggesting a subtly different quantum stunt. The energy wasn't free; it had to be unlocked using knowledge purchased with energy in a far-off location. From this perspective, Hotta's procedure looked less like creation and more like teleportation of energy from one place to another'a strange but less offensive idea. Now, in the past year, researchers have teleported energy across microscopic distances in two separate quantum devices, vindicating Hotta's theory. The research leaves little room for doubt that energy teleportation is a genuine quantum phenomenon....