Editors Picks
Superman-strength bacteria produce gold
October 2, 2012 3:58 am | News | CommentsAt a time when the value of gold has reached an all-time high, Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium's ability to withstand incredible amounts of toxicity is key to creating 24-karat gold.
Sea-level study shows signs of things to come
October 2, 2012 3:34 am | News | CommentsOur greenhouse gas emissions up to now have triggered an irreversible warming of the Earth that will cause sea levels to rise for thousands of years to come, new research has show. The results come from a study which sought to model sea-level changes over millennial timescales, taking into account all of the Earth's land ice and the warming of the oceans.
Georgia Tech awarded $6 million to improve safety of nuclear reactors
October 1, 2012 10:39 am | News | CommentsThe Georgia Institute of Technology has won a $6 million federal grant to design improvements that strengthen the performance and safety of nuclear systems beyond today's capabilities. The three-year project will engage universities, industry partners, and international organizations to develop a novel concept of a light water reactor with inherent safety features.
Anti-flu proteins work as designed
October 1, 2012 10:05 am | News | CommentsUnderstanding why proteins interact with certain specific molecules and not with the myriad others in their environment is a major goal of molecular biology. Now, in a series of recent papers, researchers describe how they designed proteins from scratch to have a high affinity and high specificity for targets on flu viruses, and then validated the two best designs using X-ray diffraction data collected at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL).
Yearlong climate study launches
October 1, 2012 9:50 am | News | CommentsA Horizon Lines container ship outfitted with meteorological and atmospheric instruments installed by scientists from Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory will begin taking data for a yearlong mission aimed at improving the representation of clouds in climate models.
Scientists find missing link between players in the epigenetic code
October 1, 2012 4:03 am | News | CommentsAs researchers have uncovered more and more epigenetic tags, they have begun to wonder how they are all connected. Now, research from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has established the first link between the two most fundamental epigenetic tags—histone modification and DNA methylation—in humans.
New study says nanoparticles don't penetrate the skin
October 1, 2012 3:46 am | News | CommentsResearch by scientists at the University of Bath is challenging claims that nanoparticles in medicated and cosmetic creams are able to transport and deliver active ingredients deep inside the skin. The study discovered that even the tiniest of nanoparticles did not penetrate the skin's surface.
Method monitors semiconductor etching as it happens
October 1, 2012 3:26 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Illinois researchers have a new, low-cost method to carve delicate features onto semiconductor wafers using light—and watch as it happens. The researchers' new technique can monitor a semiconductor's surface as it is etched, in real time, with nanometer resolution, using a special type of microscope that uses two beams of light to precisely measure topography.
Artificially intelligent game bots pass the Turing test
September 28, 2012 10:15 am | News | CommentsOne hundred years after the birth of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, whose “Turing test” stands as one of the foundational definitions of what constitutes true machine intelligence, a virtual “gamer” created by computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has won the annual BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that their software-based robot was more human-like than half the humans it competed against.
Bioengineers design rapid diagnostic tests inspired by nature
September 28, 2012 7:12 am | News | CommentsBy mimicking nature's own sensing mechanisms, bioengineers have designed inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform. The rapid and easy-to-use diagnostic test consists of a nanometer-scale DNA "switch" that can quickly detect antibodies specific to a wide range of diseases.
Probing the mysteries of cracks, stresses
September 28, 2012 6:28 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsDiving into a pool from a few feet up allows you to enter the water smoothly and painlessly, but jumping from a bridge can lead to a fatal impact. The water is the same in each case, so why is the effect of hitting its surface so different? This seemingly basic question is at the heart of complex research by a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that studied how materials react to stresses, including impacts. The findings could help explain phenomena as varied as the breakdown of concrete under sudden stress and the effects of corrosion on various metal surfaces.
Nickelblock: An element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes
September 27, 2012 12:30 pm | News | CommentsAnyone who owns an electronic device knows that lithium-ion batteries could work better and last longer. Now, scientists examining battery materials on the nanoscale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes that shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. The research also suggest a way to improve the materials.
Measuring the universe's 'exit door'
September 27, 2012 12:06 pm | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThe point of no return: In astronomy, it's known as a black hole. Black holes that can be billions of times more massive than our sun may reside at the heart of most galaxies. Such supermassive black holes are so powerful that activity at their boundaries can ripple throughout their host galaxies. Now, an international team, has, for the first time, measured the radius of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy.
Bioengineers introduce 'Bi-Fi, the biological Internet
September 27, 2012 11:32 am | News | CommentsIf you were a bacterium, the virus M13 might seem innocuous enough. It insinuates more than it invades, setting up shop like a freeloading house guest, not a killer. Once inside it makes itself at home, eating your food, texting indiscriminately. Recently, however, bioengineers at Stanford University have given M13 a bit of a makeover; they have parasitized the parasite and harnessed M13's key attributes to create what might be termed as the biological Internet, or "Bi-Fi."
'Transient electronics' dissolve in body, environment
September 27, 2012 11:01 am | News | CommentsTiny, fully biocompatible electronic devices that are able to dissolve harmlessly into their surroundings after functioning for a precise amount of time have been created by a research team led by biomedical engineers. Dubbed "transient electronics," the new class of silk-silicon devices promises a generation of medical implants that never need surgical removal, as well as environmental monitors and consumer electronics that can become compost rather than trash.
Scientists bring the heat to refine biofuel production
September 27, 2012 9:02 am | News | CommentsPerhaps inspired by Arizona's blazing summers, Arizona State University scientists have developed a new method that relies on heat to improve the yield and lower the costs of high-energy biofuels production, making renewable energy production more of an everyday reality.
Hydrogen beam injector guides plasma physics research
September 27, 2012 6:39 am | News | CommentsThe Madison Symmetric Torus, a leading piece of equipment in plasma physics research for more than 20 years, recently gained a new capability with the installation of a neutral beam injector. The addition allows University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to delve further into the basic properties of plasmas, which are important in astrophysics research as well as numerous other applications.
Invisible barrier wards off metal corrosion
September 27, 2012 5:35 am | News | CommentsA coating so thin it's invisible to the human eye has been shown to make copper nearly 100 times more resistant to corrosion, creating tremendous potential for metal protection even in harsh environments. Researchers from Monash University and Rice University say these findings could mean paradigm changes in the development of anticorrosion coatings using extremely thin graphene films.
Research yields promising advance in solar cells based on nanocarbon
September 27, 2012 4:04 am | News | CommentsAn exciting advance in solar cell technology developed at the University of Kansas has produced the world's most efficient photovoltaic cells made from nanocarbons, materials that have the potential to drop the costs of PV technology in the future.
100th shot for LLNL's 'gun in the desert'
September 27, 2012 3:50 am | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory's JASPER gas gun has fired its 100th shot. JASPER (the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research) is a key scientific tool for the National Nuclear Security Administrations Stockpile Stewardship Program and its experiments have enabled scientists to understand important properties and behaviors of plutonium and other special nuclear materials without conducting underground nuclear tests.
Controlling behavior, remotely
September 27, 2012 3:33 am | News | CommentsIn the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard University scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over a tiny animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they wish, and even implant false sensor information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby.
Scientists uncover virus with potential to stop pimples
September 26, 2012 6:18 am | News | CommentsWatch out, acne. Doctors soon may have a new weapon against zits: A harmless virus living on our skin that naturally seeks out and kills the bacteria that cause pimples. In the new findings, scientists looked at two little microbes that share a big name: Propionibacterium acnes , a bacterium thriving in our pores that can trigger acne, and P. acnes phages, a family of viruses that live on human skin.
Producing ethylene via photosynthesis
September 26, 2012 5:01 am | News | CommentsScientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have demonstrated a better way to use photosynthesis to produce ethylene, a breakthrough that could change the way materials, chemicals, and transportation fuels are made, and help clean the air. The scientists introduced a gene into a cyanobacterium and demonstrated that the organism remained stable through a least four generations, producing ethylene gas that could be easily captured.
Signature of long-sought particle could advance quantum computing
September 26, 2012 3:19 am | News | CommentsA Purdue University physicist, Leonid Rokhinson, has observed evidence of long-sought Majorana fermions, special particles that could unleash the potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Rokhinson led a team that is the first to successfully demonstrate the fractional a.c. Josephson effect, which is a signature of the particles.
Intuitive visual control provides faster remote operation of robots
September 25, 2012 12:50 pm | News | CommentsUsing a novel method of integrating video technology and familiar control devices, a research team from Georgia Institute of Technology is developing a technique to simplify remote control of robotic devices. The researchers' aim is to enhance a human operator's ability to perform precise tasks using a multijointed robotic device such as an articulated mechanical arm.
