Tag: physical sciences
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NSF Funds Math Tutoring Software Commercialization
18 August 2015. Software to help primary and secondary school students learn mathematics is receiving financial support from National Science Foundation to bring the software to market. NSF awarded a grant of nearly $200,000 to Beverly Woolf, a computer scientist at University of Massachusetts in Amherst, for the 18-month project. Woolf is developer of the…
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Wireless Light-Activated Circuit Connects to Mice Neurons
17 August 2015. Engineers at Stanford University designed a wireless circuit implanted under the skin for sending light-activated signals to nerve cells in lab mice. The team led by electrical engineering professor Ada Poon published its findings in today’s issue of the journal Nature Methods (paid subscription required). Poon and colleagues are seeking a simple,…
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Inside Air Monitor Devised as Smartphone Add-On
13 August 2015. Engineers in Finland designed a miniaturized system for measuring levels of carbon dioxide and other gases with smartphones to monitor interior air quality for health care needs. The team at VTT Technical Research Centre, an applied research institute in Finland, developed the monitor as an add-on to mobile devices, with a spin-off…
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Protein Gels Being Devised to Simulate Human Functions
12 August 2015. New York University’s engineering school is developing a new type of protein-based gel materials that respond to and replicate natural biochemical processes. The three-year project, led by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Jin Kim Montclare, is funded by a $368,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Montclare and colleagues, at NYU’s…
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University Faculty Design Mood-Tracking Mobile App
11 August 2015. Faculty at University of Missouri in psychiatry and computer science built a smartphone app that allows people with depression to track their moods and share the data with their psychiatrists. The app, known as MoodTrek, is available free of charge on Android phones. An iPhone version is planned for the future. The…
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Astronauts to Eat Space-Grown Vegetables
10 August 2015. Astronauts in Expedition 44 on the International Space Station plan to eat fresh leafy vegetables today grown in their own lab. The red romaine lettuce on their menus is grown in a plant system, nicknamed Veggie — officially known as Veg-01 — and marks the first crops both grown and consumed in…
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Nicotine Destroying Drug Candidate Discovered
7 August 2015. Biochemists at Scripps Research Institute reported on an enzyme derived from naturally-occurring bacteria that shows in lab tests can remove nicotine in the blood, with potential as a drug to help smokers quit. The team from the lab of chemistry professor Kim Janda at Scripps’s La Jolla, California campus described their findings…
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Computer Model Provides Early Sepsis Alert
6 August 2015. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University wrote a computer model that gives clinicians an early and accurate warning that a patient is developing sepsis, a life-threatening complication of infections. The team of medical researchers, computer scientists, and mathematicians published its findings yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid subscription required). Sepsis results…
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Fibers Like Wool Yarn Devised from Animal Gelatin
30 July 2015. A materials science doctoral student in Switzerland developed a process for converting animal gelatin into a fiber similar to yarn from high-quality wool. Philipp Stössel, in the Functional Materials Lab at ETH Zurich, a science and technology university, led the team that published its findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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Patent Awarded for Fractal Connections in Implants
28 July 2015. Electronic microcircuits designed to resemble fractals in nature used in implanted medical devices received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent number 9,079,017 was awarded on 14 July 2015 to physicist and materials scientist Richard Taylor at University of Oregon and Simon Brown at University of Canterbury in New…