science wire

Device may inject a variety of drugs without using needles
Getting a shot at the doctor's office may become less painful in the not-too-distant future. MIT researchers have engineered a device that delivers a tiny, high-pressure jet of medicine through the skin without the use of a hypodermic needle.

Savings where the rubber meets the road
Study shows that pavement deflection under vehicle tires makes for a continuous uphill drive that increases fuel consumption. A new study by civil engineers at MIT shows that using stiffer pavements on the nation's roads could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3 percent - a savings that could add up to 273 million barrels of crude oil per year, or $15.6 billion at today's oil prices.

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dust
A planet's dust cloud may explain strange patterns of light from its star. Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star. The scientists infer that a long tail of debris - much like the tail of a comet - is following the planet, and that this tail may tell the story of the planet's disintegration.

The elusive capacity of networks
Calculating the total capacity of a data network is a notoriously difficult problem, but information theorists are beginning to make some headway. In its early years, information theory - which grew out of a landmark 1948 paper by MIT alumnus and future professor Claude Shannon - was dominated by research on error-correcting codes : How do you encode information so as to guarantee its faithful transmission, even in the presence of the corrupting influences engineers call "noise"?

Target: Drug-resistant bacteria
Engineers design nanoparticles that deliver high doses of antibiotics directly to bacteria. Over the past several decades, scientists have faced challenges in developing new antibiotics even as bacteria have become increasingly resistant to existing drugs.

New technique predictably generates complex, wavy shapes
May help improve drug delivery and explain natural patterns from brain folds to bell peppers. The flexible properties of hydrogels - highly absorbent, gelatinous polymers that shrink and expand depending on environmental conditions such as humidity, pH and temperature - have made them ideal for applications from lenses to baby diapers and adhesives.

Thwarting the cleverest attackers
Savvy hackers can steal a computer's secrets by timing its data storage transactions or measuring its power use.

Comparing apples and oranges
New sensor can accurately measure fruits' ripeness, helping prevent loss of produce from spoilage.

Gauging seizures’ severity
Simple wrist sensors let neurologists collect better data about patients with epilepsy - and could alert patients that they need to seek medical care. In this week's issue of the journal Neurology , researchers at MIT and two Boston hospitals provide early evidence that a simple, unobtrusive wrist sensor could gauge the severity of epileptic seizures as accurately as electroencephalograms (EEGs) do - but without the ungainly scalp electrodes and electrical leads.

New coating for hip implants could prevent premature failure
Nanoscale films developed at MIT promote bone growth, creating a stronger seal between implants and patients' own bone.

Their own devices
MIT's Medical Electronic Device Realization Center aims to connect microelectronics with new health-care tools.

MIT establishes a Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST)
$1.5M grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will launch CAST. MIT has received $1.5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST).

Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert CO2
May reduce greenhouse gas emissions Copper - the stuff of pennies and tea kettles - is also one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy.

Cornering the market in micromachine manufacture
Government investment in the manufacture of micromachines could pay huge dividends, but in the meantime, MIT researchers are developing new fabrication techniques.

Self-sculpting sand
New algorithms could enable heaps of 'smart sand' that can assume any shape, allowing spontaneous formation of new tools or duplication of broken mechanical parts.

’Buckliball’ opens new avenue in design of foldable engineering structures
Inspired by a toy, the 'buckliball' - a collapsible structure fabricated from a single piece of material - represents a new class of 3-D, origami-like structures.

Calculating the cost of advanced manufacturing
The Environmentally Benign Manufacturing group studies the life cycle of new technologies. For Tim Gutowski, advanced manufacturing is an opportunity not just to boost employment, but also to improve the environment. Gutowski heads MIT's Environmentally Benign Manufacturing research group, which looks at the environmental costs and impacts associated with manufacturing traditional materials such as concrete and steel, as well as advanced and emerging technologies such as semiconductors, photovoltaics, and nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes.

A camera that peers around corners
A new imaging system could use opaque walls, doors or floors as 'mirrors' to gather information about scenes outside its line of sight. In December, MIT Media Lab researchers caused a stir by releasing a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle. But the experimental setup that enabled that video was designed for a much different application: a camera that can see around corners.

Room to store CO2 underground
New MIT analysis shows there's enough room to safely store at least a century's worth of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.

A biplane to break the sound barrier
Cheaper, quieter and fuel-efficient biplanes could put supersonic travel on the horizon. (CAMBRIDGE, MA) - For 27 years, the Concorde provided its passengers with a rare luxury: time saved.

Guiding robot planes with hand gestures
MIT researchers are developing a system that would allow aircraft-carrier crews to guide in autonomous planes using ordinary hand gestures.

Continuous drug manufacturing offers speed, lower costs
New system developed by MIT researchers could help transform the pharmaceutical industry.

Sometimes the quickest path is not a straight line
New methods and software developed at MIT can predict optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles.

Koch Institute, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center announce launch of ’Bridge Project’ to attack most-lethal forms of cancer
Institutions, research teams, non-profit organizations join forces in novel approaches targeting pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma.

Preventing contamination in recycling
New study examines ways to prevent accumulation of impurities in recycling aluminum. Aluminum has long been the poster child of recycling. About half of all aluminum used in the United States is now recycled, and this recycling has clear and dramatic benefits: Pound for pound, it takes anywhere from nine to 18 times as much energy to produce aluminum from raw ore as from recycled material.

Delivering RNA with tiny sponge-like spheres
New RNA interference method holds promise for treating cancer, other diseases. For the past decade, scientists have been pursuing cancer treatments based on RNA interference - a phenomenon that offers a way to shut off malfunctioning genes with short snippets of RNA. However, one huge challenge remains: finding a way to efficiently deliver the RNA.

When (and where) work disappears
Study: Overseas manufacturing competition hits U.S. regions hard, leaving workers unemployed for years and local economies struggling. The loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs is a topic that can provoke heated arguments about globalization. But what do the cold, hard numbers reveal? How has the rise in foreign manufacturing competition actually affected the U.S. economy and its workers? A new study co-authored by MIT economist David Autor shows that the rapid rise in low-wage manufacturing industries overseas has indeed had a significant impact on the United States.

PICOWER: Neuron’s distinct memory roles could point to new memory drugs
Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report for the first time that neurons at different stages of their life cycles may perform two separate functions: the ability to form

Making droplets drop faster
Paper: "Effect of Droplet Morphology on Growth Dynamics and Heat Transfer during Condensation on Superhydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces" New nanopatterned surfaces could improve the efficiency of powerplants and desalination systems. The condensation of water is crucial to the operation of most of the powerplants that provide our electricity - whether they are fueled by coal, natural gas or nuclear fuel.

A faster way to catch cells
New microfluidic device could be used to diagnose and monitor cancer and other diseases. Separating complex mixtures of cells, such as those found in a blood sample, can offer valuable information for diagnosing and treating disease. However, it may be necessary to search through billions of other cells to collect rare cells such as tumor cells, stem cells or fetal cells.

A new twist on nanowires
Technology developed at MIT can control the composition and structure of these tiny wires as they grow. Nanowires - microscopic fibers that can be "grown" in the lab - are a hot research topic today, with a variety of potential applications including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and sensors.

’Storm of the Century?’ Try ’Storm of the Decade’
With climate change, today's '100-year floods' may happen every three to 20 years, according to new research. Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm surges that swept over seawalls and flooded seaside and inland communities.

Liquid batteries for utilities could make renewables competitive
MIT team makes progress toward goal of inexpensive grid-scale batteries that could help make intermittent renewable energy sources viable. The biggest drawback to many real or proposed sources of clean, renewable energy is their intermittency: The wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine, and so the power they produce may not be available at the times it's needed.

Harnessing nature’s solar cells
Photovoltaic panels made from plant material could become a cheap, easy alternative to traditional solar cells.

Driving the green
New study suggests that electric-powered trucks will save money for businesses.

MIT faculty speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Talks explore the mind/machine interface and the science of predicting the economy, among other topics.

Seeking the neurological roots of conflict
MIT neuroscientists explore how longstanding conflict influences empathy for others. MIT postdoc Emile Bruneau has long been drawn to conflict - not as a participant, but an observer. In 1994, while doing volunteer work in South Africa, he witnessed firsthand the turmoil surrounding the fall of apartheid; during a 2001 trip to visit friends in Sri Lanka, he found himself in the midst of the violent conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.

The advantage of ambiguity
Cognitive scientists develop a new take on an old problem: why human language has so many words with multiple meanings. Why did language evolve? While the answer might seem obvious - as a way for individuals to exchange information - linguists and other students of communication have debated this question for years.

The faster-than-fast Fourier transform
For a large range of practically useful cases, MIT researchers find a way to increase the speed of one of the most important algorithms in the information sciences. The Fourier transform is one of the most fundamental concepts in the information sciences. It's a method for representing an irregular signal - such as the voltage fluctuations in the wire that connects an MP3 player to a loudspeaker - as a combination of pure frequencies.

Here comes the sun
A new sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency. Just outside Seville, in the desert region of Andalucia, Spain, sits an oasis-like sight: a 100-meter-high pillar surrounded by rows of giant mirrors rippling outward.

The case of the missing gas mileage
Automakers have made great strides in fuel efficiency in recent decades - but the mileage numbers of individual vehicles have barely increased.

Traditional social networks fueled Twitter’s spread
Site's U.S. growth relied primarily on media attention, geographic proximity of users. We've all heard it: The Internet has flattened the world, allowing social networks to spring up overnight, independent of geography or socioeconomic status.

Stopping influenza evolution before it starts
Model of flu proteins suggests new way to design vaccines that slow mutations. If you get vaccinated against the flu and then become infected with the virus, your body mounts an immune response that prevents you from getting sick. However, that pressure from the immune system can provoke the virus to mutate into a slightly different form - one that could be more infectious.

A glow of recognition
New detectors developed at MIT could provide easy visual identification of toxins or pathogens. — Researchers at MIT have developed a new way of revealing the presence of specific chemicals — whether toxins, disease markers, pathogens or explosives. The system visually signals the presence of a target chemical by emitting a fluorescent glow.

Sharpening the lines
New advance could lead to even smaller features in the constant quest for more compact, faster microchips. The microchip revolution has seen a steady shrinking of features on silicon chips, packing in more transistors and wires to boost chips' speed and data capacity. But in recent years, the technologies behind these chips have begun to bump up against fundamental limits, such as the wavelengths of light used for critical steps in chip manufacturing.

Trillion-frame-per-second video
By using optical equipment in a totally unexpected way, MIT researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow.

How to stop the flu
Engineering-systems researchers identify proven strategies to prevent influenza from spreading through a household. Between 1918 and 1920, an influenza epidemic swept across the globe, infecting more than a quarter of the world's population and killing 50 to 100 million people. If a similar outbreak occurred today, vaccines might help, but it's possible that vaccine production would not be ramped up in time to have a significant effect.

Carbon capture? Go for the source
New analysis shows pulling CO2 from the air would not be cost-effective in the foreseeable future. Since most of the world's governments have not yet enacted regulations to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, some experts have advocated the development of technologies to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air.

With changes, the grid can take it
MIT report shows that with new policies, U.S. electric grid could handle expected influx of electric cars and wind and solar generation.

A novel way to concentrate sun’s heat
MIT researchers find a way to generate power without the usual mirror arrays. — Most technologies for harnessing the sun’s energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials.

At a crossroads
New research predicts which cars are likeliest to run lights at intersections. In 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2.3 million automobile crashes occurred at intersections across the United States, resulting in some 7,000 deaths. More than 700 of those fatalities were due to drivers running red lights.