Jack Wozencraft, information theorist at MIT, 1925-2009
Jack Wozencraft, considered one of the pioneers of coding theory in the nascent field of information theory, died peacefully August 31, 2009.
Explained: Gallager codes
In 1993, scientists achieved the maximum rate for data transmission — only to find they’d been scooped 30 years earlier by an MIT grad student.
Picture-driven computing
New research could enable computer programming based on screen shots, not just code
New ‘nanoburrs’ could help fight heart disease
Targeted nanoparticles can home in on damaged vascular tissue and may be used to deliver drugs that help clear arteries
Explained: The Shannon limit
A 1948 paper by Claude Shannon SM ’37, PhD ’40 created the field of information theory — and set its research agenda for the next 50 years.
Three professors win top national early-career honors
Presidential awards to Buehler, Dawson and Sheffield were presented this week at a White House ceremony
Human immune cells — in mice
MIT team engineers mice with human immune cells, which could be used to test vaccines for HIV and other diseases.
Graduate student’s business storms the cinema lighting industry
Nuclear Science and Engineering graduate student Michael Short is quickly becoming a leader in the cinema lighting industry with his business, the LEDStorm On-Camera Light, which he designed and built in the MIT Hobby Shop.
John Holdren keynote at AeroAstro Giant Leaps
The next 'Giant Leaps' in energy, environment and air transportation
MIT Professional Education delivers its first course in India
This week, MIT Professional Education is conducting its first-ever three-day course in India, “Airport and Airline Systems: Planning, Design and Management,” as part of the program’s new international outreach initiative.
Figuring out where to put the carbon
If we plan to keep using fossil fuels, we need to figure out how to sequester the resulting carbon dioxide. New tools from MIT could help evaluate where to do it — and how to keep it contained.
Silencing the brain with light
MIT neuroengineers find a new way to quickly and reversibly shut off neurons with multiple colors of light, which could lead to new treatments for epilepsy and chronic pain.
Driven to abstraction
Institute Professor Barbara Liskov pioneered many of the ideas that have shaped modern computer science.
Straining forward
Nanowires made of ‘strained silicon’ — silicon whose atoms have been pried slightly apart — show how to keep increases in computer power coming.
New and improved RNA interference
Researchers use RNA interference to silence multiple genes at once. The advance, which one expert calls a ‘substantial breakthrough,’ could lead to new treatments for liver diseases.