Category: New products
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Prototype Spherical Robot Developed to Monitor Reactor Pipes
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a small robotic device to inspect underground pipes for corrosion at nuclear reactors. A prototype of the remote-controlled device was presented in May at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The device, about the size of an egg and with a spherical shape, was…
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GE Develops 500 Gigabyte Micro-Holographic Disc
The technology research division of General Electric Co. says it successfully demonstrated an optical storage technology using micro-holographic material that can support data recording at the same speed as Blu-ray discs. The technology will be discussed today at IEEE’s Joint International Symposium on Optical Memory & Optical Data Storage Topical Meeting in Kauai, Hawaii. GE…
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Vaccine Against Heroin High Tested in Animals
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California have developed a vaccine against a heroin-induced high and tested its potential in lab rats. Their findings appear online in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (paid subscription required). The team led by chemistry researcher Kim Janda devised a vaccine that generates antibodies to stop heroin…
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International Team Develops Optical Packet Router
Researchers from Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada have developed an optical router chip, capable of operating up to 100 times faster than currently available chips. The router, that incorporates the principle of directing packets of data, are described in the latest issue of the journal Optics Express. The new chip is capable of routing optical…
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Grad Student Improves Solar Collector, Starts Company
A masters degree candidate at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands developed a new type of hybrid solar collector with higher efficiency and longer lifespan than the current hybrid systems. Stefan Roest, who recently completed his degree in sustainable energy technology at Delft, also helped start Eternal Sun, a company to bring solar test…
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Researchers Develop Low-Energy Cardiac Defibrillation
Scientists from Germany, France, and the U.S. have developed a new process to regulate dangerous fluctuations in heart rhythms with far less energy and pain than current methods. The team’s findings appear in the current issue of the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The regular human heartbeat is controlled by the heart’s electrical system. An…
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Rice Bolstered for Climate Impacts by Fungus Spores
Rice can become adapted to climate change by colonizing its seeds or plants with the spores of tiny naturally occurring fungi, according to new research led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The study is published online in the journal PLoS One. Rice, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, feeds half of the…
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Engineers Develop Nanotech Solar Thermal Fuel Cell
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a process for storing solar energy in the form of heat with a material based on carbon nanotubes. A description of the process by engineering professor Jeffrey Grossman and postdoc Alexie Kolpak appears online in the journal Nano Letters (paid subscription required). Grossman and Kolpak’s methods involve…
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Quick Color-Change Lens Technology Leads to New Company
A professor of chemistry and colleagues at University of Connecticut in Storrs have devised a process for quick-changing, variable colors in films and displays, such as sunglasses. Greg Sotzing and one of his colleagues started a company called Alphachromics Inc. to commercialize the technology for consumer sunglasses lenses and military goggles. Transition lenses normally use…
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International Team Completes Draft Sequence of Potato Genome
The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium (PGSC), a global group of universities and research institutes, has published a draft sequence of the potato genome. Their work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature. PGSC began in 2006 at Wageningen University & Research Centre in the Netherlands, and has grown to include 29 research groups…