Science and Enterprise

Month: July 2011

  • 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…

  • Study: Start-Ups Hiring and Keeping Fewer Workers

    A new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation indicates recent start-up businesses — like those formed by scientists to commercialize their research findings — are not generating the numbers of jobs created by earlier start-up businesses. The foundation says the trend of less hiring by start-ups pre-dates the 2007-2009 recession. The Kauffman findings show…

  • Company-Institute Teams to Tackle Residual HIV Infection

    The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of National Institutes of Health awarded three research teams more than $14 million a year, for up to five years, to develop strategies to help rid the body of HIV infections. The grants to project teams composed of private companies and universities or research institutes are…

  • Fewer VCs in U.S. Raise More Funds in First Half of 2011

    According to Thomson Reuters and National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the number of venture capital companies raising money in the first six months of 2011 dropped sharply, but the amount of funds collected also rose sharply compared to the first half of 2010. Venture capital (VC) companies are often sought out to invest in early-stage…

  • New on Technorati: Health Care Costs and Health Care Spending, Not the Same Thing

    There’s no argument about the need to cut government spending on health care. But when discussing health care you need to separate the ideas of spending from costs, since they can mean very different things. Read More: Generic Drugs Can Generate Sharp Health Care Cost Reductions *     *     *

  • 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…

  • Solar Panels Resembling Ivy to be Installed at University

    Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology (SMIT), a company in Brooklyn, New York, has developed solar panels that resemble ivy leaves and assembles them in arrays to cover a building’s walls. The first U.S. installation of SMIT’s solar array is, of course, a college campus: University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Solar Ivy, as SMIT calls…

  • Challenge Seeks Method to Estimate Powder Flow

    InnoCentive, in Waltham. Massachusetts, that conducts crowdsourcing contests for sponsoring companies, has posted a new challenge seeking a method to estimate the “flowability” of powder blends based on the physical properties of the mixture. The challenge has a prize of $20,000 and a deadline of 7 September 2011. Powders can be difficult materials for which…

  • Adult Stem Cells Help Cardiac Function in Angina Patients

    A clinical trial by researchers at Baxter International in Deerfield, Illinois and Northwestern University medical school in Chicago found injections of individuals’ own stem cells reduced angina episodes and improved exercise tolerance time in patients with chronic, severe angina who did not respond to other treatments. The results of the research appear online in the…

  • Generic Drugs Can Generate Sharp Health Care Cost Reductions

    Researchers from Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and CVS Caremark have found that expanded use of generic medications for chronic disease can significantly reduce the cost of preventive health care. Their findings appear in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs (paid subscription required). The study concludes that preventive health care…