[Editors] MIT Research Digest - March 2005

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
Phone: 617-253-2700
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www

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MIT RESEARCH DIGEST - March 2005
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For Immediate Release
TUESDAY, MAR. 1, 2005
For more information or for available photos contact:
Elizabeth Thomson, MIT News Office
617-258-5402, thomson at mit.edu


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

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IN THIS ISSUE: Post-Tsunami Research * Robo-Toddler
Supersized Stars  * Smarter Primitive Brain * Rest Easy 
Voting Technology Improvements  * Cells' Balancing Act
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POST-TSUNAMI RESEARCH
The Indian Ocean tsunami's impact on Sri Lanka's drinking water and soil was the focus of an expedition last month by an MIT professor and colleagues from Florida and the Colorado School of Mines. Upon hearing that the water in Sri Lanka's drinking wells had become too salty to drink as a result of ocean water infiltrating freshwater aquifers, and that salty soil is affecting vegetation, the three whipped together a proposal to the National Science Foundation to study the situation in real time. The NSF supports rapid response disaster teams that can be dispatched quickly to affected areas. The team, which included Professor Charles Harvey of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, kept a log while on the trip that's available online with photos. Based on the data the researchers collected during this expedition, they hope to return to Sri Lanka again in May, this time with other experts. For example, Harvey expects the May team will include someone familiar with the effects of salinization on tropical plants.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/water.html

ROBO-TODDLER
Three independent research teams, including one from MIT, have built walking robots that mimic humans in terms of their gait, energy-efficiency and control. The MIT robot also demonstrates a new learning system that allows it to continually adapt to the terrain as it walks. The work, described in the Feb. 18 issue of Science, could change the way humanoid robots are designed and controlled. It also has potential applications for robotic prostheses and could aid scientists' understanding of the human motor system. Developed at MIT, Cornell and Holland's Delft University of Technology, the three robots are all based on the same principle--they are an extension of research into "passive-dynamic walkers" that walk down a shallow slope without any motors. Control programs in the Cornell and Delft robots are simple, because a large portion of the control problem is solved in the mechanical design. The MIT robot, developed by Dr. Russ Tedrake of MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, uses customized learning software that exploits this design, allowing the robot to teach itself to walk in less than 20 minutes. The MIT work was supported in part by the NSF, the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/robotoddler.html

SUPERSIZED STARS
An MIT undergraduate who says she's been interested in astronomy for "as long as I can remember" is lead author of an Astrophysical Journal paper announcing the discovery of three stars that have the largest diameters of any normal stars known, more than a billion miles across. Emily Levesque, a junior in physics, presented the work at a recent American Astronomical Society meeting. Levesque was part of an international team that studied 74 red supergiant stars in the Milky Way. Red supergiants, massive stars nearing the ends of their lifetimes, are extremely cool and luminous--and very large. Other researchers involved in this work are from the Lowell Observatory, Cerro Tololo, the Universite de Montpellier II, and the Geneva Observatory. Support was from the NSF.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/bigstar.html

SMARTER PRIMITIVE BRAIN
Primitive structures deep within the brain may have a far greater role in our high-level everyday thinking processes than previously believed, report researchers at MIT's Picower Center for Learning and Memory in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. The results of this study led by Professor Earl Miller of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have implications about how we learn. The new knowledge also may lead to better understanding and treatment for autism and schizophrenia, which could result from an imbalance between primitive and more advanced brain systems. This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Tourette's Syndrome Association.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/basalganglia.html

REST EASY
A new study by MIT scientists and colleagues confirms that melatonin is an effective sleep aid for older insomniacs and others. Misuse of the hormone had led some to question its efficacy, but the latest work (published in the February issue of Sleep Medicine Reviews) could jump-start interest in the dietary supplement and help more people get a good night's sleep. In earlier research, scientists led by Professor Richard Wurtman, principal investigator for the current study, showed that only a small dose of melatonin (about 0.3 milligrams) is necessary for a restful effect. Taken in that quantity, it not only helps people fall asleep, but also makes it easier for them to return to sleep after waking up during the night-a problem for many older adults. Melatonin is now available commercially in this small dose. The work was supported by the NIH, the Center for Brain Sciences and Metabolism Charitable Trust, and the Womens' Health Center of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/melatonin.html

VOTING TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS
Professor Charles Stewart, head of MIT's Department of Political Science, and other researchers in the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project studied the 2004 Presidential Election on election day and afterward to see what changes and improvements had occurred since 2000. The group found that in one area in particular, the "residual vote rate," the U.S. election system improved a good deal. Residual votes are votes that are not counted for any number of reasons. In his summary of the research, Stewart noted other important points. For example, 17 million more people voted in 2004 than in 2000, a 14 percent increase. Approximately 1 million of these "new votes" can be attributed to reforms in voting machines and administrative practices over the past four years.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/vote-final-0216.html

CELLS' BALANCING ACT
Researchers at MIT's Picower Center for Learning and Memory have uncovered an important new way that the brain performs complex functions such as pattern recognition. The work, led by Professor Mriganka Sur, head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, has implications for understanding the cellular mechanisms underlying many higher level functions, including consciousness. Within the visual cortex, brain cells work together in localized circuits on tasks such as pattern recognition. At a molecular level, this involves matching the correct positive, or excitatory wires, with the correct negative, or inhibitory wires. An exquisite balance in the interplay between plus and minus inputs on individual neurons is essential to stabilize and shape circuits of thousands of cells. "We describe a key principle by which neuronal networks in the brain compute new properties from simple inputs," Sur said. The work, which appeared in a Feb. issue of Nature Neuroscience, was supported by the NIH.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/brain.html




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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu> 

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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