Technology

    How we recall the past   Neuroscientists discover a brain circuit dedicated to retrieving memories. Anne Trafton | MIT News Office August 17, 2017 Share Comment When we have a new experience, the memory of that event is stored in a neural circuit that connects several parts of the hippocampus and other brain structures. Each cluster of neurons may store different aspects of the ...

Left to right: School of Engineering Dean Ian A. Waitz, graduate student Mary Elizabeth Wagner, and Alan Oppenheim '59, ScD '64, who is a sponsor of the School of Engineering Graduate Student Award for Extraordinary Teaching and Mentoring. Photo: Gretchen Ertl Full Screen Left to right: School of Engineering Dean Ian A. Waitz, graduate student Mary Elizabeth Wagner, and Alan Oppenheim '59, ScD '64, who is a sponsor of the School of Engineering Graduate Student Award for Extraordinary Teaching and Mentoring. Photo: Gretchen Ertl Left to right: School of Engineering Dean Ian A...

Special Report: How Engineers Are Preparing for Sea-Level Rise From Seattle to Cape Cod, see what's being done at 18 different locations Pam Radtke Russell KEYWORDS climate change / Sea-Level Rise / storm surge / Tidal Flooding Reprints 68 187 No Comments Piloting his crab boat during a storm off Tangier Island, Va., Mayor James Eskridge sweeps his hand over the water and says, “I remember when all of this area was land.” Below the water are the homes, stores and graves of the Tangier Island communities that have been swallowed by the sea. Since 1850, the island has lost more than 66% of its land mass. Today, the 1.2-sq-mile island continues to erode by as much as 25 ft per year. “There are other communities around here that have disappeared,” he says. “We’ve seen what can happen to us if we don’t get the help we need.” “There are other communities around here that have disappeared. W...

  MIT team races to second in electric car competition Strong performances across multiple categories boost MIT Motorsports electric vehicle team at SAE Collegiate Design Series event in Lincoln, Nebraska  There comes a time in a team's life when it's impossible not to break into a grin. Which is what the MIT Motorsports team did when they snagged a Second Place Overall Spirit of Excellence Award at the Society of Automotive Engineers' Formula SAE Electric competition in Lincoln, Nebraska. The team earned high finishes in four different categories at the June 24 event, which is part of the SAE Collegiate Design Series . They placed second in the category of Endurance, third in Autocross, third in Skid-Pad, and fifth in Acceleraton. In the Endurance category — which tests acceleration, speed, handling, dynamics, efficiency, and reliability over a 22-kilometer course — the MIT Motorsports team had the fastest lap at 83.7 seconds and over...

  Source: Pixabay The state of California is tightening the already-strict guidelines governing a pesticide commonly used by famers to kill pests attacking crops such as cotton, grapes and almonds. State officials are attempting to add the pesticide—called chlorpyrifos—to an existing list of chemicals harmful to humans. Chlorpyrifos is thought, according to researchers, to interfere with the brain development of unborn babies and young children. "New information in the scientific community leads us to believe the level of risk it poses is greater than previously known," California EPA Secretary Matthew Rodriquez said in a statement. "The actions we are taking today reflect our commitment to the health and safety of all Californians, and the environment." Already prohibited from use within 150 feet of schools and homes, state officials are also attempting to increase that distance to 450 feet. After a public comment period, the dr...

How do you outsmart an 800 lb gorilla?  E-commerce retailers in the two biggest markets – China and the U.S. – grapple with this question every day. Many assume the e-commerce game is over given the immense success of Amazon and Alibaba (both have $400+B market caps).  Amazon has systematically commoditized product category after product category – books, houseware, electronics, clothing, grocery and more, while Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao platforms have captured market share and popular imagination with millions of SKUs, truly creating a global “everything store.” But declaring game-over in these markets is a mistake. A careful read of emerging trends reveals rich greenfield territory, where billion dollar start-ups can thrive by recognizing the opportunities of  global mass market  of millennials from day one. I’ve written more on millennial buying habits  here . Key to understanding these emerging trends is a redefinition of what we mea...

Microsoft just pulled the trigger on Xbox One X pre-orders, offering up the souped up version of its console for $499. Unveiled back at E3 in June after a year’s worth of teasers, the latest Xbox One features more memory and improved processing designed for 4K playback. The company is also using its platform at the Gamecom conference in Cologne, Germany to debut a limited edition version of the One X, in line with the Xbox One’s Day One edition . The new system is an homage to the console’s far, far cooler  Project Scorpio  codename. Ultimately, Microsoft ditched the name, deciding was probably more fit for a late-Cold War era spy movie where Dolph Lundgren reprises his role as Ivan Drago. As hinted at on Friday when it briefly popped up via a German retailer, Microsoft is keeping the name alive with the limited Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition, available only as a pre-order. To be honest, there’s not really much different about this version — it mostly a...

First molten-salt thorium nuclear reactor experiment in over 45 years starts in the Netherlands Petten researchers prepare to place the crucibles containing thorium salt into the reactor Credit: Thorium Energy World The first phase of the Salt Irradiation Experiment (SALIENT) has begun at the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group in Petten, a nuclear research facility on the Dutch North Sea coast. The experiment is being carried out in cooperation with the European Commission Laboratory Joint Research Center-ITU (JRC) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and initially aims to produce cleaner reactor fuel, and will then look at materials for reactor construction. The last research into molten salt thorium reactors was carried out at the Oak Ridge laboratory in the US. Inside the high flux reactor Credit: Thorium Energy World The Petten team is using the site’s high flux reactor under product manager Sander DeGroot and lead scientist Ralph Hania. Using the high heat inside the reacto...

Despite having a passion for sailing, Becky Thomas stumbled across her naval architecture university course rather than seeking it out. Originally planning to work in medicine, she’s now employed by BAE Systems at its Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, where she’s involved in the design and construction of the UK’s next generation of naval submarines.  The Student Engineer  tracked Becky down to talk about her journey. Can you tell us a bit about your sailing background and how it influenced your career choices? I was a keen dinghy sailor prior to heading off to University. I got into the sport fairly late on, at the age of about 15, through a kids summer sports camp. From then on I was completely hooked; sailing for my local county sailing team, spending my weekends travelling the country for local and national events, and eventually becoming the team coach. I then spent my gap year prior to university teaching sailing and other outdoor activities at the c...

Over 100 roboticists and artificial intelligence experts have called for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems. Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System The call – made at the start of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2017) in Melbourne – has been endorsed in a letter signed by the founders of 116 robotics and AI companies who are concerned about their technologies being repurposed to into autonomous weapons . The letter, which includes Elon Musk founder of Tesla, SpaceX and OpenAI as a signatory, states: “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. “Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. “These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways. “We do not have long to act. Once t...

Apple and Aetna have held several secret meetings to discuss offering the Apple Watch to Aetna’s 23 million customers, according to CNBC . These meetings, held on Thursday and Friday of last week in Southern California, reportedly involved top executives from both companies, including Myoung Cha , who is in charge of Apple’s special health projects, and hospital chief medical information officers from across the country. Aetna could roll out the plan as early as next year, according to a CNBC source. We’ve reached out to both Apple and Aetna and will be sure to update you if and when we hear more. So far Aetna has declined to comment. This is not the first time Apple has joined up with the health insurance company. Aetna already offers the Apple Watch to its 50,000 employees. Aetna also announced last September it would be offering the Apple Watch to select large employers and these talks could be an extension of that announcement. Aetna now reportedly has ambit...

US researchers develop nanowire system to heat battledress for cold climate combat The US Army wants paratroopers to operate weapons as soon as they land in Arctic conditions Credit: US Army Alaska Winter has never been the soldier’s friend. In ancient times, wars were only fought between spring and autumn; and in campaigns from Napoleon’s time onwards, the onset of winter has precipitated catastrophic defeat. At this week’s American Chemical Society meeting, researchers from Stanford University have unveiled a new system which, they believe, will help keep soldiers toasty in even the most arctic conditions. Most of the US Army’s winter gear was designed over 30 years ago, so soldiers often opt to buy winter gloves from outdoor gear retailers. But even this isn’t warm enough for paratroopers falling through freezing conditions and landing in cold weather, said researcher Dr Paolo D’Angelo of Stanford’s chemistry department. “That’s problematic if soldiers have to opera...

Just as reality appears to be getting worse by the day, VR companies are doing the lord’s work and making the price of escaping it a bit more accessible. HTC is dropping the price of its Vive virtual reality system from $799 to $599 as the Taiwanese tech giant seeks to compete with aggressive price cuts coming from Facebook-owned Oculus and their Rift headset. At the beginning of the 2017 calendar year, both Oculus and HTC were selling their flagship VR headsets and motion controllers for roughly $800, but a pair of deep price cuts and a temporary summer sale has left the price of the Oculus Rift at $399, nearly half of its original sticker price. Once Oculus’s summer-long sale on its headset ends, the Rift will retail for $499, notably still $100 cheaper than the Vive’s updated pricing. Though HTC fancies the Vive a more premium experience than the Rift, the two are really on mostly equal footing from a hardware standpoint with each having some m...

  German automotive giant Continental is furthering its push into the future of transportation after it got its check book out to acquire  Quantum Inventions , a Singapore-based company that specializes in mobility data services. The deal was announced in June with little fanfare and it is officially undisclosed, but a source told TechCrunch that it is around the SG$40 million mark — that works out to around $29 million. That’s a pretty significant exit — both in name of acquirer and deal size — for Southeast Asia’s nascent yet promising tech ecosystem. You’d be hard pressed to call Quantum Inventions a startup, although it certainly operating in startup style. The company was founded in 2006, over ten years ago, and it has 120 staff across offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is focused on ‘mobility solutions’ in the consumer, automotive and government/enterprise sectors. That’s a fairly broad term but...