June / July 2007

Fuel

Fuel. Power for the world and body. In the global race to find sustainable energy sources, MIT leads the way. But the MIT community is also good at nourishing the human machine. The first chemical synthesis of vitamin A occurred at the Institute as did early research into proteins that optimize health. And when it comes to eating, alumni will try just about any food. Here, a look at the fuels focusing research and sustaining the well-being of the MIT community.

Tastes Like Chicken?

Photo: ©Dreamstime.com/Iofoto

The man who will eat anything
Photojournalist, food photographer, and gourmet chef Owen Franken '68 has traveled the world and eaten nearly everything, from scorpions to bats. Read his What Matters column of his favorite—and daring—culinary adventures.

In the spirit of Franken's column, Quick Take asked members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors what was the most unusual food they've ever eaten.

"Chicken. While chicken may appear rather prosaic at first glance, it is reported that chicken actually tastes like iguana, rattlesnake, bald eagle, raccoon, or any of a number of other very strange animals. Also, I once had maggot quiche in Hong Kong. It is one of the few exotic foods that does not taste like chicken."
Harbo Jensen CM '74

"Fried baby bumble bees. If you could get past the reality of those poor little baby bumble bees that got fried, they were actually quite tasty."
Bonny Kellermann '72

"Muskrat, on a fourth grade science field trip. Tasted like chicken."
Annalisa Weigel '94

"Paca (a South American rodent also known as an agouti). Tastes like a cross between pork and turkey breast meat."
John Isaacson '69

"Snake soup. But the Chinese make it look and taste like chicken."
Martin Tang GM '72

"I've had dishes with pigs ears, tails, and feet. Chinese delicacies included chicken feet and calf cartilage, and then there were the alligator poor boys (a kind of submarine sandwich) at the New Orleans Jazz Festival."
Don Shobrys '75

"Porcupine. More than 15 years ago. Tasted like goat."
Martin Mbaya '00

"Brain soup. I can't remember if it was cow or pig, but it looked pretty gross floating around in the soup!"
Leslie Liu '89

"Sweetbreads (thymus glands of calves and lambs). I grew up in Michigan, where dining isn't as sophisticated as in major cities. In San Francisco, I ordered sweetbreads, naïvely thinking it'd be some sort of a sweet bread. I ended up not eating dinner that night."
Ning Drako '90

"Sea cucumber, in Singapore during a Chinese New Year banquet. I don't remember what it tasted like, but it probably tasted like chicken."
Joe Scheller '54

"Two raw eggs, including shells, in less than 20 seconds."
Doug Vincent '89

"A fish eye, but it looked and tasted like a fish eye, and I had to spit it out. The strangest thing I ever ate successfully was a canned tortilla that was all we could obtain in Boston in the early '70s. It bore no resemblance to the real items that came from the tortilleria."
Lissa Martinez '76

"I don't remember the name, but I ate a fish in Shanghai that looked like it had died and was floating in a broth. The fish was actually very good, but I was nervous!"
Kim Francis '78

What's the most unusual food you've ever eaten?
Share your experience on the Discussion Network.

Fueling Body and Mind

MIT biologists solve vitamin puzzle
MIT and Harvard researchers have discovered the final piece of the synthesis pathway of vitamin B12—the only vitamin synthesized exclusively by microorganisms.

MIT helps unlock life-extending secrets of calorie restriction
MIT researchers have found a pair of neurons in the heads of roundworms that connects calorie restriction and the endocrine system. They are hoping to one day create a drug that could fool the body into providing the age-extending benefits of a controlled famine.

Perfecting the Formula
Researchers have identified compounds in breast milk that might account for its ability to protect against certain diseases.

MIT researchers test cellular engine power
Researchers have long known that a coil grown by a single-cell protozoan is, gram for gram, more powerful than a car engine. Now, they've found that it's far stronger than previously thought, a finding that aids engineers seeking to reconstruct these mechanisms for nanoscale devices.

Nutrition and exercise tips
From the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation.

Eating well
MIT Medical wellness resources.

Recipes from around the Institute

What's Cooking Under the Dome
The cookbook published by the MIT Women's League contains recipes submitted by MIT community members and can be ordered online.

Steam Café encourages recipe submissions
The student-conceived café is a collaborative effort of MIT's Office of Campus Dining and the School of Architecture and Planning and offers nutritious food choices. If your recipe is chosen, you eat it for free.

All chocolate
The MIT Laboratory for Chocolate Science offers recipes for chocolate waffle cookies, bete noir, and chocolate meringues.

SPAM Haiku: recipes
Not just poetry—clever SPAM concoctions.

Community Cooking Group
A student group that brings people together by cooking, teaching, and learning offers numerous recipes from tostones to profiterols.

Experimental Study Group recipes
What makes a successful ESG recipe? It must be cooked on a small stove by one person, inexpensive, nonlethal, and tasty. Page includes mushroom-barley soup, apple pie, and hummus.

Cell's tiny power source critical for
synapse function
Mitochondria, the tiny power plants inside all plant and animal cells, play a critical role in the health and well-being of synapses, neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Center for Learning and Memory report.

Carbs are essential for effective dieting and good mood
MIT researchers have found that when you stop eating carbohydrates, your brain stops regulating serotonin, a chemical that elevates mood and suppresses appetite.

OpenCourseWare: Food for Thought—Writing and Reading about Food and Culture
An expository writing class that explores food as both material fact and personal and cultural symbol. Topics include family meals, the art and science of cooking, fair trade, and eating disorders.

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/James Steidl

Powering the World

MIT class looks at transportation of nuclear fuel
An undergraduate class is exploring how to safely transport spent nuclear fuel from 130 sites in the U.S. to a high-security repository in Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Biodiesel student group wins national contest
Biodiesel@MIT won $25,000 to process used vegetable oil from campus dining facilities into fuel for MIT campus vehicles.

MIT World Videos: MIT Energy Forum—Taking on the Challenge
Hear from 12 MIT researchers about improving today's energy systems and energy for a rapidly evolving world.

MIT experts weigh in on ethanol viability
and production
Researchers have shown that several factors can easily change whether ethanol ends up a net energy winner or loser and expressed optimism that biofuels can become a significant part of the U.S. energy supply, but more research must be done. One MIT advance: an engineered yeast that can improve the speed and efficiency of ethanol production.

OpenCourseWare: Systems Analysis of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
A graduate nuclear science and engineering course offering an in-depth technical and policy analysis of options for the nuclear fuel cycle.

Institute serves up groundbreaking
energy reports
MIT energy reports, including studies on coal, geothermal, and nuclear energy, are providing the federal government with detailed recommendations to shape and influence policy debate.

What Matters: Powering up with better hybrids
Electric hybrid cars are all the rage with the environmentally conscious. But are they the right hybrid? Rit Booth '74 argues there's a better and often overlooked solution.

All about fuel cells

What is a fuel cell?
Learn about it from the Electrochemical Energy Lab.

Spectrum: Roll-up fuel cells
Learn how one MIT researcher is working to make fuel cells cheaper to produce and flexible enough to be incorporated into the wall of a tent or shrink-wrapped around laptops.

MIT Press: Tomorrow's Energy
By Peter Hoffmann
Looks at hydrogen, fuel cells, and the prospects for a cleaner planet.

A practical fuel-cell power plant
GE's advance allows for a solid-oxide fuel cell to use coal-based fuels at costs approaching that of conventional power plants.

MIT World Video: Fuel Cells and Portable Power Solutions
An installment of the MIT Museum's Soap Box series. An MIT researcher argues that hydrogen fuel cells will never be an effective fuel alternative and instead advocates batteries.

Math model could aid natural gas production
MIT engineers have developed a mathematical model that could help energy companies produce natural gas more efficiently and ensure a more reliable supply.

Zipcar founder promotes sustainability in transportation and urban planning
Robin Chase GM '86 advocates clean transportation policies and takes her ideas and inventive spirit to city governments around the world.

Nanotech gives thermoelectricity a new glow
One likely application for nano-materials includes harvesting waste heat in cars, including hybrids, by converting it into electricity.

What Matters: Is LNG safe?
Offshore liquefied natural gas terminals are much safer than their onshore counterparts, yet few of the existing or proposed U.S. terminals are of this type. Why? Because the LNG industry eschews change, argues James A. Fay OE '47.

Algae system transforms greenhouse emissions into green fuel
Exhaust from MIT's main power plant bubbles up through tubes of algae soup, cutting CO₂ emissions and producing abundant algae that can be turned into biofuel for the power plant or a diesel vehicle.

Coal-powered jets
A new process using jet fuel made from coal could reduce oil dependence and improve fuel performance in advanced aircraft.

Copyright©2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology