[Editors] MIT Research Digest - May 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 - May 2005
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For Immediate Release
MONDAY, MAY 2, 2005
For more information or for available photos contact:
Elizabeth A. Thomson, MIT News Office
Phone: 617-258-5402
Email: 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: Floodsafe Honduras * Learning Birdsongs
Perfect Liquid  * Stem Cell Guidelines * Asteroid Scale
Light-Sensitive Plastics  * Clocky
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FLOODSAFE HONDURAS
Eight MIT students--five graduate students and three undergraduates-were in Tocoa, Honduras, recently working on an automated flood early warning system and visiting towns that had been badly damaged by flash flooding in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. The group tested software and radio equipment and installed a river-level sensor in the Aguan River in northeastern Honduras. They went as part of the MIT FloodSafe Honduras project, a student-led, mainly volunteer effort sponsored by the Lutheran Episcopal Ministry at MIT and the Edgerton Center. Once it is installed, the early warning system will consist of five major subsystems: upstream river level sensors, a radio communication system to transmit river data, a central processing center to crunch the numbers and predict flooding based on aggregate river data, alert receiving stations in downstream communities, and power systems for everything. 
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/honduras.html

LEARNING BIRDSONGS
Scientists have yearned to understand how the chirps and warbles of a young bird morph into the recognizable and very distinct melodies of its parents. Now neuroscientists at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research have come one step closer to understanding that process. They've shown for the first time how a particular brain region in birds serves as the source of vocal creativity. The songbird's creative, trial-and-error type of learning provides an ideal model for studying similar processes in humans, such as how a baby's babble takes on the conversational cadences and recognizable syllables of mama and papa. "The question we're trying to answer is how a young bird learns its song," says Professor Michale Fee of MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences about his recent study, which was published online in advance of the May issue of the journal Public Library of Science Biology. 
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/songbirds.html

PERFECT LIQUID
Physicists working to re-create the matter that existed at the birth of the universe expected something like a gas and ended up with the "perfect" liquid, four teams of researchers reported at an April 18 meeting of the American Physical Society. One of the teams is led by MIT. "These truly stunning findings have led us to conclude that we are seeing something completely new--an unexpected form of matter--which is opening new avenues of thought about the fundamental properties of matter and the conditions that existed just after [the Big Bang]," said Raymond Orbach of the U.S. Department of Energy, the primary supporter of the research. Unlike ordinary liquids, in which individual molecules move about randomly, the new matter seems to move in a pattern that exhibits a high degree of coordination among the particles--something like a school of fish that responds as one entity while moving through a changing environment. That fluid motion is nearly "perfect," as defined by the equations of hydrodynamics. Professor of Physics Wit Busza is leader of the MIT team. Other MIT faculty involved in the work are Professors Bolek Wyslouch and Gunther Roland of physics.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/liquid.html

STEM CELL GUIDELINES
In a report released April 26 through the National Academies, 10 scientists, including two from MIT, offer guidelines for research involving human embryonic stem cells, the cells taken from a five-day-old fertilized egg that may be tweaked to become any organ within the body. Although compliance is voluntary, some institutions have already agreed to abide by the guidelines, according to Professor of Biology Richard O. Hynes, co-chair of the committee. The Academies are urging all institutions conducting human embryonic stem cell research to establish oversight committees to ensure that the new guidelines are followed. "These guidelines are important because stem cell research is potentially a very valuable way of treating people for a variety of diseases, but the whole field of stem cell research is surrounded by disparate ethical viewpoints," said Hynes, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/stemcells.html

ASTEROID SCALE
Astronomers led by an MIT professor have revised the scale used to assess the threat of asteroids and comets colliding with Earth to better communicate those risks with the public. The overall goal is to provide easy-to-understand information to assuage concerns about a potential doomsday collision with our planet. The Torino scale, a risk-assessment system similar to the Richter scale used for earthquakes, was adopted by a working group of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1999 at a meeting in Torino, Italy. On the scale, zero means virtually no chance of collision, while 10 means certain global catastrophe. "The idea was to create a simple system conveying clear, consistent information about near-Earth objects," or asteroids and comets that appear to be heading toward the planet, said Richard Binzel, a professor in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the creator of the scale. 
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/torino.html

LIGHT-SENSITIVE PLASTICS
Picture a flower that opens when facing the sunlight. In work that mimics that sensitivity to light, an MIT engineer and German colleagues have created the first plastics that can be deformed and temporarily fixed in a second, new shape by illumination with light having certain wavelengths.  These programmed materials will only switch back to their original shape when exposed to light of specific different wavelengths. The work, reported in the April 14 issue of Nature, could have potential applications in a variety of fields, including minimally invasive surgery. What about staples that open on command, or paper clips that relax as soon as you don't need them anymore? The work was funded in part by the Bundesministerium fŸr Bildung und Forschung, Germany, and a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/smart-plastics.html

CLOCKY
MIT Media Arts and Science graduate student Gauri Nanda has developed a relatively simple product designed to combat a common problem: oversleeping. To solve the main cause of oversleeping--the snooze bar--Nanda designed a hide-and-seek process that could revolutionize the morning for many oversleepers. Clocky--a shag-carpeting-covered digital clock on two wheels--jumps from the bedside table to find a hiding spot each time the snooze bar is pressed. A few minutes later, when the alarm sounds for a second time, the sleeper must first find the clock before he or she can press snooze again. It's designed to force people up and out of bed, making them less likely to keep snoozing. "This is not a huge advancement in science," said Nanda, smiling. "But everyone can really relate to it."
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/clocky.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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