This Freshman Advising Seminar surveys the many applications of magnets and magnetism. To the Chinese and Greeks of ancient times, the attractive and repulsive forces between magnets must have seemed magical indeed. Through the ages, miraculous curative powers have been attributed to magnets, and magnets have been used by illusionists to produce “magical” effects. Magnets guided ships in the Age of Exploration and generated the electrical industry in the 19th century. Today they store information and entertainment on disks and tapes, and produce sound in speakers, images on TV screens, rotation in motors, and levitation in high-speed trains. Students visit various MIT projects related to magnets (including superconducting electromagnets) and read about and discuss the history, legends, pseudoscience, science, and technology of types of magnets, including applications in medicine. Several short written reports and at least one oral presentation will be required of each participant.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Of all the forms of cancer, few are as aggressive as pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The discovery of a tumor in the pancreas is often accompanied by an extremely poor prognosis, even when surgery is an option. But a new technique could help doctors design better treatment strategies for patients with this type of cancer. A recent study carried out by researchers from France and the US highlights a promising new approach to rapidly distinguish pancreatic cancer cells from healthy ones and to predict a patient’s chances of survival after diagnosis. Such predictive power would allow physicians to better assess a patient’s surgical needs and recommend a more personalized treatment plan..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This course is an intensive introduction to the techniques of experimental chemistry and gives first year students an opportunity to learn and master the basic chemistry lab techniques for carrying out experiments. Students who successfully complete the course and obtain a “Competent Chemist” (CC) or “Expert Experimentalist” (EE) rating are likely to secure opportunities for research work in a chemistry lab at MIT.
Acknowledgements
The laboratory manual and materials for this course were prepared by Dr. Katherine J. Franz and Dr. Kevin M. Shea with the assistance of Professors Rick L. Danheiser and Timothy M. Swager. Materials have been revised by Dr. J. Haseltine, Dr. Kevin M. Shea, Dr. Sarah A. Tabacco, Dr. Kimberly L. Berkowski, Anne M. (Gorham) Rachupka, and Dr. John J. Dolhun.
WARNING NOTICE
The experiments described in these materials are potentially hazardous and require a high level of safety training, special facilities and equipment, and supervision by appropriate individuals. You bear the sole responsibility, liability, and risk for the implementation of such safety procedures and measures. MIT shall have no responsibility, liability, or risk for the content or implementation of any of the material presented.
Legal Notice

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a powerful analytical technique used in chemistry, physics, and biochemistry to study the structure, dynamics, and composition of molecules. It relies on the principles of nuclear spin and magnetic resonance to provide detailed information about the chemical and physical properties of substances.In NMR, a sample is placed in a strong magnetic field, typically generated by a superconducting magnet. The magnet aligns the nuclear spins of certain atoms in the sample, such as hydrogen (protons) or carbon-13. These nuclei possess a property called spin, which is analogous to the rotation of a spinning top.    

This course is an introduction to computational biology emphasizing the fundamentals of nucleic acid and protein sequence and structural analysis; it also includes an introduction to the analysis of complex biological systems. Topics covered in the course include principles and methods used for sequence alignment, motif finding, structural modeling, structure prediction and network modeling, as well as currently emerging research areas.

5.73 covers fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics: wave properties, uncertainty principles, Schrödinger equation, and operator and matrix methods. Basic applications of the following are discussed: one-dimensional potentials (harmonic oscillator), three-dimensional centrosymmetric potentials (hydrogen atom), and angular momentum and spin. The course also examines approximation methods: variational principle and perturbation theory.

This intermediate organic chemistry course focuses on the methods used to identify the structure of organic molecules, advanced principles of organic stereochemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and methods used for the synthesis of organic compounds. Additional special topics include illustrating the role of organic chemistry in biology, medicine, and industry.

This intermediate organic chemistry course focuses on the methods used to identify the structure of organic molecules, advanced principles of organic stereochemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and methods used for the synthesis of organic compounds. Additional special topics include illustrating the role of organic chemistry in biology, medicine, and industry.

This course is an introduction to quantum mechanics for use by chemists. Topics include particles and waves, wave mechanics, semi-classical quantum mechanics, matrix mechanics, perturbation theory, molecular orbital theory, molecular structure, molecular spectroscopy, and photochemistry. Emphasis is on creating and building confidence in the use of intuitive pictures.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Class 1 cytokine receptors, or C1CRs, are transmembrane proteins that facilitate communication between the inside and outside of cells. They orchestrate key processes such as proliferation, differentiation, immunity, and growth largely through long intracellular domains (ICDs) – forming C1CR-ICDs. A recent study shows that C1CR-ICDs share being fully disordered and brimming with short linear motifs, or SLiMs, which are compact amino acid sequences that mediate protein interactions. How can disorder govern this critical signaling capacity? Many of these SLiMs are overlapping, indicating a complex regulation of interactions. Together with a different amino composition compared to other IDPs, this enables the C1CR-ICDs to execute distinct functions. Thus, organizational and functional features are embedded within the disorder of the C1CR-ICDs but remain to be decoded..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Is it a tumor? Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can tell. Your head is full of tiny radio transmitters (the nuclear spins of the hydrogen nuclei of your water molecules). In an MRI unit, these little radios can be made to broadcast their positions, giving a detailed picture of the inside of your head.

Through this unit, written for an honors anatomy and physiology class, students become familiar with the human skeletal system and answer the Challenge Question: When you get home from school, your mother grabs you, and you race to the hospital. Your grandmother fell and was rushed to the emergency room. The doctor tells your family your grandmother has a fractured hip, and she is referring her to an orthopedic specialist. The orthopedic doctor decides to perform a DEXA scan. The result show her BMD is -3.3. What would be a probable diagnosis to her condition? What are some possible causes of her condition? Should her daughter and granddaughter be worried about this condition, and if so, what are measures they could take to prevent this from happening to them?