"Massachusetts Institute of Technology" in the news:
Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes
21 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Much like a tightly wound drum, red blood cells are in perpetual vibration. Those vibrations help the cells maintain their characteristic flattened oval or disc shape, which is critical to ...
Physicists detect two candidate dark matter interactions, but say the data are not conclusive
Dec 18, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (16) |
6
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have spent decades searching for the elusive material known as dark matter, which is believed to make up 25 percent of the universe. On Thursday, Dec. 17, a team of physicists including ...
Biking 2.0: MIT's big wheel in Copenhagen (w/ Video)
Dec 16, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (13) |
6
Yesterday, Dec. 15, at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, MIT researchers debuted the Copenhagen Wheel -- a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, ...
Putting the squeeze on data
Technology / Computer Sciences
Dec 21, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Data compression is one of the fundamental research areas in computer science, letting information systems do more with less. It’s the reason the iPod nano can hold thousands of songs instead ...
Computing with a wave of the hand (w/ Video)
Dec 11, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
7
(PhysOrg.com) -- The iPhone’s familiar touch screen display uses capacitive sensing, where the proximity of a finger disrupts the electrical connection between sensors in the screen. A competing approach, ...
Their infinite wisdom
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Hotel guests come and go. But in the first decade of the 1900s, a pair of frequent Russian visitors to the Hotel Parisiana, near the Sorbonne on Paris' Left Bank, stood out vividly. The children ...
Study strengthens link between sirtuins proteins and life extension
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new paper from MIT biology professor Leonard Guarente strengthens the link between longevity proteins called sirtuins and the lifespan-extending effects of calorie restriction.
A new kind of micro-mobility: Moving tiny particles using magnetic fields (w/ Video)
Dec 14, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microfluidic chip, and ...
Fine-tuned: A wholly new approach to tuning a laser's frequency
Dec 04, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 30 years, scientists have been trying to harness the power of terahertz radiation. Tucked between microwaves and infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz rays ...
Flight of fancy: MIT autonomous mini-helicopter solves one tough challenge
Dec 03, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (13) |
2
In its first 18 years, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s annual aerial-robotics competition posed four successive challenges, which robotics researchers had to meet using entirely ...
Not easy being green
Dec 18, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It was a battle to save a cherished piece of nature from the forces of economic growth. Preservationists formed groups to present their case, and public figures across the country spoke up ...
How to spur energy storage innovations
Dec 17, 2009 |
2 / 5 (2) |
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Imagine flying all the way from coast to coast, completely guilt-free, in an airplane that doesn’t emit a single particle of greenhouse gas or air pollutants. That could happen someday, perhaps brought to ...
Life after silicon: Using exotic materials to help microchips keep improving
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The huge increases in the power and capacity of computers, cell phones and communications networks in the last 40 years have been the result of ever-shrinking silicon transistors. But silicon ...
Rethinking artificial intelligence: Researchers hope to produce 'co-processors' for the human mind
Technology / Computer Sciences
Dec 07, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (18) |
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The field of artificial-intelligence research (AI), founded more than 50 years ago, seems to many researchers to have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness, swapping hugely ambitious goals for ...
New platinum compound shows promise in tumor cells
Dec 07, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used anticancer drug cisplatin but better able to destroy tumor cells.
