CAMBRIDGE, MA — Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, a team of MIT researchers wants to make plants even more useful by augmenting… Read More ›
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How computer-generated fake papers are flooding academia
More and more academic papers that are essentially gobbledegook are being written by computer programs – and accepted at conferences ‘I’ve written five PhDs on Heidegger just this afternoon. What next?’ Photograph: Blutgruppe – Like all the best hoaxes, there… Read More ›
New system combines control programs so fleets of robots can collaborate
A new system combines simple control programs to enable fleets of robots — or other ‘multiagent systems’ — to collaborate in unprecedented ways Writing a program to control a single autonomous robot navigating an uncertain environment with an erratic communication… Read More ›
Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?
Richard Fisher is the deputy editor of BBC Future. We form such strong emotional bonds with machines that people can’t be cruel to them even though they know they are not alive. So should robots have rights? Kate Darling likes… Read More ›
How ‘high-level U.S. government agency’ fell for fake femme fatale created by two hackers
By James Nye PUBLISHED: 00:44 EST, 4 November 2013 | UPDATED: 08:03 EST, 4 November 2013 Two hackers staged a successful cyber-attack on an unidentified U.S. government agency simply by setting up fake LinkedIn and Facebook accounts posing as… Read More ›
Top US climate scientists support development of safe nuclear power
Open letter to environmentalists and world leaders says wind and solar power are not enough to diminish carbon emissions Associated Press in Pittsburgh theguardian.com, Sunday 3 November 2013 11.03 EST Nuclear power is ‘very divisive’ among environmentalists but scientists argue it’s… Read More ›
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s wounds contradict original police arrest version
Photo: EPA Trauma surgeon Stephen Ray Odom, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, testified on April 22 that alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suffered from a “high-powered injury” that resulted in wounds to the middle ear, the skull base, his… Read More ›
How to sniff aliens’ gas in exoplanet atmospheres
09 October 2013 by Lisa Grossman Magazine issue 2938. Subscribe and save For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide ALIEN worlds have been pouring out of the sky in recent years. Exoplanet searches like those led by the… Read More ›
New Terminator-style ‘bots can self-assemble, leap, climb and SWARM
Creepy, limbless – MIT roboticists flywheel paves way for tiny, cube-shaped overlords By Brid-Aine Parnell, 7th October 2013 Rise of The Machines Roboticists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a range of self-assembling cube robots, which have no external… Read More ›
Print a working paper computer on an $80 inkjet
03 October 2013 by Paul Marks Magazine issue 2937. Subscribe and save For similar stories, visit the Nanotechnology Topic Guide Ink laced with silver nanoparticles could make it a reality, to the joy of hobbyists “IMAGINE printing out a… Read More ›
MIT Scientist: UN Global Waming report is hilarious
Monday, 30 September 2013 Not all scientists are panicking about global warming — one of them finds the alarmism “hilarious.” A top climate scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lambasted a new report by the UN’s climate bureaucracy… Read More ›
Secret Service releases first 100 pages of Aaron Swartz investigation
Published time: August 14, 2013 00:29 Aaron Swartz (Photo by Phillip Stearns) Freshly unveiled documents indicate that the US Secret Service was involved in the investigation into Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who was awaiting trial on hacking… Read More ›
Japan eyes first-strike capability, Marines in defense policy update
By Linda Sieg National Jul. 25, 2013 – 05:10PM JST ( 41 ) TOKYO — Japan is likely to start considering acquiring the ability to launch pre-emptive military strikes in a planned update of its basic defense policies, the latest… Read More ›
New book documents Cold War experiments on kids
By JOANN LOVIGLIO / Associated Press / July 7, 2013 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A half century later, Charlie Dyer still vividly remembers the day he was picked to join the ‘‘Fernald Science Club.’’ It was 1954 and at 14, he had already spent nearly… Read More ›
Low-power Wi-Fi signal tracks movement — even behind walls
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘Wi-Vi’ is based on a concept similar to radar and sonar imaging CAMBRIDGE, MA — The comic-book hero Superman uses his X-ray vision to spot bad guys lurking behind walls and… Read More ›
COLUMN – Why the government wants your metadata
Source: Reuters – Fri, 7 Jun 2013 02:23 PM Author: Reuters (Jay Stanley and Ben Wizner are Reuters columnists but their opinions are their own.) By Jay Stanley and Ben Wizner June 7 (Reuters) – In the wake of The… Read More ›
Bomber’s father bizarrely claims that the FBI CALLED his son to accuse him of deadly attack two days before he was shot dead
Sunday, Apr 21 2013 ‘That’s your problem’: Chilling response of Boston bomber after ‘FBI called him to accuse him of deadly attack’ By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 12:47 EST, 21 April 2013 | UPDATED: 12:59 EST, 21 April 2013… Read More ›
Harvard stripped of quiz championships for cheating
Harvard University has been stripped of a string of US quiz championship titles after a cheating scandal was uncovered by organisers. Championships awarded to the Ivy League college, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2009 and 2010, and two separate titles… Read More ›
Researchers explore quantum entanglement: superluminal
Contact: Leanne Yohemas lmyohema@ucalgary.ca 402-220-7722 University of Calgary Paper in Physical Review Letters delves into phenomenon Einstein called ‘spooky’ Albert Einstein called quantum entanglement—two particles in different locations, even on other sides of the universe, influencing each other—”spooky action at… Read More ›
A possible answer for protection against chemical/biological agents, fuel leaks, and coffee stains
Contact: Robert White robert.white@afosr.af.mil Air Force Office of Scientific Research A recent discovery funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research may very well lead to a process that not only benefits every uniformed service member of the Department… Read More ›
CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots
December 14, 2012 University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hundreds of them. Correll and his… Read More ›
Entangle Schrödinger’s cat to up its quantum weirdness
18:05 01 November 2012 by Jacob Aron For similar stories, visit the Quantum World Topic Guide Nothing is more adorable than a kitten playing with string, but when Schrödinger’s cat becomes entangled, things get really weird.Two research teams have independently… Read More ›
Are downloadable memories just around the corner? ( Using light repsonse as a Binary Code model )
By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:18:49 EST, 26 October 2012| UPDATED:18:49 EST, 26 October 2012 A scientist at MIT could be on track to uncovering how to restore lost memories in the brain. Using light stimulation to control neurons and map… Read More ›
Glutamine supplements show promise in treating stomach ulcers
2009 study posted for filing Contact: Bonnie Prescott bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7306 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Amino acid helps offset stomach damage caused by H. pylori bacteria; animal study suggests popular supplement could also reduce risk of gastric cancers BOSTON –… Read More ›
A complex logic circuit made from bacterial genes
The circuit is designed to act as the controller in synthetic bacteria that monitor and modify their environment . October 12, 2012 By Diana Lutz . . Just as electronic circuits are made from resistors, capacitors and transistors, biological circuits… Read More ›
Team builds most complex synthetic biology circuit yet
Mon, 10/08/2012 – 7:39am Using genes as interchangeable parts, synthetic biologists design cellular circuits that can perform new functions, such as sensing environmental conditions. However, the complexity that can be achieved in such circuits has been limited by a critical… Read More ›
Evolution’s new wrinkle
2008 study posted for filing Contact: Kitta MacPherson kittamac@princeton.edu 609-258-5729 Princeton University Proteins with cruise control provide new perspective A team of Princeton University scientists has discovered that chains of proteins found in most living organisms act like adaptive machines,… Read More ›
“Biohackers” or “DIY Biologists”, Teams have come together to create the world’s first “public BioBrick”
Amateur scientists build Lego-style synthetic BioBricks in public lab By Joel Winston 24 September 12 While some may believe that science is better left to scientists, hundreds of amateur biologists around the world have been setting-up makeshift biology labs in… Read More ›
Scientists create germ cell-supporting embryonic Sertoli-like cells from skin cells
Contact: Nicole Rura rura@wi.mit.edu 617-258-6851 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 6, 2012) – Using a stepwise trans-differentiation process, Whitehead Institute researchers have turned skin cells into embryonic Sertoli-like cells. The main role of mature Sertoli cells is… Read More ›
Neuroscientists successfully control the dreams of rats. Could humans be next?
George Dvorsky Researchers working at MIT have successfully manipulated the content of a rat’s dream by replaying an audio cue that was associated with the previous day’s events, namely running through a maze (what else). The breakthrough furthers our… Read More ›
Neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light
For Immediate Release:January 6, 2010 * Reposted for Filing contact: Jen Hirsch, MIT News Office email: newsoffice@mit.edu phone: 617-253-2700 New tools show potential for treating brain disorders CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of… Read More ›
Merging tissue and electronics
For Immediate Release:August 27, 2012 contact: Sarah McDonnell, MIT News Office email: s_mcd@mit.edu phone: 617-253-8923 New tissue scaffold could be used for drug development and implantable therapeutic devices. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — To control the three-dimensional shape of engineered tissue,… Read More ›
Engineering Evil 