MIT Team Uses 4,600 Informants to Win DARPA Scavenger Hunt

How long does it take to solve a nationwide scavenger hunt? If you're a bunch of MIT whiz kids, just less than nine hours. As DISCOVER covered last week, DARPA, the Defense Department's mad scientists, devised a contest to study the spread of information with $40,000 of prize money for the winning team. The task was to be the first to find all 10 red balloons scattered at secret locations around the country and report them to the DARPA Web site.