Category: New products
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Biofuel Developer to Build Commercial-Scale Ethanol Plant
Mascoma Corporation, a biofuels company in Lebanon, New Hampshire, said today it has secured financing to build a commercial-scale refinery to produce wood-based cellulosic ethanol. The company says the plant, located in Kinross Charter Township, Michigan, will be one of the first of its kind. Mascoma Corporation was founded by Lee Lynd and Charles Wyman,…
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New Math Tools Developed to Monitor Power Grid
University and company engineers have developed new mathematical tools for monitoring and measuring electrical power grid performance. The team that developed the tools — from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and Southern California Edison in Los Angeles — published their results in the online issue of IEEE…
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Enviro. Engineer Recalibrates Solar Panel Placement
An environmental engineer at University of California San Diego (UCSD) has researched the optimum placement of fixed solar panels in the U.S., and for some installations, it may mean making adjustments. UCSD environmental engineering professor Jan Kleissl computed the optimum tilt and azimuth angles for photovoltaic solar panels in the continental U.S., with his findings…
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Nanotech Helps Reduce Cancer Drug Side Effects
Researchers at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have shown that they can use nanotechnology to deliver the cancer drug cisplatin much more effectively and safely. Cisplatin (illustrated right) has been approved by the FDA as a treatment alone for bladder and ovarian cancer, and with other therapies for a…
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National Lab, University Develop Tougher, Stronger Glass
A group of engineering and materials scientists have developed a new type of damage-tolerant metallic glass, demonstrating a strength and toughness that they say goes beyond that of any known material. The team had members from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.…
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Engineering Prof. Computes Available Biofuel Crop Lands
A detailed land analysis by researchers at University of Illinois in Champaign found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce up to half of the world’s current fuel consumption, without affecting food crops or grazing land for livestock. Engineering professor Ximing Cai and two colleagues published their findings last month in the journal…
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Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biotech Partner on Alzheimer’s Test
Opko Health Inc., a biotechnology company in Miami, Florida, said today it has a collaboration agreement with the drug manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb Company for Opko’s diagnostic test technology. Opko’s blood tests are being developed from its technology that identifies biomarkers for a range of diseases including neurodegenerative disorders. Part of the project calls for Opko…
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Univ. Engineers Develop New Sewage Treatment Device
Research engineers at University of Utah in Salt Lake City have developed and commercialized an alternative device to help growing communities deal with sewage treatment. The device, known as Poo-Gloos because of their igloo-like shape (pictured right), supplement wastewater lagoons often used for sewage treatment, particularly in small, rural towns. Kraig Johnson and research colleagues…
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Univ. Developing Plastic That Tells When Food Goes Bad
Chemists at University of Strathclyde in the U.K. are developing a new form of food packaging that tells consumers when the contents have started to spoil. The university received a £325,000 ($502,500) grant from the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Programme to support the project. The problem of food spoilage is important to both consumers…
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Academic-Business Partnership Developing IVF Technology
A reproductive biologist at University of Adelaide in Australia has discovered molecules in a mother’s tissue that can help women who have suffered previous miscarriages after in-vitro fertilization (IVF) improve their rates of subsequent IVF success. Professor Sarah Robertson (pictured right), who made the discovery, is partnering with a Danish company to develop a product…