Lungless salamanders’ skin expresses protein crucial for lung function

A recent study shows that a gene that produces surfactant protein c — a key protein for lung function — is expressed in the skin and mouths of lungless salamanders, suggesting it also plays an important role for cutaneous respiration.

Peter Reuell • harvard
Jan. 31, 2019 • ~8 min

Biologist Adam Martin studies the mechanics of tissue folding

The dynamic process is critical to embryonic development and other cellular phenomena.

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office • mit
Jan. 31, 2019 • ~6 min

MIT’s REXIS and Bennu’s watery surface

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return spacecraft, carrying MIT instrument, arrived at asteroid in December; now begins the science to select a sampling location.

Lauren Hinkel | EAPS • mit
Jan. 29, 2019 • ~9 min

Fortifying the future of cryptography

Vinod Vaikuntanathan aims to improve encryption in a world with growing applications and evolving adversaries.

Rob Matheson | MIT News Office • mit
Jan. 16, 2019 • ~8 min

Robert Simcoe named director of MIT Kavli Institute

An expert in instrumentation and early universe observations, Simcoe succeeds Jacqueline Hewitt as head of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

School of Science • mit
Jan. 10, 2019 • ~3 min

How writing technology shaped classical thinking

Stephanie Frampton’s new book explores the written word in the Roman world.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office • mit
Jan. 8, 2019 • ~6 min

Tackling greenhouse gases

Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering are developing technologies that store, capture, convert, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

Mary Beth O'Leary | Department of Mechanical Engineering • mit
Jan. 7, 2019 • ~19 min

Opportunities for materials innovation abound

Faculty researchers share insights into new capabilities at the annual Industrial Liaison Program Research and Development Conference.

Denis Paiste | Materials Research Laboratory • mit
Dec. 14, 2018 • ~11 min

Better superconductors from ceramic copper oxides

Riccardo Comin seeks to elucidate the microscopic physics of high-temperature superconducting devices to advance their technological applications.

Denis Paiste | Materials Research Laboratory • mit
Dec. 13, 2018 • ~9 min

Inosine could be a potential route to the first RNA, Harvard study says

In a paper published in PNAS, Jack W. Szostak, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard, along with graduate student Seohyun (Chris) Kim, suggest that RNA could have started with a different set of nucleotide bases. In place of guanine, RNA could have relied on a surrogate, inosine.

Caitlin McDermott-Murphy • harvard
Dec. 10, 2018 • ~4 min

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