"Massachusetts Institute of Technology" in the news:
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 ...
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, ...
Fine-tuned: A wholly new approach to tuning a laser's frequency
Dec 04, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
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(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 ...
Selling chip makers on optical computing
Nov 24, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (11) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer chips that transmit data with light instead of electricity consume much less power than conventional chips, but so far, they've remained laboratory curiosities. Professors Vladimir ...
Turning heat to electricity... efficiently
Nov 18, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (65) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way ...
Scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water
Nov 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (21) |
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Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled ...
A faraway planet intrigues: Exoplanet with extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy
Nov 12, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Two teams of astronomers have found a planet outside the solar system that might be orbiting backwards compared to its star's rotation, a discovery that could shed light on how unique the ...
Nanoparticles for gene therapy improve
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Nov 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (5) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion ...
P vs. NP -- The most notorious problem in theoretical computer science remains open
Technology / Computer Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (22) |
5
In the 1995 Halloween episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson finds a portal to the mysterious Third Dimension behind a bookcase, and desperate to escape his in-laws, he plunges through. He finds himself wander ...
New methods are changing old materials
Oct 28, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (10) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- A company that makes steel for bearings used in heavy trucks had a big problem. The trucks travel through harsh, perilous environments such as Siberia, and an unexpected bearing failure on ...
3 Questions: Steven Nahn on the elusive Higgs boson
Oct 19, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (40) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Troubles at the Large Hadron Collider have led some physicists to suggest the Higgs boson is sabotaging its own discovery. Nahn explains why he disagrees.
Quantum computing may actually be useful, after all
Oct 09, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (35) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In recent years, quantum computers have lost some of their luster. In the 1990s, it seemed that they might be able to solve a class of difficult but common problems — the so-called NP-complete ...
A road of no return: Team implements the first '1-way roads' for light
Oct 08, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (21) |
2
Light readily bounces off obstacles in its path. Some of these reflections are captured by our eyes, thus participating in the visual perception of the objects around us. In contrast to this usual behavior ...
Color-changing roof tiles absorb heat in winter, reflect it in summer
Oct 08, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (19) |
9
(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has ever stepped barefoot onto blacktop pavement on a hot sunny day knows the phenomenon very well: Black surfaces absorb the sun's heat very efficiently, producing a toe-scorching ...
