Science and Enterprise

Tag: NSF

  • Programming Language Created for Synthetic DNA Chemistry

    Computer scientists and systems biologists at University of Washington, California Institute of Technology, and University of California in San Francisco are developing a coding language to enable the programming of synthetic DNA chemical interactions. A report from the team led by Washington computer scientist Georg Seelig appeared yesterday online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology (paid…

  • NSF Awards $20 Million for Cyber Security, Privacy R&D

    National Science Foundation is funding new research to better secure the nation’s health information technology, simplify and improve control of security for cloud computing, and clarify an individual’s privacy on the Web. The awards, made under the agency’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program, total $20 million and are supporting three initiatives, each shared among multiple…

  • Renewable Biochemical Spin-Offs Land Small Business Grants

    Two start-up companies, founded to commercialize research on renewable biochemicals at Iowa State University at Ames, received small business research grants from National Science Foundation to develop their technologies for the marketplace. The companies — OmegaChea Biorenewables in Ames and Glucan Biorenewables in St. Louis — are spin-off enterprises from Iowa State’s Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. OmegaChea Biorenewables,…

  • Lightning Detection System Upgraded for Houston, Texas

    A meteorologist at Texas A&M University in College Station developed an enhanced lightning detection system for the Houston region, one of the most lightning-prone areas in the U.S. Richard Orville, an atmospheric sciences professor, led the $1.2 million project, which was funded by National Science Foundation. Houston averages some 1,700 lightning strikes in the months…

  • Stable, Inexpensive Nanoparticle Biosensors in Development

    A materials scientist at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a new class of low-cost biosensors with metal nanoparticles that can be used in point-of-care medical testing, chemical detectors, and environmental monitors. Srikanth Singamaneni, a Washington University materials science professor, received last month a five-year, $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development Award from National Science…

  • Smartphone Biosensor Devised to Detect Toxins, Pathogens

    Engineers at University of Illinois in Urbana created a system harnessing an iPhone’s camera to turn the phone into a biosensor that can detect proteins, bacteria, viruses, and toxins. The team led by engineering professor and entrepreneur Brian Cunningham published its findings in a recent online issue of the journal Lab on a Chip (paid…

  • Power Company, Research Center Partner on Wind Forecasts

    National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado and the electric utility Xcel Energy are collaborating on a new forecasting system to improve the company’s wind energy operations. Financial aspects of the two-year partnership, which continues an existing agreement between the organizations, were not disclosed. NCAR is a federally funded research and development center…

  • NSF Funding Organic Crystals Research for Electronics

    A physics professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina received a $400,000 National Science Foundation grant for research on the physical structure and electronic properties of organic semiconductor crystals. The five-year award to Wake Forest’s Oana Jurchescu was made under NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. Organic semiconductors are hydrocarbon substances like…

  • Virginia Tech Offering Class for Student Entrepreneurs

    Virginia Tech is offering a course on starting a new business for student teams at its campuses in Blacksburg and Arlington to accelerate the business development process. The Startup Class, says the university, offers a way for graduate or undergraduate students with ideas for a new product or service to take those ideas to the…

  • 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…