Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The FreeD: MIT 'smart tools' meld personal technique with computerized controls
- Title
- The FreeD: MIT 'smart tools' meld personal technique with computerized controls
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- It's often easy to tell at a glance the difference between a mass-produced object and one that has been handcrafted: The handmade item is likely to have distinctive imperfections and clear signs of an individual's technique and style.
Now, some researchers at MIT are finding ways to blur those distinctions, making it possible, for example, to sculpt items with those distinctive signs of handicraft, while controlling the outcome so that the object doesn't stray too far from the desired form. They described their work at the recent Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.
Read more:
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional footage courtesy of Amit Zoran
- Title
- Droplets break a theoretical time barrier on bouncing
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Those who study hydrophobic materials — water-shedding surfaces such as those found in nature and created in the laboratory — are familiar with a theoretical limit on the time it takes for a water droplet to bounce away from such a surface. But MIT researchers have now found a way to burst through that perceived barrier, reducing the contact time by at least 40 percent.
Their finding is reported in a paper in the journal Nature co-authored by Kripa Varanasi, the Doherty Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, along with James Bird, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University, former MIT postdoc Rajeev Dhiman, and recent MIT PhD recipient Hyukmin Kwon.
Video clips courtesy of Kripa Varanasi
- Title
- MIT Community Service Fund
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- The MIT Community Service Fund (CSF) was established in 1968 by a vote of the faculty to provide financial assistance to support MIT students, faculty, and staff volunteers in community service initiatives. Over 45 years later CSF continues to support existing service projects and allocate funding to new ones.
To make a donation: http://web.mit.edu/community-giving/index.html
For more information: http://csf.mit.edu/
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- Better batteries through biology
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Lithium-air batteries have become a hot research area in recent years: They hold the promise of drastically increasing power per battery weight, which could lead, for example, to electric cars with a much greater driving range. But bringing that promise to reality has faced a number of challenges, including the need to develop better, more durable materials for the batteries' electrodes and improving the number of charging-discharging cycles the batteries can withstand.
Now, MIT researchers have found that adding genetically modified viruses to the production of nanowires — wires that are about the width of a red blood cell, and which can serve as one of a battery's electrodes — could help solve some of these problems.
The new work is described in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, co-authored by graduate student Dahyun Oh, professors Angela Belcher and Yang Shao-Horn, and three others. The key to their work was to increase the surface...
- Title
- Self-steering particles
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- MIT chemical engineers have designed tiny particles that can "steer" themselves along preprogrammed trajectories and align themselves to flow through the center of a microchannel, making it possible to control the particles' flow through microfluidic devices without applying any external forces.
Such particles could make it more feasible to design lab-on-a-chip devices, which hold potential as portable diagnostic devices for cancer and other diseases. These devices consist of microfluidic channels engraved on tiny chips, but current versions usually require a great deal of extra instrumentation attached to the chip, limiting their portability.
Much of that extra instrumentation is needed to keep the particles flowing single file through the center of the channel, where they can be analyzed. This can be done by applying a magnetic or electric field, or by flowing two streams of liquid along the outer edges of the channel, forcing the particles to stay in the c...
- Title
- Moon's craters may overstate the intensity of early asteroid impacts
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Scientists have long thought that such lunar craters arose during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), about 4 billion years ago. During that time, a hailstorm of giant asteroids pummeled the solar system, slamming into the moon, along with young planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
Evidence for this theoretical period comes mostly from the moon itself. While most traces of Earth's early history have been wiped away by erosion and tectonic activity, the moon remains as a nearby, relatively untouched, and easily observable relic of the early solar system. In particular, scientists have based most of their theories of that period on the impact basins found on the moon's near side — the side always facing the Earth — assuming, from the size of its craters and basins, that the moon and other planets endured impacts from massive asteroids.
But now scientists from MIT, the University of Paris, and elsewhere have found that craters on the n...
- Title
- Solving chromosomes' structure
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Scientists first discovered chromosomes in the late 1800s, after the light microscope was invented. Using these microscopes, biologist Walter Flemming observed many tightly wound, elongated structures in cell nuclei. Later, it was found that chromosomes are made from DNA, the cell's genetic material.
Since then, scientists have proposed many possible ways that DNA molecules might fold into 3-D condensed chromosomes. Now, researchers at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have obtained novel data on the 3-D organization of condensed human chromosomes and
built the first comprehensive model of such chromosomes.
In this model, DNA forms loops that emanate from a flexible scaffold; the loops are tightly compressed along the scaffold. "This is a very efficient way of packing DNA material," says Leonid Mirny, an associate professor of health sciences and technology and physics at MIT and a senior author of a paper describing the findings ...
- Title
- Explained: Quantum Computing
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Scott Aaronson explains quantum computing.
Video: Emily Heusted
- Title
- Explained: Photovoltaics
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Jeff Grossman explains photovoltaics/solar cells.
Video: Emily Heusted
- Title
- Explained: Optogenetics
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences Ed Boyden explains optogenetics and how it is used in neurological research.
Video: Emily Heusted
- Title
- Self-healing metal
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- A computer simulation of the molecular stucture of a metal alloy, showing the boundaries between microcystalline grains (white lines forming hexagons), shows a small crack (dark horizontal bar just right of bottom center) that mends itself as the metal is put under stress. This simulation was one of several the MIT researchers used to uncover this new self-healing phenomenon.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/tension-can-fuse-metal-1009.html
Simulation courtesy of Guoqiang Xu and Michael Demkowicz
- Title
- TIM the Beaver: MIT's mascot since 1914
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- The beaver was chosen as the mascot of Technology because of its remarkable engineering and mechanical skill and its habits of industry. The proposal that the beaver be adapted as the mascot of the Institute was made at the annual dinner of the Technology Club of New York on January 17, 1914. The late President Richard Maclaurin formally accepted the proposal, and at this dinner a group of beavers shown in natural surroundings was presented to the Institute.
Since then TIM has affectionately been accepted as a pillar in the MIT community, showing up at all sorts of events.
Learn more about TIM: http://studentlife.mit.edu/cac/services/mascot-history
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional images courtesy of the MIT Museum
- Title
- Small cubes that self-assemble
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Known as M-Blocks, the robots are cubes with no external moving parts. Nonetheless, they're able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces.
Inside each M-Block is a flywheel that can reach speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute; when the flywheel is braked, it imparts its angular momentum to the cube. On each edge of an M-Block, and on every face, are cleverly arranged permanent magnets that allow any two cubes to attach to each other.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/simple-scheme-for-self-assembling-robots-1004.html
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- Explained: Exoplanets
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Researchers at MIT explain what exactly an exoplanet or extrasolar planet is, why we study them and how you can detect them.
Video/animation: Emily Heusted
- Title
- Charged droplets
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Droplets falling from a superhydrophobic surface are drawn toward an electrically charged wire, bottom center, demonstrating that they carry an electric charge.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/droplets-get-a-charge-out-of-jumping-1002.html
Video courtesy of Nenad Miljkovic
- Title
- MIT students can fly (in reduced gravity)
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- A team of four undergraduates from MIT were one of six teams who got to fly on NASA's Reduced Gravity Aircraft and test their model spacecraft in microgravity.
Please visit www.nasa.gov to explore other educational opportunities.
Video: Melanie Gonick
Additional footage courtesy of: NASA/JPL
- Title
- Watching tumors burst through a blood vessel
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Cancer cells metastasize in several stages — first by invading surrounding tissue, then by infiltrating and spreading via the circulatory system. Some circulating cells work their way out of the vascular network, eventually forming a secondary tumor.
While the initial process by which cancer cells enter the bloodstream — called intravasation — is well characterized, how cells escape blood vessels to permeate other tissues and organs is less clear. This process, called extravasation, is a crucial step in cancer metastasis.
Now researchers at MIT have developed a microfluidic device that mimics the flow of cancer cells through a system of blood vessels. Using high-resolution time-lapse imaging, the researchers captured the moments as a cancer cell squeezes its way through a blood vessel wall into the surrounding extracellular matrix. The process is "highly dynamic," as they write in a paper published in the journal Integrative Biology; a better understandi...
- Title
- New materials improve oxygen catalysis
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- MIT researchers have found a new family of materials that provides the best-ever performance in a reaction called oxygen evolution, a key requirement for energy storage and delivery systems such as advanced fuel cells and lithium-air batteries.
The materials, called double perovskites, are a variant of a mineral that exists in abundance in the Earth's crust. Their remarkable ability to promote oxygen evolution in a water-splitting reaction — which breaks water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen — is detailed in a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications.
This video shows the strong activity of the new catalyst material (dark circle at center) in promoting the oxygen evolution reaction when submerged in water, as revealed by the bubbles of oxygen forming on its surface.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/new-materials-improve-oxygen-catalysis-0917.html
Video courtesy of Alexis Grimaud
- Title
- Keeping Mars rovers rolling
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Mobility is a vital part of a rover's mission on the surface of Mars. The ability to travel across the terrain without becoming stuck is a problem researchers have been trying to solve for some time. Now, a team from MIT's Robotic Mobility Group, Washington University in St. Louis and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has developed a model called Artemis that accurately simulates rover mobility over various types of soil and terrain. (Learn more: http://bit.ly/1AOWBqa)
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional images courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT Robotics Mobility Group
- Title
- MIT-designed fog-harvesting mesh material
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Find out more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/how-to-get-fresh-water-out-of-thin-air-0830.html
- Title
- Current standard fog-harvesting mesh material
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Find out more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/how-to-get-fresh-water-out-of-thin-air-0830.html
- Title
- Public Art at MIT
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- MIT's noted public art, which may be enjoyed by the MIT community and visitors alike, began to take shape in 1965 with the installation of Alexander Calder's "The Great Sail." This work inspired many subsequent gifts that have furnished MIT with numerous outstanding examples of work by major artists.
A map of the Public Art Collection: http://listart.mit.edu/map
MIT List Visual Arts Center: http://listart.mit.edu/about
Browse the Public Art Collection: http://listart.mit.edu/public_art
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional still images: George Bouret, Remy du Bois and the MIT List Visual Arts Center
- Title
- Blood separation
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, follow patterns of weak adhesive molecules (dark lines) and are separated from a stream of blood flowing in a microfluidic channel.
Find out more about the research: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/research-update-new-microchip-sorts-white-blood-cells-from-whole-blood-0806.html
Credit: Suman Bose, Rohit Karnik
- Title
- Be our guest: The tour guides of MIT
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Over 40,000 people visit MIT's campus each year. Ninety percent of which are prospective students and their Regularly scheduled student-led campus tours are conducted MOnday through Friday at 11AM and at 3PM. The tours depart from the Building 7 Lobby, located at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, and generally last 75-90 minutes. The tours are led by MIT students and cover some of the most popular areas of campus.
Video: Melanie Gonick
- Title
- Critical heat flux
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- A team of MIT researchers has succeeded in carrying out the first systematic investigation of the factors that control boiling heat transfer from a surface to a liquid. This process is crucial to the efficiency of power plants and the cooling of high-power electronics, and could even lead to improvements in how vehicles travel through water.
The research deals with a key transition point known as the critical heat flux, or CHF, a value of heat transfer, per unit time and area, where a surface's heat-transfer characteristics suddenly change: For example, when the cooling panels of an electronics system become covered with a layer of vapor that blocks heat transfer, the resulting rise in temperature can damage or destroy the equipment. The new findings could raise the value of CHF, providing extra safety margins or operating ranges for such equipment.
Read more about the research: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/finding-the-keys-to-boiling-heat-transfer-0716....
- Title
- Tiny ocean plants use turbulence for travel to social gatherings
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Scientists at MIT and Oxford University have shown that the motility of phytoplankton — which are tiny ocean plants — helps them determine their fate in ocean turbulence. Rather than acting to distribute them evenly — as physics would demand of small particles mixed into a fluid — the individual vortices that make up ocean turbulence are like social mixers for phytoplankton, bringing similar cells into close proximity, potentially enhancing sexual reproduction and other ecologically desirable activities.
In a new paper, William Durham of Oxford, Roman Stocker of MIT and co-authors describe how at the scale of millimeters, phytoplankton caught in a watery vortex form highly concentrated patches at the center of the swirl. In the turbulent ocean where short-lived vortices form continually, this process repeats itself, carrying the microorganisms from social mixer to social mixer.
Read about the research: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/phytoplankton-h...
- Title
- The MIT Sailing Pavilion
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- The MIT Sailing Pavilion, the first facility constructed for college sailing, was built in 1936. It is now known as the birthplace of today's collegiate sailing. The first ten Dinghy Championships of the newly organized Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA) were sailed on the Charles River in MIT's fleet of cat-rigged, wooden Tech Dinghies. To this day, MIT continues to host more college regattas than any other site in the country.
MIT provides practice time for local colleges and high schools who do not have boats and sites of their own. The Pavilion is open to anyone with an MIT ID. They offer weekly learn-to-sail classes free to members of the MIT Community.
MIT Sailing: http://sailing.mit.edu/
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- MIT's Student Loan Art Program
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Through this popular annual loan program, administered by the List Visual Arts Center, individual students and student groups may borrow original works of art from the collection for their private rooms and communal spaces.The collection is comprised of the Catherine N. Stratton Collection of Graphic Arts, established in 1966, the List Student Loan Collection, established in 1977, and the Ronald A. Kurtz Student Loan Collection, established in 1985.
With funds from alumni, MIT's Campus Activities Complex, and the Friends of Boston Art approximately 15 new works are added to the collection annually to expand the breadth of its offerings. The previous year's purchases are exhibited in the Stratton Student Center (Building W20, third floor) for one academic year, after which they are moved to the active collection for borrowing. The collection now includes more than 500 framed original works of art, primarily prints and photographs by leading artists, which are made available...
- Title
- MIT's automated 'coach' helps with social interactions
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Social phobias affect about 15 million adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and surveys show that public speaking is high on the list of such phobias. For some people, these fears of social situations can be especially acute: For example, individuals with Asperger's syndrome often have difficulty making eye contact and reacting appropriately to social cues. But with appropriate training, such difficulties can often be overcome.
Now, new software developed at MIT can be used to help people practice their interpersonal skills until they feel more comfortable with situations such as a job interview or a first date. The software, called MACH (short for My Automated Conversation coacH), uses a computer-generated onscreen face, along with facial, speech, and behavior analysis and synthesis software, to simulate face-to-face conversations. It then provides users with feedback on their interactions.
Read more: http://web.m...
- Title
- Today MIT, tomorrow the world: The Class of 2013 says goodbye
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Over the 2012-13 academic year, MIT News profiled several graduating seniors. Here, watch as five of them discuss their time at MIT and what they look forward to in the future.
Read the full profiles:
Noam Angrist: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/student-profile-noam-angrist-1115.html
Joy Ekuta: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/joy-ekuta-profile-0227.html
Arfa Aijazi: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/building-a-better-world-1204.html
Cameron McCord: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/diving-into-nuclear-policy-student-mccord-0529.html
Madeline Salazar: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/student-profile-madeline-salazar-0426.html
Music: "Fragile Do Not Drop" by Podington Bear (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Egress/)
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- MIT Glass Lab: Where art meets science
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- The MIT Glass Lab is located in the basement of the infinite corridor, in room 4-003. Extracurricular classes are offered to the MIT community throughout the school year. The lab also hosts several sales throughout the year, as well as a lectureship and residency. The MIT Glass Lab is administratively co-sponsored by the Materials Processing Center and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Learn more about the Glass Lab: http://web.mit.edu/glasslab/
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- Sean Collier memorial ceremony time lapse
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Video: Julien de Wit
A time-lapse video showing the day of the memorial service for fallen MIT Police Officer Sean Collier on April 24, 2013. This video was shot from Westgate, an MIT dormitory building.
See more video from around campus on the day of the memorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmOJGYbWpSw
Watch the webcast of the event: http://mit.tv/11U5jin
Read more: http://mitne.ws/17iM72u
- Title
- MIT in Mourning - Remembering Officer Sean Collier
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Scenes from MIT's campus on April 24, 2013.
Collier Strong.
Video: Melanie Gonick
Time lapse footage: Steven Hall
- Title
- MIT Hobby Shop
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- In the 1937-38 academic year, Vannevar Bush, then Vice President of MIT, granted a group of 16 MIT students permission to use a room in the basement of building 2. With equipment they found around the Institute they set up a wood and metal shop in the 16-foot by 22-foot area. The club members chose the name "Hobby Shop" based on their belief in the philosophy that the well rounded individual pursued interests outside their profession - hobbies.
Now in its 75th year, we take a look back how the Hobby Shop began, and evolved to what it is today.
MIT Hobby Shop: http://studentlife.mit.edu/hobbyshop
Video: Melanie Gonick
Still images: Courtesy of The MIT Hobby Shop
- Title
- Nanowires can lift liquids without power
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- New research carried out at MIT and elsewhere has demonstrated for the first time that when inserted into a pool of liquid, nanowires — wires that are only a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across — naturally draw the liquid upward in a thin film that coats the surface of the wire. The finding could have applications in microfluidic devices, biomedical research and inkjet printers.
In each video, a single solid nanowire or a network of nanowires are dipped into liquid. Because of capillary action, the liquid is pumped up along the solid nanowire
surface, either as droplets called "Rayleigh beads", or as a thin layer
called a "precursor Film," that is just 5-10 nm thick. At places where
wires intersect, droplets build up, forming reservoirs of liquid. This
level of detail is at least 20 times more powerful than traditional
optical microscope studies of liquid-solid interactions.
- Title
- OrigaMIT: MIT's Origami Club
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- OrigaMIT is MIT's original origami club, which exists to promote, practice, and teach origami folding, analysis, and design.
OrigaMIT: http://origamit.scripts.mit.edu/index.php
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- MIT visualizes how the brain loses and regains consciousness
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- This array of videos shows spectrographic data (representing brain wave frequencies) from each of 44 electrodes attached to the scalp of a healthy volunteer undergoing propofol anesthesia. The spectrograms are arranged according to their approximate position on the scalp, with the front of the head at the top of the screen, and the back of the head at the bottom of the screen. Activity moves from back to front with loss of consciousness (levels 1 to 5) and from back to front with return of consciousness (levels 6 to 8). Each video shows brain activity throughout a 140-minute period of the study. Video by Aylin Cimenser. Reproduced from PNAS with permission.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/how-the-brain-loses-and-regains-consciousness-0304.html
- Title
- MIT-developed coating could prevent frost buildup
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Preventing glass from fogging or frosting up is a longstanding challenge with myriad applications: eyeglasses, cameras, microscopes, mirrors and refrigerated displays, to name but a few. While there have been many advances in meeting this challenge, so far there has been no systematic way of testing different coatings and materials to see how effectively they work under real-world conditions.
Now, a team of MIT researchers has developed such a testing method, and used it to find a coating that outperforms others not only in preventing foggy buildups, but also in maintaining good optical properties without distortion.
Find out more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/antifogging-glass-coating-0305.html
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Experiment clip courtesy of: Hyomin Lee
- Title
- MIT teaches robots to adapt
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Most commercial robotic arms perform what roboticists call "pick and place" tasks: The arm picks up an object in one location and places it in another. General-purpose household robots, however, would have to be able to manipulate objects of any shape, left in any location. And today, commercially available robots don't have anything like the dexterity of the human hand.
At this year's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the premier robotics conference, students in the Learning and Intelligent Systems Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will present a pair of papers showing how household robots could use a little lateral thinking to compensate for their physical shortcomings.
Here we see MIT senior Annie Holladay demonstrate and describe how her algorithm helps the robot adapt by using both of its arms instead of just one.
Find out more about the research: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013...
- Title
- Scanning droplets
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Learn more about this research at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/droplet-surface-adhesion-0219.html
Animated video depicts the way a movable stage inside the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) moves to change the angle of the surface, and a wire (curved gray cylinder) that can be used to push and pull a droplet over the surface.
Sequences of high-resolution images captured using the SEM show how the base of a water droplet forms small "necks" as it moves across a surface that has pillars etched on it to increase its water-shedding properties. These necks control the adhesion of the drop to the surface, and are important in designing superhydrophobic (water-repellent) materials.
Video: Adam Paxson and Kripa Varanasi
- Title
- Imaging Zebrafish at MIT
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- MIT researchers have invented a new imaging system that allowed them to create this three-dimensional rendering of the cartilage that forms the skull of a five-day-old zebrafish larva. The total size of the skull is about 1 millimeter long.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/research-update-imaging-fish-in-3d-0212.html
Images by: Carlos Pardo
- Title
- MIT's Laboratory for Chocolate Science
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Founded in 2003, the MIT Laboratory for Chocolate Science is a student club dedicated to the appreciation of chocolate in all its myriad forms. The club hosts tastings, truffle-making seminars, lectures of fair trade, scientific demonstrations and numerous other events involving the enjoyment of and indulgence in all things chocolate.
Learn more about LSC: http://chocolate.mit.edu/
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- MIT's Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- The Head of the Zesiger is an annual event where participants are require to build a boat out of cardboard to complete the course laid out before them at MIT's Zesiger Center pool. The participants can only use cardboard, paper tape and paint - that's it.
There is a course available for credit to students over MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) which meets three times over the month of January leading up to the main event.
To learn more about the Head of the Zesiger: http://mitrecsports.com/index.php/aquatics/head-of-the-zesiger
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- Water-repellent surfaces that last
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- In the first part of this video, the effects of condensation on three different surfaces are compared: On the left, a bare silicon surface, showing how water droplets remain "pinned" in place as they get bigger and bigger; in the center and right panels, two different rare-earth oxide ceramic surfaces, cerium oxide and erbium oxide, show how the droplets do not stick and instead are rapidly shed from the surface, increasing the efficiency of the condensation process.
In the second part, a rare-earth oxide surface that has been patterned to increase its water-repelling qualities, as shown on the left, causes a water droplet to simply bounce away, rather than sticking to the surface and spreading out.
Video: Gisele Azimi, Rajeev Dhiman, Hyuk-Min Kwon and Adam Paxon
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/ceramic-hydrophobic-materials-0120.html
- Title
- Delivering large molecules to cells through tiny holes in membranes
- Date posted
- 13 years ago
- Description
- Living cells are surrounded by a membrane that tightly regulates what gets in and out of the cell. This barrier is necessary for cells to control their internal environment, but it makes it more difficult for scientists to deliver large molecules such as genes that can reprogram them into pluripotent stem cells, or nanoparticles for imaging.
Researchers from MIT have now found a safe and efficient way to get large molecules through the cell membrane, by squeezing the cells through a narrow constriction that opens up tiny, temporary holes in the membrane. Any large molecules floating outside the cell, such as DNA or proteins, can slide through the membrane during this disruption.
Using this technique, the researchers were able to deliver reprogramming proteins and generate induced pluripotent stem cells with a success rate 10 to 100 times better than any existing method. They also used it to deliver nanoparticles including carbon nanotubes and quantum dots, wh...
- Title
- Artificial muscles at MIT
- Date posted
- 14 years ago
- Description
- MIT researchers at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research have developed a new material that changes its shape after absorbing water vapor.
This material is made from an interlocking network of two different polymers. One forms a hard but flexible matrix that provides structural support while the other is a soft gel that swells when it absorbs water. Together these polymers create a material that converts water vapor to energy without the use of an external energy source.
When the 20-micrometer-thick film is exposed to moisture the bottom layer absorbs the evaporated water, forcing the film to curl away from the surface. Once the bottom of the film is exposed to the air, it quickly releases the moisture causing it to somersault forward and start to curl up once more. Researchers were surprised to discover not only does it need a very small amount of vapor, but it also demonstrated a large amount of strength. Using only water vapo...
- Title
- Stopping a leak the way blood does
- Date posted
- 14 years ago
- Description
- When you get a cut, blood starts to flow from the wound. But very quickly, complex biochemical processes spring into action, creating a scaffolding of molecules to block the hole, and then building up an impervious clot to stanch the flow.
That process relies on a set of molecules that constantly flow through the body's veins and arteries, just waiting to spring into action when needed. When their job is done, they dissolve back into the blood, awaiting their next repair job.
A team of MIT researchers has analyzed the process and found, for the first time, exactly how the different molecular components work together to block the flow of blood from a cut. Now, they are working on applying that knowledge to the development of synthetic materials that could be used to control different kinds of liquid flows, and could lead to a variety of new self-assembling materials.
Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/how-to-stop-leaks-the-way-blood-doe...
- Title
- Jumping water droplets improve power-plant efficiency
- Date posted
- 14 years ago
- Description
- The efficiency of most industrial plants depends crucially on water vapor condensing on metal plates or condensers, and how easily the condensed water can fall away allowing for more droplets to form. On a typical, flat-plate condenser, water vapor condenses to form a liquid film on the surface, drastically reducing the condenser's ability to collect more water, and ultimately acting as a barrier to heat transfer.
By creating hydrophobic surfaces, either through chemical treatment or through surface patterning, researchers have been able to prevent this problem by encouraging water droplets to form and fall away. Now a team of MIT researchers have taken this process a step further by making surfaces that are patterned at multiple scales.
A group from MIT's mechanical engineering department found that the energy, released as tiny droplets of water that merge to form larger ones, is enough to propel the droplets upward from the surface. The removal of droplets...
- Title
- MIT gives back to the community
- Date posted
- 14 years ago
- Description
- Toys-for-Tickets and Fill-a-Cruiser, are just two of the ways MIT gives back to the community each year.
Toys-for-Tickets is a program that allows people to bring in a toy of equal value or more of their parking violation, and it will be forgiven. You can also get ID's and fingerprints done at this time for an exchange of a gift. Just don't forget your receipt!
Fill-a-Cruiser takes place one day on campus at two different locations. Anyone can come down and donate clothes, blankets, socks, hats, sheets or even cash! At the end of the day everything is stuffed into a MIT Police cruiser and driven down to the Salvation Army in Central Square, Cambridge.
Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
- Title
- MIT News at Noon with Burcu Erkmen
- Date posted
- 14 years ago
- Description
- Burcu Erkmen, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, delivers her "News at Noon" talk at the MIT Museum. The event is co-sponsored by the MIT News Office and the Museum, and features researchers discussing their recently promoted work.
On Dec. 7, Berkmen discussed her research with Professors Utkan Demirci and Ed Boyden in developing 3-D brain tissue constructs. On the way to accomplishing this complex task, Erkmen and team adapted multiple layer photolithography to precisely build tissue structures only microns in size.
Presenters for "News at Noon" are announced each week following an appearance in MIT News. Come and connect with local colleagues before and after the program. Free admission to all. Learn more at http://web.mit.edu/museum/pdf/MITNewsAtNoon-F12.pdf
Read more about this research at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/precisely-engineering-3d-brain-tissues-1130.html
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