School of Science Research Highlights
Study points to dietary cocktail for Alzheimer's
Anne Trafton, News Office
July 8, 2008
A dietary cocktail that includes a type of omega-3 fatty acid can improve memory and learning in gerbils, according to the latest study from MIT researchers that points to a possible beverage-based treatment for Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.
The combination of supplements, which contains three compounds normally found in the bloodstream, is now being tested in Alzheimer's patients. The cocktail has previously been shown to promote growth of new brain connections in rodents.
"It may be possible to use this treatment to partially restore brain function in people with diseases that decrease the number of brain neurons, including, for example, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, strokes and brain injuries. Of course, such speculations have to be tested in double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials," said Richard Wurtman, Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor of Neuropharmacology and senior author of a paper on the new work. [more]
MIT scientists solve riddle of Mars' two-faced nature
David Chandler, MIT News Office
June 25, 2008
A new analysis of the topography and gravity of Mars by researchers at MIT and NASA has solved one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the solar system - why the planet Mars has two completely different kinds of terrain, in its northern and southern hemispheres. In the process, they have identified what appears to be by far the largest impact scar found anywhere. The giant basin that covers about 40 percent of the surface of Mars, sometimes called the Borealis Basin, is actually the remains of a colossal impact very early in the solar system's formation, the new analysis shows. The basin, 8,500 km across and 10,600 km long, is about the size of the combined area of Asia, Europe and Australia, and about four times wider than the next- biggest impact basins known. The northern-hemisphere basin on Mars is one of the smoothest surfaces found anywhere in the solar system, and some geologists think it may once have contained an ocean in the early days of the planet. The southern hemisphere is high, rough, heavily cratered terrain. Until now, nobody really knew why the two halves were so different. The new findings are reported in the journal Nature by MIT postdoctoral researcher Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, Maria Zuber, MIT's E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, and Bruce Banerdt of NASA-JPL. [more]
