Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2011

  • Universities Form Appalachian Enviro. Research Initiative

    Seven universities in the Appalachian region of the U.S. have formed  a consortium to study environmental impacts of the production and use Appalachia’s energy resources, particularly coal. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg will house the new Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Science (ARIES). ARIES is expected to involve researchers representing a range of disciplines from Virginia…

  • Study: Automatic Faucets Carry High Levels of Bacteria

    Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland have found that electronic faucets — the kind that dispense water from an electronic signal — are more likely to become contaminated with high levels of bacteria, compared with traditional manual faucets.  The study will be presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of…

  • Cancer Patients, Family Continue Smoking After Diagnosis

    A study by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina finds many patients and their care givers continue smoking even after being told they have cancer. The results of the research by Kathryn Weaver and colleagues appear in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (paid subscription required). Weaver’s team investigated behaviors of…

  • Merck to Offer Biotech Funding, Incubator in Israel

    The global pharmaceutical company Merck in Darmstadt, Germany has opened the Merck Serono Israel Bioincubator Fund, to support Israeli biotech and materials science start up companies. Merck’s chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley announced the initiative yesterday during meetings with officials in Israel. Merck’s incubator program covers pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and high-performance materials. The program will offer start…

  • Elm Variety Discovered with Possible Disease Resistance

    Two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists believe they have found a missing variety of American elm tree with genes that carry resistance to Dutch elm disease. Botanist Alan Whittemore and geneticist Richard Olsen, with the USDA’s National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., will publish their findings in the April edition of the American Journal of…

  • Yale, Gilead Sciences to Collaborate on Cancer Therapies

    Gilead Sciences Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in Foster City, California and Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut agreed on a multi-year research collaboration for the discovery of new cancer therapies. Gilead will have the first option to license Yale’s findings that result from the collaboration. The research effort will initially span four years…

  • Solar Developer, Energy Lab Sign R&D Deal

    New Energy Technologies Inc. in Columbia, Maryland has signed a research and development agreement with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado to advance the company’s technology for generating solar electric power through window glass. NREL is a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. New Energy’s system, marketed under the trade name SolarWindow,…

  • University Studying Smart Polymer Film to Control Substrates

    Researchers at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany are developing thin plastics with the ability to control the properties of materials to which they are attached. The films made of polymers — long, repeating chains of molecules — would contain elements that react to external stimuli, such as light or magnetic fields, and change the underlying…

  • Energy Dept. Cuts Fees, Procedures on Nat’l. Lab Patents

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has cut licensing fees to $1,000 and reduced paperwork for start up companies on 15,000 patents held by national laboratories. The initiative aims to double the number of start up companies coming out of the department’s 17 national labs. Any of the 15,000 unlicensed patents and patent applications held…

  • Univ. Licenses Air Quality Monitoring Technology

    An instrument to measure air quality, developed by researchers at University of Nevada in Reno, has been licensed for commercial development to Droplet Measurement Technologies of Boulder, Colorado. The device, invented by physics professor Pat Arnott (pictured left) and student Ian Arnold, is believed to be more economical, more portable, and more accurate than older…