Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2011

  • Molycorp, Ames Lab to Partner on Rare Earth Magnets

    Molycorp Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colorado and Ames National Laboratory have signed a research and development agreement to devise new methods to create commercial-grade rare-earth permanent magnets. Ames Lab in Ames, Iowa is a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. Rare-earth elements are key components in modern electronic technologies, such as televisions, fluorescent light…

  • Grants to Fund Research on High Altitude Sickness

    The Department of Defense has awarded two grants to the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver to develop new ways to combat high altitude sickness. The grants, totaling $4 million, are aimed at finding ways to overcome Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) that often strikes service members in Afghanistan.…

  • iPhone App Helps Doctors Deal with Cardiac Emergencies

    A study of an iPhone application giving emergency medical instructions suggests that the app helps doctors perform better in a simulated cardiac arrest case. The results of the study appear online in the journal Anaesthesia. The iResus app was developed by the U.K.’s Resuscitation Council and offers guidelines on medical emergency responses for adults and…

  • Prof. Develops Open-Space Laser Transmission Technology

    An emerging technology for transmitting data with lasers through open space is being developed at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. The technology that aims to exceed the communications capabilities of fiber-optic transmission without the fiber is being studied by physics and engineering professor Rainer Martini (pictured left), who has also started a…

  • U.K. Grant Funds Composite Materials Research

    A research team from two universities in the U.K. have been awarded a grant to develop a new generation of high performance, fiber-reinforced polymer composites to overcome failures that can happen with little warning. The £6 million ($US 9.6 million) six-year grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council was awarded to University of…

  • FDA Approves Melanoma Immunotherapy Drug

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Yervoy — ipilimumab — to treat patients with late-stage metastatic melanoma, a dangerous type of skin cancer. Yervoy is marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, in Princeton, New Jersey. Melanoma is the leading cause of death from skin disease. An estimated 68,130 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed in…

  • Electrolyte Nanocrystals Increase Efficiency of Fuel Cells

    Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands found that adding small crystals to solid electrolyte material can raise the efficiency of fuel cells. The TU Delft team published its findings, the second recent article on this subject, in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (paid subscription required). Fuel cells are devices that…

  • Light posting today

    I will be traveling to New York on Friday, 25 March, to hear what fellow science journalist Angela Saini has to say about her new book Geek Nation, at a meeting of the South Asian Journalists Association. Regular posting will resume on Monday. *     *     *

  • University Spinoff Company Commercializes Robotic Modules

    A University of California at Davis engineering professor and former student have developed robot modules for teaching and research, and formed a company to take their invention to market. Davis professor Harry Cheng and former grad student Graham Ryland developed the iMobot, as their invention is called, while Ryland worked in Cheng’s Integration Engineering Laboratory.…

  • European Patent Office to Translate Patents with Google Tech

    The European Patent Office (EPO), headquarted in Munich, Germany and Google signed an agreement to collaborate on machine translation of patents into 32 European and Asian languages. The signing follows a November agreement between EPO and Google to pursue the deal. EPO will use Google’s technology to offer translation of patents on its Web site…