Research Digest | Search | MIT News | Comments | MIT
These brief summaries of MIT research are drawn from several
sources and are issued throughout the year. More information on any
of these stories can be obtained by
contacting
the MIT News Office. In some cases, photos may be
available for news organizations.
Comet Crash. Consider what happens when a child and adult jump into a pool: the adult makes a bigger splash, right? But that's not what happened on Jupiter last July when fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 bombarded the planet. The plumes of material that erupted from Jupiter after each impact rose to about the same height, regardless of how big each comet chunk was. Last month in the journal Science MIT scientists and colleagues reported this and other observations of Jupiter's atmosphere after the collision. "This is the first paper to really quantify the results we got, though there's still a lot of interpretation left to do," said Heidi Hammel, a principal research scientist in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). Other observations reported in the paper involved the atmospheric waves that spread out from each impact site. Scientists led by Professor Timothy Dowling of EAPS had specifically predicted the occurrence of gravity waves, or the waves you get when you throw a rock into a pond. Their pre-impact simulation showing waves moving at a speed of about 400 meters per second came very close to the measured speed of about 454 meters per second. The work was supported by NASA.
Computer Clubhouse. Where can youths from Boston's inner-city neighborhoods go to design their own robots, create an on-line art gallery, or develop an interactive newsletter--all free of charge, using the latest computer technology? The answer is the Computer Clubhouse, an innovative after-school learning center organized by The Computer Museum in Boston in collaboration with MIT's Media Laboratory. The Clubhouse is the brainchild of Mitchel Resnick, assistant professor at the Media Lab, and Natalie Rusk, formerly of The Computer Museum. "The Computer Clubhouse is most definitely not about playing computer games," says Resnick. "It's about allowing kids to design, create, and construct things with new computational media." It is also an ideal environment to try out some of the Media Lab's new technologies, such as the Programmable Brick, which is being developed in collaboration with the LEGOTM company. The Clubhouse recently marked its first anniversary. More than 500 young people participated over the year, including a handful who show up daily. The founders hope that similar learning centers can be established throughout the country.
Internet and the Blind. An MIT poet has shown that a device for diagnosing eye disease could allow some people who are blind, or visually challenged like her, to access the Internet, read simple texts, or see the face of a friend. A recent test of the device over the Internet also raises the possibility of using it in telemedicine. With such a capability doctors working in one location could observe the retina of a patient miles away. Elizabeth Goldring of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies was first introduced to the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) during a visit to her doctor about 10 years ago. To examine Goldring's eyes, her doctor asked her to peer into the SLO. With the machine he projected an image directly onto the retina of one eye via a laser. The idea was to determine whether she had any healthy retina left (at the time, she was blind). It turns out that she did, and was able to see the image. Realizing the potential of the SLO for non-medical applications such as viewing faces, Goldring contacted its inventor, Robert Webb. Their collaboration has since led to stunning demonstrations of the power of the tool. Goldring has also designed a "visual language" for the SLO consisting of short words that incorporate graphics to illustrate the words' meanings and make them easier to see. Work on this language is supported by the MIT Council for the Arts. Cannon Inc. lent MIT the SLO used in the Internet demonstration; Apple provided the computers.
Air Pollution from Water. Air pollution--once thought to originate only from land-based emissions--may also be produced in Boston Harbor. Air pollution is generated in part from natural gases known as nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs). Both sewage and the burning of fossil fuels have increased NMHC levels significantly in the last 150 years. NMHCs also find their way into marine environments. To ascertain whether or not NMHCs were migrating from Boston Harbor into the air, or from the air into the harbor, researchers led by Ronald Prinn, director of MIT's Center for Global Change Science and a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, undertook a pilot study in and around the harbor. They found higher levels of NMHCs in the water samples than in the corresponding air samples, indicating a flux of the gases from the harbor into the surrounding air. "I have a strong suspicion that these gases are produced by microorganisms using sewage effluent as a nutrient source," Prinn said. The study, a collaboration with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, indicates a need for closer monitoring of the effects of treated wastewater, runoff and combined sewage overflows that flow into the harbor. The work was funded by the MIT Sea Grant College Program.
Do Dolphins Sleep? How deep do fish live? Why are there waves in the oceans? How do jellyfish sting? Are all sharks dangerous? How do boy and girl crabs tell each other apart? The answers to these and other perplexing questions can be found in MIT Sea Grant's latest publication, "Do Dolphins Sleep? Questions and Answers about the Sea." Questions in the booklet were gleaned from kids' letters to MIT Sea Grant; responses were collected from marine experts around the country. Do dolphins sleep? According to the booklet, yes, "but not quite in the same way that people do. They sleep with one half of the brain at a time and with one eye closed. [They] rest this way on and off throughout the day, switching which side of the brain they shut down. During these periods, everything inside the dolphin slows down, and the animal moves very little." To get a copy call Kathy de Zengotita at 617-253-5944. There may be a small charge.