October/November 2009

Scope

The scope of innovation at MIT spans both the micro and macro levels. Researchers are studying microscopic tumor-quashers and the effect of global climate change on precipitation patterns. They're learning how to better grow carbon nanotubes and more about the evolution of the universe. And MIT-trained science writers distill the research and make it accessible to the masses. Scope out some of the exciting work happening at the Institute, then have fun reading your geek horoscope for the month.

The Big Picture

Part of the galaxy group Stephan's Quintet, which is located in the constellation Pegasus. Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

MIT writers bring science into focus
Students in the graduate program in science writing produce Scope, a quarterly online publication with essays, features, videos, podcasts, and more, all reflecting the range of assignments undertaken by students in the yearlong program. Read a personal essay by Stephanie Dutchen about coping with an unidentified growth in her liver and view videos about Parkinson's disease research.

Alumni love a good game
Learn about five MIT-developed video games that revolutionized the industry and other groundbreaking games created by MIT alumni.

Precipitation patterns affected by global climate change
A joint MIT-Caltech study found that more extreme rainfall lies in our future. Simulations suggest this precipitation will increase by 5 to 6 percent for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature.

Alumnus's photos capture people, cultures
See the world through the eyes of globe-traveling photojournalist Owen Franken '68 (older brother of comedian and Senator Al Franken) in the photo-of-the-week feature on the Slice of MIT blog. Each Saturday, Franken shares a new photo from his travels.

OpenCourseWare

Political Science Scope and Methods
Provides an introduction to a variety of empirical research methods used by political scientists.

World Literatures: Travel Writing
Offers an historical overview of three regions: North America, Africa and the Atlantic world, and the Arctic and Antarctic and explores the integration of these areas into global economic, political, and knowledge systems. Writers include Jamaica Kincaid and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

Using the Rumpelstiltskin principle in class
Professor Patrick Henry Winston '65, SM '67, PhD '70 explains how one act—learning all 200 of his students' names—can make students work harder and learn more.

Get the skinny on MIT's first digital computer
You can now comb through the Project Whirlwind Computer collection, a compilation of pioneering digital-computing research conducted at MIT in the 1940s and 1950s, including formerly classified material.

Geologic research could help identify signs of life on other planets
MIT researchers have found the underlying mechanism that explains the parallel groove patterns of ridges and valleys stretching across some landscapes, like the western U.S.

Telescope

The Big Bang is calling
MIT scientists and others have completed a new cosmic analysis of gravitational waves, findings that significantly advance understanding of the evolution of the universe—and constrain some current theories about its formation.

Telescope could have other Earths in its sights
Initial results from the Kepler orbiting observatory, the world's most powerful planet-searching telescope, indicate the instrument should be able to detect Earth-size planets.

Recalling the 'Giant Leap'
On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, current and former members of the MIT community—including computer scientists from the MIT Instrumentation Lab who designed software for the mission—recalled what it was like and how it shaped their lives.

Taking space in stride
MIT researchers now understand why movement in Apollo-era spacesuits was so cumbersome—notable since the suits only function effectively under the moon's reduced gravity, a condition difficult to replicate on Earth. Their analysis could lead to new spacesuit designs for lunar and Mars explorations.

Mother Nature loves MIT travelers
Clouds parted just in time for two MIT Alumni Travel Program groups and their professor guides to see July's total eclipse in Asia. One group witnessed it from a boat in the Pacific Ocean with MIT Professor of Physics Ed Bertschinger, another at Dishui Lake in China, near the shores of the East China Sea, with MIT Professor of Planetary Astronomy Richard Binzel. Read about their adventures.

Photo: ©istockphoto.com/Sage78.

Microscopic Levels

Nanosprings could rival batteries
MIT researchers have found that carbon nanotubes shaped into tiny springs could store as much energy, pound for pound, as state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries.

View a coiled actin or crawling microphage
The W.M. Keck Microscopy Facility at the Whitehead Institute has scopes for time-lapse microscopy, four-dimensional image acquisition, and regular old tissue section examination. Curious? Watch a video visualization of an actin coil or a clip of a crawling macrophage.

Chemical quashes tumor-seeding cells
Researchers from the Whitehead and Broad Institutes have found a chemical that kills the rare, aggressive cells that seed new tumors in mice with breast cancer. Further work is needed to determine whether the chemical holds therapeutic promise for humans.

New catalyst found to produce carbon nanotubes
MIT scientists have shown for the first time that carbon nanotubes can be grown without metal catalysts, which had previously produced problems with toxicity and side effects with the electronic circuits and carbon composites they are supposed to enhance. Zirconium oxide, the same compound found in cubic zirconia, has been found to make the tiny, rolled-up tubes of graphite.

Will chemo help?
MIT cancer biologists have found that they could determine how cancer cells would respond to chemotherapy by examining the interactions between two key genes that are often defective in tumors.

Tiny particles suppress tumor growth
A team of researchers from MIT and the Lankenau Institute found that microscopic particles carrying a killer gene can suppress the growth of ovarian tumors in mice. The researchers say human clinical trials could start within the next two years.

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