What is the Materials Systems Laboratory?
The Materials Systems Laboratory is a research group at MIT that studies the strategic implications of materials and materials processing choices. MSL resides within the MIT School of Engineering, maintaining affiliations with a number of labs, centers and programs at the Institute (including the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Institute for Data, Systems, and Society; Materials Research Laboratory; Sociotechnical Systems Research Center; the MIT Portugal Program; and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub). We work jointly with numerous corporate, government, academic and industrial consortia as research partners.
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Recent MSL News
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Waste audit shows Pune slums generate little garbage
The generation of waste in the slums is one-fourth the amount of waste generated in lower-middle class and higher income households, according to a study conducted by students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with the city based SWaCH – Solid Waste Collection and Handling – a…
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Clean energy could lead to scarce materials
As the world moves toward greater use of low-carbon and zero-carbon energy sources, a possible bottleneck looms, according to a new MIT study: the supply of certain metals needed for key clean-energy technologies. Wind turbines, one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions-free electricity, rely on magnets that use the rare…
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MIT study sees growing aluminium challenge
A recent analysis by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) in the USA warns that the recycling of aluminium could become a stumbling block for the industry if no steps are taken to reduce impurities that build up as it is repeatedly recycled. Aluminium engine blocks, in particular, are frequently…
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In a hole? Demand for some rare-earth elements could rapidly outstrip supply
MANY plans for reducing the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide—at least, those plans formulated by environmentalists who are not of the hair-shirt, back-to-the-caves persuasion—involve peppering the landscape with wind turbines and replacing petrol-guzzling vehicles with electric ones charged up using energy gathered from renewable resources. The hope is that the…