Strange But True
Direct removal of carbon dioxide from air likely not viable
May 9, 2011 7:39 am | News | CommentsTechnologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change for several decades, according to a report issued by the American Physical Society and led by Princeton engineer Robert Socolow.
Discovered: Earliest minerals formed in solar system
May 9, 2011 5:46 am | News | CommentsA team of scientists announced the discovery of the new mineral krotite, one of the earliest minerals formed in our solar system. It is the main component of an unusual inclusion embedded in a meteorite (NWA 1934), found in northwest Africa. These objects, known as refractory inclusions, are thought to be the first planetary materials formed in our solar system, dating back to before the formation of the Earth and the other planets.
Nanoflowers to help return eyesight
May 6, 2011 4:30 am | News | CommentsUniv. of Oregon researcher Richard Taylor is on a quest to grow flowers that will help people who've lost their sight—such as those suffering from macular degeneration—to see again. These flowers are not roses, tulips, or columbines. They will be nanoflowers seeded from nano-sized particles of metals that grow, or self assemble, in a natural process—diffusion limited aggregation. They will be fractals that mimic and communicate efficiently with neurons.
New paper computer shows flexible future for smartphones and tablets
May 4, 2011 8:34 am | News | CommentsThe world’s first interactive paper computer is set to revolutionize the world of interactive computing. The smartphone prototype, called PaperPhone is best described as a flexible iPhone—it does everything a smartphone does, like store books, play music, or make phone calls. But its display consists of a 9.5 cm diagonal thin film flexible E Ink display.
Nanotube cigarette filter could be safer
May 4, 2011 7:55 am | News | CommentsChemists in China have built titanate nanosheets and nanotubes into cigarette filters, claiming that they are more efficient at blocking a great range of harmful compounds including tar, nicotine, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, selected carbonyls and phenolic compounds.
Early human relative apparently chewed grass
May 3, 2011 4:43 am | News | CommentsFor decades, a 2.3 million- to 1.2 million-year-old human relative named Paranthropus boisei has been nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big, flat molar teeth and thick, powerful jaw. But a definitive new Univ. of Utah study shows that Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts, but instead chewed grasses and possibly sedges—a discovery that upsets conventional wisdom about early humanity's diet.
How plants deal with stress
April 27, 2011 6:03 am | News | CommentsLike people, plants experience stress. And also, like people, the response to that stress can determine success. People can exercise, or rest, or talk about the problem. For plants, ways to deal with stress are internal. And ISU researchers are trying to understand how they do it.
Caterpillars inspire new movements in soft robots
April 27, 2011 5:52 am | News | CommentsResearchers have been examining the diverse behaviours of caterpillars to find solutions for the new generation of search and rescue soft robots.
Reasonable quantities of red pepper may help curb appetite
April 26, 2011 4:00 am | News | CommentsSpicing up your daily diet with some red pepper can curb appetite, especially for those who don't normally eat the popular spice, according to research from Purdue Univ.
Researchers build time machine that allows visual exploration of space and time
April 25, 2011 5:53 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Carnegie Mellon Univ.'s Robotics Institute have leveraged the latest browser technology to create GigaPan Time Machine, a system that enables viewers to explore gigapixel-scale, high-resolution videos and image sequences by panning or zooming in and out of the images while simultaneously moving back and forth through time.
Microscope without lenses produces high-res 3D images on a chip
April 25, 2011 5:24 am | News | CommentsUCLA researchers have redefined the concept of a microscope by removing the lens to create a system that is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand but powerful enough to create three-dimensional tomographic images of miniscule samples.
Solar power goes viral
April 25, 2011 4:44 am | News | CommentsResearchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level.
Did the early universe have one dimension?
April 21, 2011 5:25 am | News | CommentsDid the early universe have just one spatial dimension? That's the mind-boggling concept at the heart of a theory that Univ. at Buffalo physicist Dejan Stojkovic and colleagues proposed in 2010. Now, in a new paper in Physical Review Letters , Stojkovic and Loyola Marymount Univ. physicist Jonas Mureika describes a test that could prove or disprove the "vanishing dimensions" hypothesis.
Researchers find fat turns into soap in sewers
April 21, 2011 5:13 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State Univ. have discovered how fat, oil and grease (FOG) can create hardened deposits in sewer lines: it turns into soap. The hardened deposits, which can look like stalactites, contribute to sewer overflows.
Solution for water scarcity: Fog harvesting?
April 21, 2011 4:27 am | by Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAn MIT graduate student is working to make water available for the world’s poor by refining the tools and techniques of fog harvesting.
LED efficiency puzzle solved
April 20, 2011 6:02 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, say they've figured out the cause of a problem that's made light-emitting diodes (LEDs) impractical for general lighting purposes. Their work will help engineers develop a new generation of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting that could replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
Hole poked in century-old astronomical theory
April 19, 2011 4:31 am | News | CommentsThe hottest stars in the universe spin so fast that they get a bit squished at their poles and dimmer around their middle. The 90-year-old theory that predicts the extent of this "gravity darkening" phenomenon has major flaws, according to a new study led by Univ. of Michigan astronomers.
Learning science through gaming
April 19, 2011 4:18 am | by Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThis month, thousands of middle-school students are going online to play an interactive video game. That might not sound surprising, by itself. But in this case, the game is a special science-mystery project, "Vanished," created by MIT researchers on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, as a novel experiment in alternative science education.
Elastic material created that changes color in UV light
April 15, 2011 6:33 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State Univ. have created a range of soft, elastic gels that change color when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light—and change back when the UV light is removed or the material is heated up.
Turning windows into powerplants
April 15, 2011 5:57 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsIf a new development from labs at MIT pans out as expected, someday the entire surface area of a building's windows could be used to generate electricity—without interfering with the ability to see through them.
Space beer passes zero-gravity taste test
April 11, 2011 8:07 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Australia have brought beer to the space race, conducting microgravity "drop tower" experiments to determine the effect of zero gravity on the carbonation and palatability of the popular beverage's behavior in space. The tests may help determine whether beer will be a part of the in-flight beverage selection on future flights for space tourists.
Asteroids may have a soft heart
April 8, 2011 8:17 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA new analysis of one of the most well-known meteorites on Earth provides strong evidence that the prevailing view of many asteroids is wrong. Rather than randomly mixed blobs of rock and dust stuck together, it appears that the asteroid that was the source of the Allende meteorite was large enough to have had a molten core, even though its surface remained cold and solid.
Researchers develop battery-less chemical detector
April 6, 2011 4:29 am | News | CommentsUnlike many conventional chemical detectors that require an external power source, Lawrence Livermore researchers have developed a nanosensor that relies on semiconductor nanowires, rather than traditional batteries.
Did dinosaurs have lice?
April 6, 2011 4:11 am | News | CommentsA new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early—perhaps even the first—animal hosts of lice.
Neutral atoms made to act like electrically charged particles
April 1, 2011 5:08 am | News | CommentsCompleting the story they started by creating synthetic magnetic fields, scientists from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of NIST and the Univ. of Maryland, have now made atoms act as if they were charged particles accelerated by electric fields.
