Science and Enterprise

Tag: NSF

  • Carnegie Institution Adds Four New Crop Databases

    The Carnegie Institution of Science says its Plant Metabolic Network, based in Stanford, California, has added online databases on the biochemical pathways controlling the metabolism of corn, soybeans, wine grapes, and cassava. The new additions offer a detailed view of the chemical reactions taking place in the cells of these four commercially important crops. The…

  • Virginia Tech to Establish Auto Tire Research Center

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg is setting up a new research center devoted to the study of vehicle tires. The Center for Tire Research, which will involve collaborations with other institutions and tire and auto companies, gets its initial funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. The tire research center is expected to focus on…

  • Grants to Fund Brain-Hand Neural Connections Research

    Grants from the National Science Foundation will fund research into sensory and cognitive connections between the brain and the hands that can lead to new prosthetic devices and treatments. The NSF funds totaling $640,000 will support research by Arizona State University biomedical engineering professor Marco Santello and Columbia University kinesiology professor Andrew Gordon. Santello’s research…

  • Start-Up Licenses Univ. of Colorado 3-D Imaging Technology

    University of Colorado in Boulder has licensed an advanced imaging technology developed in its engineering labs to a start-up company founded by the technology’s inventor. Double Helix LLC, also of Boulder and founded by engineering professor Rafael Piestun, has negotiated an exclusive license to commercialize the technology from the university’s technology transfer office. Piestun developed…

  • Photo-Printing Technology Developed for 3-D Polymer Shapes

    Researchers at University of Massachusetts in Amherst have developed a simple technology for producing three-dimensional shapes from thin polymer films. The findings of the work by Ryan Hayward, Christian Santangelo, and their UMass colleagues appear in the current issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required). The new method, funded by National Science Foundation, involves exposing…

  • NSF Supporting Research to Reduce Fertilizer Use in Maize

    Researchers at three universities, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service have received a $1.3 million grant from National Science Foundation for research on reducing the amount of fertilizer to grow maize. The three-year project is led by the ARS’s Ivan Baxter, who also serves on the Danforth Center’s faculty in…

  • Report: Asia Closing Gap in U.S. R&D Leadership

    National Science Foundation’s new report on global research and development (R&D) trends, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, shows in the last decade, U.S. leadership in research and development has come under severe challenge from China and other countries in Asia. The report from NSF’s policy-making body, the National Science Board, shows between 1999 and 2009,…

  • Electronics Show to Feature Science Start-Up Exhibits

    The 2012 CES in Las Vegas, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, will feature an exhibit of start-up companies and technologies emerging from research and development, including small businesses funded by National Science Foundation. The exhibit, called Eureka Park, is a collaboration of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Startup America Partnership, CNET, and UK…

  • Lizard Tail Feedback Boosts Jumping Robot Stability

    A team of biologists and engineers at University of California, Berkeley have documented the way lizards manage to leap successfully even when they slip and stumble, and applied that capability to robots. Berkeley professor of integrative biology Robert Full and colleagues, including graduate and undergraduate students, describe their findings in the 5 January online issue…

  • NSF Grant to Fund Smartphone App for Diabetes Control

    A business and engineering team from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts has received a $1.2 million grant to develop a smartphone application for people with advanced cases of diabetes. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration between Worcester’s Healthcare Delivery Institute and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, also in Worcester.…