[Editors] MIT Research Digest - August 2004

[MIT News Office]

MIT RESEARCH DIGEST - August 2004

A monthly tip-sheet for journalists of recent research
advances at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For the latest MIT research news, go to
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/research.html

For more information or for available photos contact:
MIT News Office * Phone: (617) 253-2700 * newsoffice at mit.edu

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IN THIS ISSUE: Voting Technology  *  Alzheimer's Research
CycleScore  *  Bugs' Building Blocks  *  How Cancer Invades
Boosting Brainpower  *  Politics and Bloggers
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VOTING TECHNOLOGY
Experts in voting technology from MIT and the California Institute of 
Technology say that four relatively simple and inexpensive steps can 
be taken to ensure that voting procedures in this fall's presidential 
election are as accurate and reliable as possible. The 
recommendations are included in a new report prepared by the 
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project for the Election Assistance 
Commission (EAC), an independent bipartisan agency that serves as a 
national clearinghouse for information on the administration of 
federal elections.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/vote2004.html

POTENTIAL ALZHEIMER'S ADVANCE
Amyloid fibers -- those clumps of plaque-like proteins that clog up 
the brains of Alzheimer's patients -- have perplexed scientists with 
their robust structures. Researchers don't yet have a way to assail 
these resilient molecules. Now a team from MIT and the Whitehead 
Institute for Biomedical Research reports that yeast may succeed 
where scientists have not.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/alzheimers.html

CYCLESCORE
The key to success with exercise has little to do with your fitness 
or appearance goals, say MIT students who used research on the 
psychology of exercise to create a motivational video exercise game. 
The key, they say, is distraction. "People don't like to see time on 
the display. They don't want to see '15 minutes' flashing at them," 
said Harris Rabin, a graduate student at the Sloan School of 
Management and a creator of CycleScore, an electronic hot-air balloon 
game wired to an exercise bike. "The balloon game distracts them from 
the boring exercise. It takes them into another world."
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/cyclescore-0505.html

BUGS' BUILDING BLOCKS
The MIT-affiliated Broad Institute has signed a five-year, $75 
million contract with the National Institute of Allergy and 
Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to create a new Microbial Sequencing 
Center. The center will sequence the genomes of more than 100 
organisms -- including fungi, viruses, bacteria, parasites and 
invertebrate vectors of disease -- that are considered agents of 
bioterrorism and/or responsible for emerging and re-emerging diseases.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/microbial.html

HOW CANCER INVADES
Scientists know a great deal about how tumors originate and develop, 
but relatively little about how cancer manages to metastasize and 
invade distant tissues and organs. Now, a team of researchers led by 
biology professor Robert Weinberg of MIT and the Whitehead Institute 
has discovered that tumors spread by reactivating and commandeering a 
"sleeper" protein that should have been shut off permanently in early 
embryo development.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/metastasis.html

BOOSTING BRAINPOWER
A tiny molecular change quickly and significantly alters the number 
of receptors on the surface of synapses, an MIT neuroscientist 
reports in the journal Neuron. Because more receptors mean stronger 
connections between brain cells, manipulating this process may one 
day provide a means of boosting brainpower in the hippocampus, where 
long-term memories are stored.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/sheng.html

POLITICS AND BLOGGERS
The Democratic National Convention in Boston in July illuminated new 
faces in the party, including Barack Obama of Illinois, as well as 
the new face of media coverage of American politics generally, with 
bloggers bringing the news to their readers alongside reporters from 
mainstream media doing the same. According to two MIT professors of 
comparative media studies, the bloggers' unprecedented participation 
and the 2004 campaign's huge virtual audience represents a quiet yet 
astounding change at the intersection of information, politics, 
culture and society.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/democracy.html

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Published by the News Office  *  Massachusetts Institute of Technology