Information Technologies
Robotic instruments provide real-time data on Maine red tide
May 8, 2013 12:36 pm | News | Comments
A robotic sensor that won an R&D 100 Award in 2009 has been put to use by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Gulf of Maine coastal waters to monitor the way red tides behave. These harmful algal blooms, which generate a potentially fatal toxin, can be a challenge to track or predict. The Environmental Sample Processors have been remotely deployed and should simplify and enhance this effort.
Tiny camera in Illinois offers bug's eye view
May 17, 2013 9:47 am | News | Comments
A tiny new camera developed at an Illinois university is giving researchers a bug's...
Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep
May 16, 2013 12:31 pm | News | Comments
The planets Uranus and Neptune are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1,...
Cells must use their brakes moderately for effective speed control
May 15, 2013 11:34 am | News | Comments
All living cells have a regulatory system similar to what can be found in today's...
Nanoantennas help improve infrared sensing
May 20, 2013 7:52 am | News | CommentsA team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical analysis techniques.
Insights into how materials transfer heat could lead to improved electronics
May 16, 2013 10:50 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Toronto engineering researchers, working with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, have published new insights into how materials transfer heat, which could lead eventually to smaller, more powerful electronic devices.
Computer research project shows shift in English language
May 16, 2013 7:38 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Illinois English professor Ted Underwood recently wrapped up a research project involving more than 4,200 books. Since that work revealed dramatic shifts in the English language between the 18th and 19th centuries, he’s now expanding his research to include more than 470,000 books—almost every English language book written during that era and preserved in a university library.
Engineers monitor heart health using paper-thin flexible 'skin'
May 15, 2013 3:21 pm | News | CommentsEngineers combine layers of flexible materials into pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill. The skin-like device could one day provide doctors with a safer way to check the condition of a patient's heart.
Making frequency-hopping radios practical
May 15, 2013 7:45 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThe way in which radio spectrum is currently allocated to different wireless technologies can lead to gross inefficiencies. Cognitive radio serves as a solution. Different proposals for cognitive radio place different emphases on hardware and software, but the chief component of many hardware approaches is a bank of filters that can isolate any frequency in a wide band. Researchers have developed a new method for manufacturing such filters.
Software spots, isolates cyberattacks to protect networked control systems
May 14, 2013 11:06 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State University have developed a software algorithm that detects and isolates cyberattacks on networked control systems—which are used to coordinate transportation, power, and other infrastructure across the United States.
GM says supercomputers to keep recalls in check
May 13, 2013 3:31 pm | by TOM KRISHER - AP Auto Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsGeneral Motors says a new supercomputer data storage center and efforts to write its own software are paying off. The company formally opened a giant data center on Monday in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich. The Detroit automaker says the changes are examples of how it's moving faster to cut costs and serve customers better.
Nano-breakthrough: Solving the case of the herringbone crystal
May 13, 2013 7:54 am | News | CommentsLeading nanoscientists created beautiful, tiled patterns with flat nanocrystals, but they were left with a mystery: Why did some sets of crystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style? To find out, they turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Revising Darwin's sinking-island theory
May 13, 2013 7:41 am | by Genevieve Wanucha, Oceans at MIT | News | CommentsThe three different formations of South Pacific coral-reef islands, fringing, barrier, and atoll, have long fascinated geologists. The question of how reefs develop into these shapes over evolutionary time produced an enduring conflict between two hypotheses, one from Charles Darwin and the other from Reginald Daly. But in a recently published paper, researchers use modern measurements and computer modeling to resolve this old conundrum.
Mathematics of popping bubbles in a foam
May 10, 2013 7:42 am | News | CommentsBubble baths and soapy dishwater and the refreshing head on a beer: These are foams, beautiful yet ephemeral as the bubbles pop one by one. Now, a team of researchers has described mathematically the successive stages in the complex evolution and disappearance of foamy bubbles, a feat that could help in modeling industrial processes in which liquids mix or in the formation of solid foams such as those used to cushion bicycle helmets.
Scientists find new magic in magnetic material
May 8, 2013 4:04 pm | News | CommentsFrom powerful computers to super-sensitive medical and environmental detectors that are faster, smaller, and use less energy—yes, we want them, but how do we get them? In research that is helping to lay the groundwork for the electronics of the future, University of Delaware scientists have confirmed the presence of a magnetic field generated by electrons which scientists had theorized existed, but that had never been proven until now.
Prototype provides pedestrian power
May 8, 2013 7:44 am | News | CommentsA group of Rice University mechanical engineering students are getting a charge out of having the coolest new shoes on campus. As their capstone project that is required for graduation, four seniors created a way to extract and store energy with every step. Their PediPower shoes turn motion into juice for portable electronics and, perhaps someday, for life-preserving medical devices.
Thomson Reuters Enhances Accelus BoardLink Mobile Offering
May 8, 2013 5:06 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThomson Reuters announced a range of strategic enhancements to its Accelus BoardLink service, a secure board workflow solution designed to serve companies as they operate across borders and involve increasingly mobile, global boards. The boards of public companies face heightened scrutiny from investors, regulators, and the media, and are therefore increasingly reliant on technology for support and assistance.
Study shows that individual brain cells track where we are, how we move
May 3, 2013 9:36 am | News | CommentsLeaving the house in the morning may seem simple, but with every move we make, our brains are working to create maps of the outside world that allow us to navigate and remember where we are. Ultimately, the brain constructs its own pinpoint geographical chart that is far more precise than anything you'd find on Google Maps. But just how neurons make these maps of space has fascinated scientists for decades. Until now.
New research could let vehicles, robots collaborate with humans
May 3, 2013 7:39 am | by Helen Knight, MIT News correspondent | News | CommentsYou get into your car and ask it to get you home in time for the start of the big game, stopping off at your favorite Chinese restaurant on the way for takeout. But the car informs you that the road past the Chinese restaurant is closed for repairs, and you will have to choose a different place. You select a nearby Korean restaurant from the options the car suggests. Autonomous devices could soon collaborate with humans in this way.
Intel names Krzanich as chipmaker's next CEO
May 2, 2013 2:44 pm | by PETER SVENSSON - AP Technology Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsIntel's chief operating officer, Brian Krzanich, will become its next CEO in two weeks, tasked with steering the world's largest chipmaker through an industry shake-up that is seeing tablets and smartphones overshadow Intel's base in personal computers.
Computer algorithms find genetic cancer networks
May 2, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Washington University in St. Louis, using powerful algorithms developed by computer scientists at Brown University, have assembled the most complete genetic profile yet of acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer.
Scientists make world’s smallest stop-motion film
May 2, 2013 9:22 am | News | CommentsEven without certification by Guinness World Records, it would be easy to believe a short, 250-frame film recently created by an IBM Research team is the world’s smallest. Named “A Boy and His Atom,” the movie was created by precisely placing thousands of atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. This type of atomic-level control is the result of years of efforts by IBM to determine the lower limits for storing data.
Use of laser light yields versatile manipulation of a quantum bit
May 2, 2013 8:42 am | News | CommentsBy using light, researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara have manipulated the quantum state of a single atomic-sized defect in diamond—the nitrogen-vacancy center—in a method that not only allows for more unified control than conventional processes, but is more versatile, and opens up the possibility of exploring new solid-state quantum systems.
Transfer of ultraprecise time signals over a wireless optical channel
May 2, 2013 8:18 am | News | CommentsBy bouncing eye-safe laser pulses off a mirror on a hillside, researchers at NIST have transferred ultraprecise time signals through open air with unprecedented precision equivalent to the "ticking" of the world's best next-generation atomic clocks. The demonstration shows how next-generation atomic clocks at different locations could be linked wirelessly to improve distribution of time and frequency information.
A text message a day keeps the asthma attack away
May 2, 2013 8:01 am | News | CommentsSimply sending children with asthma a text message each day asking about their symptoms and providing knowledge about their condition can lead to improved health outcomes. In a study, pediatric patients who were asked questions about their symptoms and provided information about asthma via SMS text messages showed improved pulmonary function and a better understanding of their condition within four months.
Physical by smartphone becoming real possibility
May 2, 2013 3:35 am | by LAURAN NEERGAARD - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsIt's not a "Star Trek" tricorder, but by hooking a variety of gadgets onto a smartphone you could almost get a complete physical—without the paper gown or even a visit to the doctor's office. Blood pressure? Just plug the arm cuff into the phone for a quick reading. Heart okay? Put your fingers in the right spot, and the squiggly rhythm of an EKG appears on the phone's screen.
Observations of massive neutron star confirm relativity theory
May 1, 2013 12:01 pm | News | CommentsAn international research team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy used a collection of large radio and optical telescopes to investigate in detail a pulsar that weighs twice as much as the sun. This neutron star, the most massive known to date, has provided new insights into the emission of gravitational radiation and serves as an interstellar laboratory for general relativity in extreme conditions.
New theory could streamline operations management, cloud computing
May 1, 2013 11:22 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsIt’s often said that we live in an age of increased specialization. But in a series of recent papers, researchers have shown that, in a number of different contexts, a little versatility can go a long way. Their theoretical analyses could have implications for operations management, cloud computing—and possibly even health care delivery and manufacturing.
Material loss protects teeth against fatigue failure
May 1, 2013 9:07 am | News | CommentsComputer simulations conducted in Germany have shown that the reduction of natural dental wear might be the main cause for widely spread non-carius cervical lesions—the loss of enamel and dentine at the base of the crown—in our teeth. The discovery was made by examining the biomechanical behavior of teeth using finite element analysis methods typically applied to engineering problems.
