Tech Connection: April 2012
Thin Films, Nanoparticles Advance Diagnosis and Treatment
- Medical Advances
- Graduate Alumni Fete
- Time Taps Five from MIT
- Research & Discovery
- MITx on Campus
- Giant Tetris Hack
- Manufacturing: MEMS
- Reunions Sign up?
- Crater Lake, River Rafting
- Collapsing Buckliball
- Life Science Consulting
- Engineering Workplaces
- 10K MIT Videos
- Slice of MIT
Graduate Alumni Return Come to campus June 9 for graduate alumni festivities inlcuding talks, gatherings, and to meet Dean Christine Ortiz.
Time Taps MIT Five Time magazine's annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" includes three alumni and two faculty members.
Rogue River Rafting Experience Pacific Northwest beauty along the Rogue River to the Oregon coastline, July 29-Aug. 15, 2012.
Collapsing Buckliball A collapsible ball made from one piece of material represents a new class of 3-D, origami-like structures.
Solving the Great Molasses Flood Mystery Slice of MIT: 100 years ago, Civil Engineering Department head Charles Spofford, Class of 1893, identified the cause of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.
Defending the Y Chromosome Slice of MIT: Professor David Page appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to dispute the extinction of the Y chromosome.
Bitter Truth on Sugar Slice of MIT: New research by Dr. Robert Lustig '77 indicates that sugar consumption in the US is a public health crisis. Watch the 60 Minutes episode.
Nanoparticles, developed in the MIT lab of Professor Robert Langer ScD '74, could manufacture cancer drugs at tumor sites. Image: Avi Schroeder.
MIT is a hotbed of medical innovation. Researchers have developed a new coating for hip implants that could prevent premature failure, a dangerous problem for elderly patients. Nanoscale films promote bone growth, creating a stronger seal between implants and patients' own bone. In other research, a new monitoring strategy can help doctors diagnose patients with concussions and other head injuries that can lead to brain pressure. The new technique, less risky than boring a hole in the skull, is based on a computer model of how blood flows through the brain. In cancer research, therapeutic nanoparticles targeting tumors have shown—for the first time—promising results in human clinical studies.
Research & Discovery
Biplane to Break the Sound Barrier
Cheaper, quieter, and fuel-efficient biplanes could bring supersonic travel closer to reality. With a new MIT design, a jet with two wings—one positioned above the other—would cancel out the shock waves produced from either wing alone.
Study Links Air Pollution and Early Death
MIT researchers have found that UK car exhaust causes more premature deaths than car accidents. Overall, emissions from cars, trucks, planes and power plants cause 13,000 premature deaths each year. Drifting European emissions cause an additional 6,000 early deaths.
Preventing Undersea Ice Clogs
A containment dome might have quickly halted the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, except that the dome was quickly clogged with frozen methane hydrate. Surface coatings developed at MIT could inhibit buildup of this substance.
How Do Antibiotics Work?
MIT researchers and colleagues have shown that antibiotics launch a cascade of events that produces fatal DNA damage. Understanding this mechanism could allow researchers to make current antibiotics work better and tackle resistant bacteria strains.
MITx Aims to Enhance Campus Education
Materials developed for MITx classes could add an extra dimension to MIT students' campus experiences, for example, making lecture components available online so students could watch at their own pace. For MITx Director Anant Agarwal, the Institute's new online-learning initiative is a way to reinvent education.
Hacked: Playing Tetris on the Green Building
During Campus Preview Weekend, students transformed one side of the Green Building (Building 54) on April 20 into a giant video game screen, with students and alumni battling each other in a multi-story game of Tetris. Watch the video.
Manufacturing News: Boosting MEMS Production, MIT Conference
MIT researchers are developing new fabrication techniques for microelectromechanical devices (MEMS) such as using ink-jet printing technology to deposit metallic nanoparticles on a substrate. A related MIT conference, Future of Manufacturing in the US, May 8-9, offers a discounted rate for alumni ($500) with this code: MITAlum12.
Signed Up for Reunions Yet?
Come to the largest gathering of MIT alumni in the world—Tech Reunions. Check on activities for your year or the general events open to all alumni, or sign up for special graduate alumni events. Register by April 27 for a discount; online registration ends May 16.
Free Webinar: Life Science Industry Consulting
Nicholas Marcantonio PhD ʹ08 will share tips on life science and health care consulting as well as trends in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in this free Alumni Association webinar on Wednesday, May 9, noon‒1:00 p.m., EDT. Sign up for the interactive event.
Engineering Workplaces Discourage Women
An MIT study uncovers why women hesitate to enter the male-dominated profession of engineering. Contrary to stereotype, women and men have similar feelings about mixing family and work and their perceptions about their own math skills are not a factor.
Find 10K MIT Videos
The new online MIT Video portal aggregates nearly 10,000 videos, by and about the Institute. Try out Best View in the Solar System, time-lapse sequences from the International Space Station, or Professor Sherry Turkle's TED talk, Connected, but Alone? Want to learn more? Join the May 2 Faculty Forum Online interview with Turkle.
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