Engineers have found that the watery fluid between cells could help explain how organs and tissues adapt to aging, diabetes, and cancer. The team next plans to look into its influence on brain function, particularly in disorders such as Alzheimer’s.

More than half of the nation’s 623,218 bridges are experiencing significant deterioration. But mechanical engineers at MIT and elsewhere have successfully demonstrated that 3D printing may provide a cost-effective, minimally disruptive solution.

Co-founded by an MIT alumna, the Advanced Silicon Group has developed a handheld system that measures protein concentrations in just minutes. The tool should make drug development and manufacturing much faster and less costly.

The Boston Globe noted key technologies, including the internet and the first widely used electronic navigation system, developed at MIT with federal support. The development of the internet has “MIT’s fingerprints all over it,” John Guttag said.

In a world without MIT, radar wouldn’t have been available to help win World War II. We might not have email, CT scans, time-release drugs, photolithography, or GPS. And we’d lose over 30,000 companies, employing millions of people. Can you imagine?

​Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.