MIT
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Humans excel at recognizing faces, but how we do this has been an abiding mystery in neuroscience and psychology. In an effort to explain our success in this area, researchers are taking a closer look at how and why we fail.
A rising tide is said to lift all boats. Rising global temperatures, however, may lead to increased disparities between rich and poor countries, according to a recent MIT economic analysis of the impact of climate change on growth.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--A gas used for fumigation has the potential to contribute significantly to future greenhouse warming, but because its production has not yet reached high levels there is still time to nip this potential contributor in the bud, according to an international team of researchers.
Folding paper into shapes such as a crane or a butterfly is challenging enough for most people. Now imagine trying to fold something that's about a hundred times thinner than a human hair and then putting it to use as an electronic device.
Lip reading is a critical means of communication for many deaf people, but it has a drawback: Certain consonants (for example, p and b) can be nearly impossible to distinguish by sight alone.
Tactile devices, which translate sound waves into vibrations that can be felt by the skin, can help overcome that obstacle by conveying nuances of speech that can't be gleaned from lip reading.
The Board of directors of Media Lab Europe announced on Friday, Jan. 14 that the lab would be closing Feb. 1 due to a shortfall in financing. Launched in 2000 by the Irish government and MIT, Media Lab Europe (MLE) was a groundbreaking research and innovation laboratory in the fields of digital technologies. The lab, located in Dublin, grew to a community of close to 100 people, many of whom came to Ireland from across Europe and the U.S. The lab launched a substantial array of projects in association with corporate sponsors such as Ericsson, Intel and Orange, and development agencies including Highlands and Islands Enterprise in Scotland. Fourteen patent applications were filed by the lab's researchers. The lab also participated in a number of European Union-funded research collaborations.
Scientists have discovered the first evidence that brain reorganization occurs in people suffering from the progressive visual disorder macular degeneration. The study, "Reorganization of Visual Processing in Macular Degeneration," was published in the Jan. 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience by MIT postdoctoral associate Chris Baker and Professor Nancy Kanwisher, in collaboration with Professor Eli Peli of the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard Medical School.
An experimental procedure that substantially reduces the noise of descending aircraft is one step closer to availability for commercial air carriers, thanks to the continuing efforts of a research team led by Professor John-Paul Clarke of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In addition to improving the lives of people living and working along airport approach routes, the new procedure reduces aircraft engine emissions and fuel consumption.
MIT biologists report a potential way to decrease the dose of chemotherapeutic agents needed to tackle cancer, a feat that would reduce these agents' toxic side effects. What makes cancer cells unique is that they divide at a faster rate than ordinary cells, which makes them susceptible to the action of chemotherapeutic agents. But although chemotherapy is an effective treatment against fast-growing tumors, it is also associated with numerous toxic side effects because it is required at high doses to be effective.
Astronomers from MIT and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have seen evidence of hot iron gas riding a ripple in spacetime around a black hole. This spacetime wave, if confirmed, would represent a new phenomenon that goes beyond Einstein's general relativity. These observations, presented Jan. 10 at the 205th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, confirm one important theory about how a black hole's extreme gravity can stretch light. The data also paint an intriguing image of how a spinning black hole can drag the very fabric of space around with it, creating a choppy spacetime sea that distorts everything falling into the black hole.
The binding of a viral RNA and a viral protein brings about a physical transformation that dupes host cells into enthusiastically copying the invading pathogen, according to a team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, and Harvard Medical School. In the December 17 issue of Science, collaborators led by Professor Lee Gehrke of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology published dramatic three-dimensional images of RNA-protein interactions in alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), a safe model for investigating single-strand, positive-sense RNA viruses. AMV's dangerous relatives include flaviviruses that cause dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile disease.
Researchers report creating a small swatch of heart tissue that displays many of the hallmarks of mature cardiac tissue, including regular contractions. ''We have been trying to engineer a patch of tissue that has the same properties as native heart tissue, or myocardium, that could be attached over injured myocardium... Think of it as a patch for a broken heart.''
An MIT professor and colleagues from Brown University and the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center have begun a five-year, multidisciplinary research project to restore arm and leg function to amputees. The work will receive $7.2 million in funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). At the end of the project, the scientists hope to have created ''biohybrid'' limbs that will use regenerated tissue, lengthened bone, titanium prosthetics and implantable sensors that allow an amputee to use nerves and brain signals to move the arm or leg.
In a project that will likely be watched by football players, runners and other athletes, researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School say they are developing an injectable gel that could speed repair of torn cartilage, a common sports injury, and may help injured athletes return to competition sooner. The technique uses the patient's own cartilage-producing cells and has the potential to be more effective and less invasive than conventional cartilage repair techniques, which may include extensive surgery, they say.
An antimicrobial agent found in many shampoos and hand lotions and widely used in industrial settings inhibits the development of particular neuron structures that are essential for transmitting signals between cells, according to a University of Pittsburgh study. Prolonged exposure to low levels of methylisothiazolinone (MIT) restricted growth of axons and dendrites of immature rat nerve cells in culture, apparently by disengaging the machinery of a key enzyme that is activated in response to cell-to-cell contact, and may have potentially damaging consequences to a developing nervous system, the researchers report.
