[Editors] MIT Research Digest - December 2005

Wed Nov 30 14:34:06 EST 2005

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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MIT Research Digest - December 2005
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For Immediate Release
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30, 2005
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: Sleuthing for Materials * Toward Bionic Speed 
Making, Breaking Habits * MIT at the North Pole 
Brain Waves * TV Fans' Influence * Visual Code
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SLEUTHING FOR MATERIALS
In work that could radically change how engineers search for new materials, MIT researchers have developed a way to test the mechanical properties of almost 600 different materials in a matter of days - a task that would have taken weeks using conventional techniques. The new process could lead to the faster identification of dental implants that don't crack, tank armor that's more resistant to missiles, and other materials dependent on mechanical properties like stiffness and toughness. The trick? The team, led by Assistant Professor Krystyn J. Van Vliet of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, miniaturized the process. They describe the work in the cover story of the November issue of Advanced Materials. Funding is from the NIH, the U.S. Army Research Office through MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship program.
PHOTO AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/polymers.html

TOWARD BIONIC SPEED
Robots, both large and micro, can potentially go wherever it's too hot, cold, dangerous, small or remote for people to perform any number of important tasks, from repairing leaking water mains to stitching blood vessels together. Now MIT researchers, led by Professor Sidney Yip, have proposed a new theory that might eliminate one obstacle to those goals -- the limited speed and control of the "artificial muscles" that perform such tasks. Currently, robotic muscles move 100 times slower than ours. But engineers using the Yip lab's new theory could boost those speeds -- making robotic muscles 1,000 times faster than human muscles -- with virtually no extra energy demands and the added bonus of a simpler design. This study, which appears in a Nov. issue of the journal Physical Review Letters, was funded by Honda R&D Co., DARPA, and the ONR.
IMAGES AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/muscle.html

MAKING, BREAKING HABITS
Habits help us through the day, eliminating the need to strategize about each tiny step involved in driving to work and other complex routines. Bad habits, though, can have a vise grip on both mind and behavior. Notoriously hard to break, they are devilishly easy to resume. A new study in Nature, led by Ann Graybiel of MIT's McGovern Institute and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, now shows why. Important neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain change when habits are formed, change again when habits are broken, but quickly re-emerge when something rekindles an extinguished habit -- routines that originally took great effort to learn. The work was funded by the NIH and the ONR. 
IMAGE AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/habit.html

MIT AT THE NORTH POLE
At 75 degrees north latitude, Devon Island lies high above the Arctic Circle, a few hundred miles from the magnetic North Pole. A true polar desert, it is also the largest uninhabited island on Earth. But the reach of MIT extends even here. This past summer, a research team from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics established a semi-permanent shelter at the NASA Haughton-Mars Base. Supported by a NASA grant on interplanetary supply chain management, the team went to Devon Island because the existing base infrastructure, combined with the remote and barren location, makes it ideal for studying logistics strategies that could be used in planning exploration strategies to the moon and Mars. The principal investigators for the project are Professors Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi. 
PHOTOS AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/northpole-1116.html

BRAIN WAVES
Different brain regions working together may coordinate by locking into an oscillation frequency the way a radio tuner locks into a station, report researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory in the Nov. 15 issue of the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology. The brain's electrical activity is displayed in the form of brain waves. Matthew Wilson, a professor of neuroscience, and colleagues explore how brain waves help different parts of the brain communicate in a broad-based network. When we are focused attentively on a speaker, for instance, brain waves called theta rhythms oscillate in sync throughout our brains. Other rhythms are prominent when we are resting or involved in intense mental activity. Researchers have found that neurotransmitters -- and antidepressants -- can affect these rhythms. To our brains, the inability to shut down these brain wave communication channels is like having to listen to someone talking who won't shut up, Wilson said. Unsynchronized brain rhythms may be tied to mood disorders or diseases such as schizophrenia. This work is supported by The Wellcome Trust and the NIH.
IMAGE AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/braintuner.html

TV FANS' INFLUENCE
Fans now generate more publicity for new TV shows than big corporate campaigns, and their growing influence promises to create new alliances between citizen-viewers and producers -- but networks are not necessarily embracing these changes, according to Henry Jenkins, director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program and a professor of humanities. In an essay titled "I Want My Geek TV," Jenkins outlines how fans, producers and television networks currently tug at the global entertainment fabric when new shows are introduced, extended or canceled. In his article, published in "Flow," an online forum on television and media culture, Jenkins envisions a future in which the global TV market is powered by fans. The fans' efforts to influence networks break down the "walls between program producers and consumers as they make common cause against the networks," Jenkins writes.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/tv2-1116.html

VISUAL CODE
In the sci-fi movie "The Matrix," a cable running from a computer into Neo's brain writes in visual perceptions, and Neo's brain can manipulate the computer-created world. In reality, scientists cannot interact directly with the brain because they do not understand enough about how it codes and decodes information. Now, neuroscientists in MIT's McGovern Institute have been able to decipher a part of the code involved in recognizing visual objects. Practically speaking, computer algorithms used in artificial vision systems might benefit from mimicking these newly uncovered codes. The study, a collaboration between the labs of Professor James DiCarlo's and Professor Tomaso Poggio, appears in Science. "Our ability to recognize objects in the visual world is among the most complex problems the brain must solve," said Poggio, a professor in brain and cognitive sciences. Yet we take it for granted because it appears to happen automatically and almost unconsciously. This work was funded by DARPA, the ONR and the NIH.
IMAGE AVAILABLE
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/visualcode.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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