[Editors] MIT Research Digest - January 2006

[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 - January 2006
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For Immediate Release
MONDAY, JAN. 9, 2006
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: Wind Power * Flu Logistics * Pluto's Moon 
Remodeling Brain Cells * Einstein (Still) Rules * Nano-Spring
Dog Genome * The Fungus Among Us * Sharper Images
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WIND POWER
There's more to determining the value of wind power than knowing which way the wind blows -- or even how hard. MIT researchers studying winds off the Northeast coast have found that estimating the potential environmental benefits from wind and other renewables requires a detailed understanding of the dynamics of both renewable resources and conventional power generation. Data show that wind-energy facilities would generate far more electricity in winter, because that's when winds are strongest. But the need for electricity is greatest in summer, when air conditioners are going full blast. So, what are the benefits of wind energy? According to the MIT study, wintertime wind power will replace electricity generated by relatively inefficient and dirty fossil fuel power plants. However, since wind, electricity demand, fossil fuel prices and investment in power generation are so variable, the MIT team, led by Stephen Connors of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, is now performing a more comprehensive analysis.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/wind-1221.html

FLU LOGISTICS
Although the flu causes tens of thousands of deaths each year in the United States, vaccine to fight the illness is often in short supply when the flu season is at its peak. Now MIT-affiliated researchers have come up with some ways to get the vaccine where it's needed in a timely fashion. Implementing these recommendations could make future influenza outbreaks less deadly. The vaccine supply chain study is led by Prashant Yadav, professor of supply chain management at the Zaragoza Logistics Center, which is a partner in the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, a research and education collaboration among the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, the University of Zaragoza (Spain), the government of Aragón, Spain, and industry partners.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/flu.html

PLUTO'S MOON
If you want to learn something about a place that's billions of miles away, it helps to be in the right place at the right time. Astronomers from MIT and Williams College were lucky enough to watch as Pluto's largest moon, Charon, passed in front of a star last summer. Based on their observations of the occultation, which lasted for less than a minute, the team reports new details about the moon in the Jan. 5 issue of Nature. A second paper from another group, led by French astronomer Bruno Sicardy, also appears in this issue of Nature. The MIT-Williams team was able to measure Charon's size to an unprecedented accuracy and determine that it has no significant atmosphere. "The results provide insight into the formation and evolution of bodies in the outer solar system," said lead author Amanda Gulbis, a postdoctoral associate in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. The work was supported by NASA.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/charon.html

REMODELING BRAIN CELLS
Despite the prevailing belief that adult brain cells don't grow, a researcher at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reports in the Dec. 27 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology that structural remodeling of neurons does in fact occur in mature brains. This finding means that it may one day be possible to grow new cells to replace ones damaged by disease or spinal cord injury, such as the one that paralyzed the late actor Christopher Reeve. "Knowing that neurons are able to grow in the adult brain gives us a chance to enhance the process and explore under what conditions -- genetic, sensory or other -- we can make that happen," said study co-author Elly Nedivi, a professor of neurobiology. This work is supported by the National Eye Institute.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/neurons.html

EINSTEIN (STILL) RULES
In a fitting cap to the World Year of Physics 2005, an international team of MIT physicists and colleagues report the most precise direct test yet of Einstein's most famous equation, E=mc2. And, yes, Einstein still rules. The team found that the formula predicting that energy and mass are equivalent is correct to an incredible accuracy of better than one part in a million. That's 55 times more precise than the best previous test. Why undertake the exercise? "In spite of widespread acceptance of this equation as gospel, we should remember that it is a theory. It can be trusted only to the extent that it is tested with experiments," said team member David Pritchard, a professor of physics at MIT, associate director of MIT's Research Laboratory for Electronics and a principal investigator in the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. Pritchard and colleagues from MIT, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Institut Laue Langevin, Florida State and the University of Oxford report their results in the Dec. 22 issue of Nature. This work was funded by the NSF and NIST.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/emc2.html

NANO-SPRING
Researchers have known for some time that a long, fibrous coil grown by a single-cell protozoan is, gram for gram, more powerful than a car engine. Now, researchers led by a team at MIT and the Whitehead Institute have found that this nano-spring is far stronger than previously thought. In addition, the researchers have discovered clues to the mechanism behind this microscopic powerhouse. "These findings are twofold," says Danielle France, a graduate student in the lab of Whitehead Member Paul Matsudaira, and, along with Matsudaira, a member of MIT's Division of Biological Engineering. "First, they give us an idea of how a cell can manage to generate such enormous force; and second, they provide clues for how engineers might reconstruct these mechanisms for nanoscale devices." France presented her findings in December at a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. Collaborators on the work are from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and the University of Illinois, Chicago. This research was funded by the U.S. Army.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/nanospring.html

DOG GENOME
In work that sheds light on both the genetic similarities between dogs and humans and the genetic differences between dog breeds, an international research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced in December the completion of a high-quality genome sequence of the domestic dog. The research was published in Nature. Comparing dog and human DNA reveals key secrets about the regulation of the master genes that control embryonic development. Comparing dog breeds reveals the structure of genetic variation within the species. The researchers' catalog of 2.5 million specific genetic differences across several breeds can now be used to unlock the basis of physical and behavioral differences, as well to find the genetic underpinnings of diseases common to domestic dogs and their human companions. This work was funded in large part by the NIH.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/dog-genome.html

THE FUNGUS AMONG US
We now know more about the fungus among us. Humans have a love-hate relationship with the aspergilli, a group of about 185 different species of fungus: several species are human pathogens, while others are the basis for the production of human food and industrial enzymes. Now, an international team of scientists, including researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have determined and compared the genome sequences of three aspergilli -- Aspergillus fumigatus, a potentially deadly human pathogen; A. oryzae, used in the production of soy sauce and sake, and A. nidulans, a model genetic organism. Their findings, published in three papers in the Dec. 22 issue of Nature, advance our understanding of the molecular basis of Aspergillus infection, provide insight into the forces driving genome evolution, and identify new genomic functional elements. This work was funded in part by the NIH.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/fungus.html

SHARPER IMAGES
Are you tempted to trade in last year's digital camera for a newer model with even more megapixels? Researchers who make images of the human brain have the same obsession with increasing their pixel count, which increases the sharpness (or "spatial resolution") of their images. And improvements in spatial resolution are happening as fast in brain imaging research as they are in digital camera technology. Professor Nancy Kanwisher, Rebecca Frye Schwarzlose and Christopher Baker at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research are now using their higher-resolution scans to produce much more detailed images of the brain than were possible just a couple years ago. Just as "hi-def" TV shows clearer views of a football game, these finely grained images are providing new answers to some very old questions in brain research. The research was supported by the NIH, the National Center for Research Resources, the Mind Institute, and the NSF.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/face-1221.html