by Paola Fanutti

Created on: May 17, 2008   Last Updated: December 09, 2008

Boston, Massachusetts' cultural and military past involves events like the Boston Tea Party, and the Battle of Bunker Hill. But the city of Boston is also full of educational firsts. America's very first public school was founded here in the 1600's, the Boston Latin School. The very first medical school for women opened in Boston also, The Boston Female Medical School in 1635's and America's first college, Harvard, opened in nearby Cambridge a year later.

Since the British Puritanical settlement there in 1629, Boston's educationally-driven heritage has yielded an impressive scientific culture focused on hard work and cutting-edge scientific innovation, especially in the field of bio-technology. Headquartered in Boston, multiple bio-technology companies like Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Merck and Co., Genzyme and Biogen Idec, work closely with Boston schools.

MEDICAL PROJECTS AT MIT

At the forefront of technological development and innovation is MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, whose annual scientific research grants for research projects are among the highest of American universities.

Thanks to Nobel Prize and National Medal of Science award-winning students and faculty, MIT is continually improving the quality of health care services in Boston and beyond. In 2006, MIT's Engineering department developed a laser technology, the OmniGuide, for use in Boston hospitals. The laser effectively treats cancerous tumors in patients, without injuring the surrounding healthy and vulnerable tissue. Using the OmniGuide, Harvard-educated Dr. Raphael Bueno at Brigham and Women's Hospital was able to shrink cancerous tumors in one patient by 90%, a small victory in the ongoing battle against cancer in Boston hospitals.

ENERGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS AT MIT

Depleting resources and soaring gas prices are policy challenges for Washington, and the subject of research at MIT laboratories. In Boston, MIT staff and faculty are expanding flexible technologies and scientific knowledge to meet ongoing local and global energy needs for the future.

In 2007, student Jeff McAuly won the Peter Griffith Prize for his "outstanding experimental project." He astonished onlookers by test driving a sleek, silver Porsche 914, which he had converted from a conventional gasoline to an 18-high tech battery run motor. The newly-turned electric vehicle was donated by Professor Yan Shao-Horn, who facilitated the project in the MIT Chemical Energy

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