MIT

MIT creates remote-controlled zombie moths

adamg — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:29:13 +0000

Electronics Weekly reports researchers at MIT have managed to stuff an electrode into a moth that can be used to control the moth's behavior:

"This is a major advance," says insect neurobiologist Roy Ritzmann at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. DARPA hopes this kind of control will one day allow intelligence agencies to use insects to carry surveillance equipment and spy on unsuspecting enemies.

The article does not say if they are also experimenting with ill tempered sea bass.

Via BostInnovation.

MIT professor says wife receiving threats because of his work on climate change

adamg — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:29:09 +0000

ThinkProgress 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

adamg — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:10:47 +0000

The 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

adamg — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:42:11 +0000

The 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

adamg — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:39:37 +0000

Mass. 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?

SwirlyGrrl — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:25:42 +0000

MIT'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!

adamg — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:19:57 +0000

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.

Salute to America at MIT

adamg — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:14:52 +0000

Building 54 tonight.

BPL, MIT get federal grant to highlight work of ceiling master

adamg — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:32:38 +0000

A $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

adamg — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:47:14 +0000

Technology 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

adamg — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:58:46 +0000

The 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.

Boiler on the move

adamg — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 03:13:54 +0000

Rachel captured the Big-Ass Boiler of MIT on Putnam Street as it made its way under cover of darkness from the Arlington parking lot where it had sat since last Thursday to its ultimate home providing hot water for the Institute.

Apparently unable to convince Somerville - which had blocked the boiler at the border - that the oversized vessel would not explode and shower residents with, um, air, contractors worked with Cambridge and State Police to find a route entirely through the People's Republic.

Rachel reports the boiler was preceded down Cantabridgian roads by "2 bucket trucks and an enormous mulcher," which made short work of any tree limbs that dared obstruct the behemoth on its slow but steady march to MIT. In fact, her photo shows the bad boy chillin' as crews made Cambridge less leafy at Putnam and Sidney.

The boiler without a country

adamg — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:14:44 +0000

A man stopped to marvel at the big-ass boiler sitting in a drug-store parking lot.

We weren't the only ones who took a swing up Mass. Ave. in Arlington today to see the banned boiler of MIT, which Somerville is refusing to let rumble down its streets on the final leg of a journey from Texas to the school. YourArlington.com reports it could be Tuesday at the earliest before Somerville grants the required permit for the oversized load to enter the city; in the meantime, it sits behind cones, sawhorses and police tape in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Mass. Ave. in Arlington.

Of course, a big-ass boiler deserves a big-ass photo: Take a look at Aaron Donovan's photo.

Giant boiler bound for Cambridge, banned by Somerville, stuck in Arlington

adamg — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 02:34:37 +0000

Truckers trying to deliver an oversize boiler to MIT have instead been forced to cool their heels in Arlington because Somerville officials are refusing to allow the wide load on their streets.

YourArlington.com reports that at one point Thursday, 20 Arlington and Cambridge police and state troopers were on scene at Mass. Ave. in Arlington near the Cambridge line to escort a mini-convoy - the truck pulling the boiler and a couple of pickups - via Rte. 16 and Broadway and then into Cambridge. But while the driver got a permit from Cambridge, he never got one from Somerville, so instead the boiler will be parked in a Walgreens parking lot at least through Tuesday.

The delay is causing some headaches for MIT, which had sent out e-mail on Wednesday alerting faculty and staff of potential traffic issues on Portland and Albany streets yesterday and today while the boiler was being delivered to the Central Utilities Plant.

H/t to snuffles dog for forwarding news of the Boiler without a Country.

Imagine Strong Bad rummaging through a wiring closet at MIT

adamg — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:42:52 +0000

Not chargedThe indictment against Aaron Swartz on charges he used MIT networks to download 4.7 million documents from an online database of academic papers has some details of interest to net geeks, such as his use of pseudonyms like "Gary Host" and "Grace Host" (because he was using a "ghost" laptop, which he might have bought at Micro Center) and his preference for the Python scripting language.

And it also contains alleged observations of physical breaking and entering at an MIT basement wiring closet:

On January 4, 2011, Aaron Swartz was observed entering the restricted basement network wiring closet to replace an external hard drive to his computer.

On January 6, 2011, Swartz returned to the wiring closet to remove his computer equipment. This time he attempted to evade identification at the entrance to the restricted area. As Swartz entered the wiring closet, he held his bicycle helmet like a mask to shield his face, looking through ventilation holes in the helmet. Swartz then removed his computer equipment from the closet, put it in his backpack and left, again masking his face with the bicylcle helmet before peering through a crack in the double doors and cautiously stepping out.

Innocent, etc.