MIT

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Autism-Reversing Drugs Show Promise

MIT scientists stumbled onto workaround for misfiring brain system

(Newser) - MIT scientists have discovered one of the mechanisms of Fragile X Syndrome, one cause of autism, and are developing drugs to treat it, NPR reports. The disorder, triggered by a genetic mutation, interferes with the normal links between brain cells, making those networks something like a car without a brakes....

'Biohackers' Push DIY Science in the Basement

Movement aims to capitalize on American passion for invention

(Newser) - Just as individual computer experts can create new programs and technological movements from home, a new generation of scientists wants to make do-it-yourself biology a household activity. Sessions such as those teaching laypeople how to extract DNA show "how much science can be about duct tape and having a...

Contest Offers $25K for Best 'Crazy Green' Scheme

X Prize proposals to be posted on YouTube

(Newser) - The X Prize Foundation is at it again, this time with a new eco-challenge offering $25,000 for the best “crazy green idea” to stop global warming, reports CNET. The organization, famous for its high-stakes engineering contests, is looking for breakthrough ideas in energy and housing. Proposals must be...

Colleges Adding Meow to Mix
 Colleges Adding Meow to Mix 
Sep 9, 2008 2:38 PM CDT

Colleges Adding Meow to Mix

MIT among higher-ed bastions allowing students to keep cats in dorms

(Newser) - Colleges around the country are warming up to furry friends, the Boston Globe reports. MIT is in the vanguard, offering as an example its 8-year-old program that allows student-vetted felines to live in certain dorms. "They can really lighten the mood,” one senior says, “especially when students...

Suit Stops Hackers From Showing Subway Flaw

MIT students see bug in electronic fare cards; judge says zip it

(Newser) - Boston’s mass transit system has blocked three MIT students from revealing a flaw in its electronic fare system, the Boston Globe reports. Most Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority customers use the CharlieCard, which allows them to store fares. By cracking it, the students vowed to give attendees at a Las...

Yoga Turning B-Schoolers on Their Heads

Capitalists latch on to search for inner peace

(Newser) - Inner peace through capitalism? Americans spend $5.7 billion a year on yoga classes and products, and now, BusinessWeek reports, yoga clubs are cropping up in some of the country's most high-pressured institutions: top business schools. "Having a yoga practice helped sort through the white noise," one MIT...

Oil-Slurping Nanotechnology Next Front in Fighting Spills

MIT scientists create mesh that keeps water out, can hold 20 times its weight in crude

(Newser) - Cleaning up oil might soon get faster and cheaper, thanks to nanotechnology. Scientists at MIT have crafted a paper-like substance that can absorb up to 20 times its weight, the Economist reports. The mesh of nanowires, each 1/1,000th the diameter of a human hair, feels and looks like paper—...

Robot Worms Offer Cancer Hope
 Robot Worms Offer
 Cancer Hope 
May 13, 2008 2:31 PM CDT

Robot Worms Offer Cancer Hope

Tiny machines could identify, kill tumors early

(Newser) - Little mechanical “worms” offer the latest hope for early detection—and eradication—of cancer. Researchers have created tiny machines that travel through the body, find tumors that are too small to see in normal scans, and then deliver drugs to kill them. The method has worked to spot tumors...

Did the Egyptians Invent Concrete?

New theory on the Pyramids: 'less sweat and more smarts'

(Newser) - The Egyptians may have used concrete to build the pyramids, an MIT professor suggests, and he's using materials available at the time (and students as his slave labor), to test the theory on a small mock-up of a pyramid, reports the Boston Globe. "It could be they used less...

'Father of Chaos Theory' Dead at 90
'Father of Chaos Theory'
Dead at 90
obituary
Apr 17, 2008 10:13 AM CDT

'Father of Chaos Theory' Dead at 90

Edward Lorenz came up with concept of 'butterfly effect'

(Newser) - The MIT scientist whose pioneering of chaos theory revolutionized science, has died at the age of 90, MIT News reports. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz came up with the concept of chaos theory after meticulously analyzing weather data and discovering microscopic differences could have huge effects, leading to his paper "Predictability:...

Sun Banks on Lasers to Make Next Speed Leap

Using light, not wires, to connect chips could make computers 1,000 times faster

(Newser) - Sun Microsystems is moving toward connecting computer chips using lasers instead of wires, a move that could make computers 1,000 times faster. The company snagged a $44 million Pentagon contract to continue work that could also mean smaller, more energy-efficient machines. It won’t be easy, though: A Sun...

Scientists Find Planets Out of This World

Discoveries of, info about new heavenly bodies pour into NASA

(Newser) - Humans took centuries to discover the other planets in the solar system, but in the 13 years since the first additional planet was identified, planetary scientists have found 277 more worlds orbiting other suns. And those extrasolar planets are just the confirmed ones—many more are suspected, and excitement among...

Fed 'Will Get on Top of This,' Says Bernanke Mentor

Scope 'far exceeds' that of previous crises

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke has the savvy to inject enough liquidity into the US economy to push it through the current credit crisis, says a leading economist who advised the Fed chief's MIT doctoral thesis. “The Fed will get on top of this,” said Stanley Fischer, ahead of this afternoon's...

Best Undergrad Biz Schools
Best Undergrad Biz Schools
Mar 1, 2008 6:10 PM CST

Best Undergrad Biz Schools

Wharton keeps the top spot for undergraduate business education

(Newser) - The financial world may be on its ear, but undergraduate business schools are booming as increasing numbers of quality high school grads drive up standards and B-school grads command more on the employment market. Here are the 10 best, as ranked by Business Week:
  1. Pennsylvania (Wharton): Can be too competitive.
...

Scheme to Plant Telescope on Moon Gathers Steam

MIT, Navy working on far-side plans

(Newser) - The moon may have to start earning its keep if NASA gets its way. With the far side of our lunar satellite a perfect environment for delicate, deep-space measurements, two research teams are furiously plotting ways to deploy astronomy equipment there. If astronauts return to the moon after 2019, they...

Gecko Toes Inspire New Surgical Tape

MIT team duplicates nano-scale ridges on lizards' sticky feet

(Newser) - Inspired by geckos' sticky feet, MIT scientists have developed a bandage that could soon be used in place of stitches or staples during surgery. The waterproof material, coated with a sugar-based adhesive that has the nano-scale hills and valleys found on lizard feet, is flexible enough to be used on...

Intel Bails on Kid Laptop Project
Intel Bails on Kid Laptop Project
Jan 4, 2008 7:51 AM CST

Intel Bails on Kid Laptop Project

Feud over rival computer sales

(Newser) - Intel has dropped out of its uneasy partnership with the "One Laptop Per Child" global nonprofit program, designed to put inexpensive computers in the hands of millions of children in developing countries. Intel has been feuding with project founder Nicholas  Negroponte, an MIT professor on leave who developed the...

Your Phone Knows Where You Sleep
Your Phone Knows Where You Sleep
Dec 20, 2007 12:17 PM CST

Your Phone Knows Where You Sleep

...And lots of other potentially useful things about the way we live

(Newser) - Your cell phone knows more than it lets on. Most can tell where they are, for starters, and how close other phones are. Since most of us tote them everywhere, our phones could track or analyze movement patterns for huge populations. “This is obviously sort of useful,” says...

Net Makes Star of MIT Eccentric
Net Makes Star of MIT Eccentric
Dec 19, 2007 8:11 PM CST

Net Makes Star of MIT Eccentric

Physics professor creates rainbows, has Net-happy acolytes in India and China

(Newser) - The latest Net sensation doesn’t defend Britney Spears or mimic the history of dance; instead he explains electrostatics, pendulums, and the conservation of energy. Walter Lewin, a 71-year-old MIT physics professor, is one of the first academic superstars of the Internet, bringing educational showmanship—say, demonstrating rockets by riding...

Green Tech Boosts Heartland
Green Tech Boosts Heartland
Dec 13, 2007 8:10 PM CST

Green Tech Boosts Heartland

Advances no longer limited to America's coastal cities

(Newser) - Green-tech venture capital is still concentrated in coastal urban centers, but middle America is catching up. Silicon Valley, Massachusetts, and Washington state are among the top five hotspots, but so is Texas and the nation's agricultural heartland, reports CNET, which tracked the money fueling startups and university research.

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