Month: February 2012
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Energy Efficient, Low CO2, Lower Cost Cement Developed
Engineers at Drexel University in Philadelphia have developed a new cement that reduces energy use and carbon dioxide output by 97 percent compared to standard Portland cement. The research behind the new cement is described in the March 2012 issue of the journal Cement and Concrete Composites (paid subscription required). The new type of cement…
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Pharmacist/Tech Initiative Found to Cut Medication Errors
An initiative led by pharmacists, using information technology was found to reduce more prescription errors by general practitioners than simple automated feedback among patients at risk for these errors. The findings by a team led by University of Nottingham medical professor Tony Avery, himself a practicing G.P. , appear online in the journal The Lancet…
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GE, Carbon Trust to Partner on Clean Tech Start-Up Support
General Electric and the U.K. environmental organization Carbon Trust will collaborate on backing start-up companies in Europe focusing on clean technologies. The partnership comes as the share of European investment in clean energy has declined over the past five years. During the first 18 months of the partnership, the Carbon Trust and GE will identify…
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Device Improves Wheelchair Control for Spinal Cord Injured
A system designed at Georgia Institute of Technology enables people with high-level spinal cord injuries to operate a computer and electrically powered wheelchair by moving their tongues. The Tongue Drive, as the system is called, is scheduled for demonstration today by electrical and computer engineering professor Maysam Ghovanloo and colleagues at the IEEE International Solid-State…
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Bayer, Texas AgrilLife to Partner on New Wheat Varieties
Bayer CropScience in Monheim, Germany and Texas AgriLife Research in College Station will collaborate on developing improved types of wheat and taking them to market. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Researchers at the two organizations plan to develop wheat lines that offer drought and disease resistance which are important properties for wheat…
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Braille Texting App for Visually Impaired in Prototype
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have built a prototype application for touch-screen mobile devices that aims to be a way of texting without the need to look at a handheld device’s screen. The team led by postdoctoral researcher Mario Romero in Georgia Tech’s interactive computing school will demonstrate the app this weekend at the Abilities…
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Cell Phone User Locations Open to Hackers via Networks
Computer scientists at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis have discovered a vulnerability in cellular networks that can allow hackers to follow individual cell phone users without their knowledge. Ph.D. candidate Denis Foo Kune, with fellow student John Koelndorfer and professors Nick Hopper and Yongdae Kim presented their findings earlier this month at the Network &…
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J&J, University to Partner on Spider Venom Therapy for Pain
Researchers at University of Queensland in Australia are collaborating with the U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson to develop components of spider venom as a potential treatment for pain. Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Office of Science and Technology (COSAT) and other company units will provide funding to the university’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience for the…
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Device Company, MIT Test Drug-Delivery Implanted Microchip
Scientists at medical technology developer MicroCHIPS in Walthan, Massachusetts and MIT reported the results of a successful human clinical trial of a programmable and wirelessly controlled implanted microchip to deliver drugs. The results appear online in the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid subscription required). The trial, the first successful test of this type of device,…
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Living Tissue Cell Model Developed to Study Brain Tumors
Researchers at Brown University in Providence and Harvard Medical School in Boston have created a three-dimensional living tissue model of the brain, including surrounding blood vessels, to study potential brain tumor treatments. The team of chemistry and biomedical engineering researchers published their findings in the journal Theranostics. The need for a living tissue model arose…