MIT
MIT professor says wife receiving threats because of his work on climate change
By adamg - 1/19/12 - 7:29 amThinkProgress reports on the "frenzy of hate" surrounding Kerry Emanuel, director of MIT’s Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate program, who dared to challenge the position of Republican presidential candidates on climate change.
Via Blue Mass. Group.
MIT prof thinks e-mail could save the postal service
By adamg - 1/11/12 - 8:10 amThe Tech reports an MIT professor thinks the USPS can reinvent and save itself - and the jobs of tens of thousands of workers - by getting into the field of e-mail management and helping companies deal with the never ceasing barrage of electronic messaging:
Ayyadurai believes the USPS can provide a service that will help companies become more efficient at managing their own email. Under his plan, the USPS can retrain workers it intends to lay off in order to support the proposed system and generate enough revenue to avoid bankruptcy. Though some email management systems outsource work to countries like India, Ayyadurai argues that the USPS is a trusted and reliable brand, and can do a better job.
Police: Man enters MIT student's room, holds her down in bed and demands kisses
By adamg - 12/13/11 - 7:42 amThe Tech reports on an assault in Tang Hall that ended with the unkissed man leaving with a bottle of water.
MIT does part to ensure Moore's Law not violated
By adamg - 11/25/11 - 9:39 amMass. High Tech reports researchers at MIT may have figured out the first step in building all-optical microchips - using garnet - which could mean faster computing.
MIThenge? Or MITgrange?
By SwirlyGrrl - 11/10/11 - 4:25 pmMIT's Infinite Corridor will be alligned with the sun tomorrow, on 11-11-11. The allignment happens a couple of times each year.
No word if the sun will be turned up to 11 for the event.
Unleash the geeks!
By adamg - 11/4/11 - 10:19 am
Any HTML/XML geek will grok, of course, that the giant banner at MIT means the end of NovemberRule. But as Melanie McCue, who took the photo, explains, it takes an eager beaver to know the full meaning of the banner unfurled on Tuesday at 77 Massachusetts Ave.:
"The "November Rule" discourages frosh from entering any "romantic entanglements" at college before November 1.
Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
BPL, MIT get federal grant to highlight work of ceiling master
By adamg - 8/31/11 - 9:32 amA $350,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant will let the Boston Public Library and MIT mount a traveling exhibition of the work of Rafael Guastavino, whose "thoughtful design of public spaces transformed American architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:"
Guastavino and his family invented a colorful tiling that is lightweight, attractive, fireproof, and virtually indestructible. Excellent examples of his work grace buildings in 40 states. Examples include the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the United Stated Supreme Court Building, and the Nebraska State Capitol. Guastavino used his extraordinary gift to elevate public spaces including transportation centers, government centers, libraries, and churches.
The exhibition will first open at the BPL main branch in Copley Square - which was the site of Guastavino's first major work in the U.S.
UPDATE: Thanks to commenters for noting the photo I posted from the McKim building was not of one of the ones Guastavino designed. See if you can spot his work in this collection of McKim construction photos.
MIT, UMass researchers work to protect RoboCop, the Six Million Dollar Man and people with pacemakers from hackers
By adamg - 8/23/11 - 8:47 amTechnology Review reports that some researchers at MIT and UMass Amherst have developed a system for keeping hackers from interfering with implanted medical devices.
Yes, it's another hacking threat you didn't know existed: Modern pacemakers and defibrillators, insulin pumps and cochlear implants have wireless systems for uploading patient data to doctors and downloading new directions, and some experts have begun to worry what happens when these unencrypted systems are hijacked by hackers. But the researchers say they've found an answer, albeit a somewhat bulky one (at least for now):
[T]he laptop-sized device, called "the shield," emits a jamming signal whenever it detects an unauthorized wireless link being established between an implant and a remote terminal (which can be out of sight and tens of meters away). Although no attack of this kind is known to have occurred, "it's important to solve these kinds of problems before the risk becomes a tenable threat," says Kevin Fu, an associate professor of computer science at UMass and one of the developers of the shield.
MIT researchers working on universal anti-viral drugs
By adamg - 8/10/11 - 9:58 amThe drugs, which are still a long way away from human testing, let alone the market, work by latching onto a form of RNA only generated by viruses inside living cells and signalling those cells to kill themselves, MIT reports:
"In theory, it should work against all viruses," says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory's Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology.
Cell suicide stops viruses because the organisms reproduce by reprogramming cells to become virus factories. Human cells have their own natural self-destruct systems, but many viruses have evolved mechanisms to short circuit them.
MIT researchers call their new drugs Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers, or DRACO, which could make them a hit among older James Bond fans and younger Harry Potter fans, not to mention people with colds or far more severe infections.
Via Tinker Ready.
