Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2013

  • Early Trial Shows Deep Brain Stimulation Effects on Anorexia

    Researchers at the University Health Network in Toronto found deep brain stimulation to help some patients with severe anorexia increase their body mass index and reduce related obsessions and compulsions. Results of the small-scale clinical trial were published online in today’s issue of the journal The Lancet (paid subscription required). Anorexia nervosa is an eating…

  • New Grant Funds Academic Tech Transfer Services

    The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in Miami awarded a $750,000 grant to the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) to help the association upgrade its business development services for academic scientists. AUTM announced the award on Tuesday at its annual meeting in San Antonio. AUTM represents technology transfer specialists at some 300 universities in the…

  • E-Car Charger Company Licenses National Lab Power Technology

    AeroVironment Inc., a developer of electric transportation systems in Monrovia, California, licensed technology from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington that keeps electric car chargers from over-taxing the electrical power grid. Financial aspects of the licensing deal between AeroVironment and Battelle Memorial Institute, which operates PNNL for Department of Energy, were not disclosed.…

  • Industry Technology Formulas Given Real-World Tests

    Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico found two formulas for predicting technological change, including Moore’s Law, produce reasonably accurate forecasts. The team led by MIT engineering systems professor Jessika Trancik (pictured right), formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Santa Fe Institute, published its findings last week in the online…

  • Goggle Device Helps Distinguish Between Vertigo and Stroke

    Medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, with colleagues at the universities of Illinois and Michigan, tested a device resembling a pair of swim goggles to tell if a patient experiencing severe, continuous dizziness is having a stroke or a more benign condition. The findings of the team led by professor of neurology and…

  • Material Engineered to More Efficiently Capture CO2

    Researchers at University of South Florida in Tampa and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (KAUST) developed a new type of metal-organic material with the ability to effectively capture carbon dioxide in the presence of water vapor, which had not been previously possible. The team led by South Florida chemistry professor…

  • Patent Awarded for Lipid Treatments on Lung Infections

    A researcher at National Jewish Health, a medical center in Denver, received a patent for methods using naturally occuring lipids to treat infections and inflammation in the lungs. U.S. patent number 8,367,643 was awarded last month to professor of medicine Dennis Voelker and assigned to National Jewish Health. Lipids are oil or fat molecules that…

  • University Provides Mobile Internet Quality Test Service

    Engineers and computer scientists at Aalto University in Finland are offering a free, online service to test the quality of mobile Internet connections. Netradar, available for download at netradar.org shows the quality of mobile Internet connections for individual devices, but also compared to other devices and locations. Netradar is a project of Aalto’s communications and…

  • Disease, Queen Identified as Main Bee Colony Risk Factors

    Researchers at North Carolina State University, University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University, and U.S. Department of Agriculture found a mysterious disease and aberrant queen behavior highly associated with the recent widespread death of bee colonies. The authors published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine. The team led by University…

  • Consortium to Develop Disease Model for Multiple Sclerosis

    A coalition of research institutes, analytics companies, and a patient network are building computational tools and models to better understand the causes of multiple sclerosis. Orion Bionetworks, based in Boston, is a consortium of the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis, Institute for Neurosciences at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, GNS Healthcare, MetaCell, and PatientsLikeMe. Orion…