Tag: physical sciences
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Merck, Seiko Epson to Partner on Organic LED Inkjet Inks
The chemical company Merck in Darmstadt, Germany will license ink-jet ink technology from electronics manufacturer Seiko Epson in Tokyo for the manufacture of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) television displays. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. OLEDs use thin films of carbon-based materials — thus the name “organic” — placed between two conductors. When…
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New Non-Plastic Medical Testing Film Developed
Chemical researchers at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland and North Carolina State University in Raleigh developed a testing medium that can make it easier to conduct medical diagnostics in doctors’ offices rather than separate labs. The work of Aalto doctoral candidate Hannes Orelma and colleagues appears online in the journal Biointerphases. The new testing platform…
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Robotic Programming Language Devised for Bio Labs
Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California created a programming language for robotic devices in biology labs. The high-level language called PaR-PaR — short for Programming a Robot — is described this month in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology. Par-Par is written to help train robotic devices perform repetitive…
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Iowa State Testing Bio-Oil Gasifier for Biofuels
Engineers at Iowa State University in Ames are testing a new machine that converts biomass to oil and then gas, for conversion to transportation and boiler fuels. The new bio-oil gasifier is part of a next-generation biofuels feasibility research project, funded by state and federal grants of nearly $1.5 million. The bio-oil gasifier uses a…
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3-D, Low-Radiation Breast Cancer Imaging Technique Developed
Physicists and radiologists in the U.S. and Europe developed a new method for producing three-dimensional images of breast tissue with a lower dose of radiation than a mammogram. The team from University of California in Los Angeles, Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and Garching, Germany, and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France describe their…
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Current Rice Cultivation Techniques Adding Greenhouse Gases
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, Northern Arizona University, and University of California in Davis found that increases in temperature and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are making rice agriculture a larger source of the greenhouse gas methane. The team’s findings appear online this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Rice is the…
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Lubricated Textured Surfaces Boost Condenser Water Movement
Engineering researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology devised a technique for accelerating the movement of water off industrial surfaces like those in power plant and desalination condensers. The team from MIT’s Lab for Nanoengineered Surfaces, Interfaces, and Coatings published its findings earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). In power plant…
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Lab Developing Fabric that Repels Chemical, Bio Agents
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is developing a new material for military wear that repels chemical and biological agents using a fabric made from carbon nanotubes. The five-year, $13 million project is funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, with collaborators from MIT, Rutgers, University of Massachusetts, Natick (Mass.) Soldier Research Development and Engineering…
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Highly Sensitive Microscale Laser Accelerometer Developed
Physicists at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and University of Rochester in New York built a microscale accelerometer, a motion sensing device that measures acceleration forces. The team led by Cal Tech applied physics professor Oskar Painter published its findings online this week in the journal Nature Photonics (paid subscription required). The forces measured…
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Study Aims for Improved Oil Extraction Methods Using CO2
Engineers at University of Pittsburgh are studying new, more economical ways of extracting crude oil from older wells using carbon dioxide (CO2). The work of principal investigators Eric Beckman and Robert Enick is funded by a 1.3 million grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Older oil wells…