December 2008 / January 2009

Body

Being human includes caring for a body, learning how it works, helping it heal, and, possibly, using it to express ideas through various media. Other types of bodies also need nurturing. In this issue of Quick Take, learn about celestial bodies, thumb through several alums' bodies of work, get a glimpse at political bodies in action on campus, and wade through Tech TV—perhaps in the company of Robostrider, RHex, and RoboTuna II, each an invention inspired by an MIT community member with a soft spot for bodies of water.

Body of Water

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Sebastian Meckelmann

Nom de flume

MIT basin, coined by the Harvard Crimson

MIT Channel, as seen on YouTube

MIT pond, coined by the New York Times

MIT pool, aka Alumni pool

Research

MIT researchers could change microbe classification
Researchers at MIT found that marine bacteria in the wild organize themselves into professions or lifestyle groups that partition many resources, rather than competing for them. The discovery could change how scientists approach microbe classification.

Happy anniversary, Prochlorococcus
An ocean-dwelling microbe discovered only 20 years ago by researchers, including one at MIT, was the focus of last spring's ProchlorococcusFest. The two-day event included leaders from a variety of fields, all of whom convened to celebrate the sea's smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism.

River plants may play major role in ocean health
Aquatic plants in rivers and streams may play a major role in the health of large areas of ocean coastal waters, according to recent MIT research that could guide restoration work in rivers, wetlands, and coastal zones.

Learn how oceanography students cultivate research interests
Students at the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program filmed interviews about how they became interested in the program and how they focus their research. View the interviews.

Robots

RHex swims
An affable robot named RHex, who has six legs and a bug-like body, can barrel though mud and vegetation, climb stairs, and swim. The robot is under development at Boston Dynamics, a spinoff company of the MIT Leg Lab. Watch a video of RHex.

Robostrider walks on water
Several summers ago, MIT researchers created Robostrider, a mechanical water strider that uses fluid dynamics to move, though not as gracefully and quickly as its natural counterpart.

RoboTuna gets a face lift
In 1995, David Barrett SM '81, SM '94, PhD '96 designed a RoboTuna robot called Charlie I for his PhD thesis. More than ten years later a new RoboTuna was designed by David Beal SM '97, PhD '03 and Michael Sachinis SM '00, still founded on the original cable-pulley system but with significant modifications. View photos of RoboTuna II.

Submarine robot wanders oceans alone
MIT's new submarine robot, Odyssey IV, tackles formidable ocean currents while simultaneously gathering data—alone. Read how a Popular Mechanics reporter used the autonomous underwater vehicle to hassle a seagull.

Celestial Bodies

Photo: NASA

Learning

Visualize Celestial Spheres
This celestial spheres movie is from a series produced by Robert Knop, former physics professor at Vanderbilt University.

OCW: Modern Navigation
Modern Navigation is an OpenCourseWare class taught by Geophysics Professor Thomas Herring, which explores how celestial bodies and other positioning systems can be used to navigate ships, aircrafts, and cars. Additional OCW astronomy classes are also available.

Watch a Space Weather Vodcast
Atmospheric scientists from MIT's Haystack Observatory have put together Space Weather FX, a vodcast, or video podcast, which explores the science of space weather and how it can impact daily life on Earth.

View IAP Notes: Celestial Navigation at Sea
This IAP seminar focused on celestial navigation and boats, covering the theory and techniques needed to obtain a position fix from the sun.

Attend an Astrophysics Colloquia
Free and open to the public, MIT's Fall 2008 Astrophysics Colloquia will host events through mid-December, covering topics such as gamma-ray bursts, helium reionization, and pulsar glitches.

Glimpse Celestial Bodies
Pay a visit to one of MIT's teaching/research observatories, either the Haystack Observatory, in Westford, MA, or the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

Research

Young Stars Stay Hotter Longer
Young planets around other stars may be easier to spot because they stay hotter for a few million years, much longer than astronomers have previously estimated, according to new work by MIT planetary scientist Linda Elkins-Tanton.

Group Zooms in on Milky Way's Black Hole
Astronomers at the MIT Haystack Observatory led an international team to obtain the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Early Warning of Dangerous Asteroids and Comets
Silicon chips developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory are at the heart of a new survey telescope that will soon provide a more than fivefold improvement in scientists' ability to detect asteroids and comets that could someday threaten the planet.

Four MIT Astronauts Visit Celestial Bodies
In November, more than 120,000 MIT graduates roamed the earth. And, for the first time in NASA history, four simultaneously traveled in space.

Photo montage and illustration: Liv Gold

Human Body

Healing

Pill pets aid aging bodies
AgeLab researchers have developed an electronic pill pet that uses play and emotion to remind older adults to take their medications. The toy, which is the result of collaboration between the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Rhode Island School of Design, is part of a broader study into the role of toys, pets, and play in older adult health.

Ancient fish inspire new body armor designs
A long, scaly, primitive fish could illuminate new and more effective ways of designing human body armor, according to an MIT study. Pollypterus senegalus, which inhabits muddy freshwater pools in Africa, has multi-layered armored scales and relatives that can be traced back 96 million years.

Tissue engineers heal rabbits' airway injuries
MIT tissue engineers have successfully healed airway injuries in rabbits using a technique they believe could be applied to the trachea and other parts of the human body. Visit the news office for updates about tissue engineering.

Take care of yourself
Wondering about your shin splints or last week's bout of insomnia? MIT Medical's Ask Lucy lets you pose questions and receive replies from medical faculty and staff. The medical center also offers an array of fitness classes to people on campus and relaxation and stress reduction multimedia accessible to far flung alums.

Research

Geoscientist links body wounds to ancient Earth
Geobiologist Dianne Newman PhD '98, whose past work has centered on the bacterial metabolisms that affect the chemistry of the environment, is shedding light on how bacteria thrive in the human body. Because body wounds often have little oxygen, the types of bacteria that invade such tissues could be metabolically similar to bacteria that lived on ancient Earth.

MIT researchers aid understanding of lung cancer
MIT researchers and colleagues recently announced the results of the largest genomic study of lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. The collaborative study unearthed a range of genetic alterations in patient tumors and pinpointed 26 frequently altered genes—more than doubling the number already linked to the disease.

Body heat may someday power medical devices
A new energy-efficient chip designed by MIT engineers may one day be able to run implantable medical devices using human body heat as an energy source.

Technique yields genetically identical stem cells
Scientists from MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have discovered that cells from mice created using genetically reprogrammed cells can be triggered via drug administration to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state without the need for further direct genetic manipulation.

Representation

Reconstructing the body in three dimensions
Scientists recently created the first 3D images of a living cell, thanks to a new imaging technique developed at MIT that is similar to X-ray CT scans used by radiologists.

Computer models cells' inner life
A new method of computer modeling has helped researchers to discover new ways cells process chemical information and could indicate how to maximize the effectiveness of disease treatments such as chemotherapy.

Moving the body
Watch a clip of MIT Bhangra dancers practicing during a summer class.

Writing the body
Fragments for a History of the Human Body, a three-volume collection of essays and photographs, examines the history of the human body where life and thought intersect. Visit the MIT Press Web site for purchase information.

Head and shoulders
Joe Zane, a lecturer in MIT's Visual Arts Program, is best known for his work that "questions his own authenticity and his role as an artist." Watch a video installation of Zane examining a disjointed human body through a familiar childhood song.

Copyright©2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology