Tag: physical sciences
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Nanotube Paint Developed to Reveal Structural Strains
Engineers, chemists, and physicists at Rice University and University of Houston in Texas have developed a paint with carbon nanotubes and fluorescent properties that can reveal structural strains in bridges and airplanes. The Rice/Houston team describes its work online in the journal Nano Letters (paid subscription required). The new material developed by the team led…
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Method Devised for Inexpensive Graphene Production
Researchers from Poland, France, and India have developed a process for producing the high-performance material graphene using common laboratory equipment. The team led by the Institute of Physical Chemistry (translation provided by EurekAlert) of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, published a description of that process earlier this year in the journal Chemical Communications;…
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Mobile Data Help Predict Displaced Populations in Haiti
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden used data from a mobile phone company in Haiti to devise a system to predict population displacements when disaster strikes. Their findings appear online in in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required), and formed the basis of a service to help relief…
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Nanomaterials Registry Begun for Health, Environment Queries
RTI International in North Carolina has started the Nanomaterial Registry, a Web-based database and resource of biological and environmental information on materials developed through nanotechnology. The registry, available free to the public, is funded by three agencies of National Institutes of Health: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,…
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Carnegie Mellon Spin-Off Gets Transportation SBIR Funding
A company formed by developers of a smartphone program that tracks real-time bus or light rail locations and seating has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to commercialize the app. Tiramisu Transit LLC, a spin-off company formed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, received the $102,000 award from the U.S. Department…
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Nanotech Method Devised for Capturing Firefly Light
Researchers at Syracuse University in New York and Connecticut College in New London have found a new process using nanotechnology for efficiently harnessing bioluminescence, the natural light emitted by fireflies. The findings of the team led by Syracuse chemistry professor Matthew Maye, which offer the potential for a natural non-fossil fuel light source, appear online…
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Display Surface Developed from Air-Water Interaction
University researchers in Finland and the U.K., and Nokia Research Center in the U.K., have developed an optical display technology based on the ability of a surface structure to repel water. The findings of the team led by physicist Robin Ras (pictured left) of Aalto University in Finland appear online this week in the journal…
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Patent Awarded for Non-Medicinal Emphysema Treatment
Aeris Therapeutics in Woburn, Massachusetts has received a patent for its lung volume reduction technology to treat emphysema with a polymer-based hydrogel. Patent number 8,198,365 was awarded earlier this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to four inventors and assigned to Aeris Therapeutics. Emphysema is a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, often triggered…
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DARPA Awards $8 Million Synthetic Biology Contract
The Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded an $8 million contract to Amyris Inc. of California for tools to expand the scope of Amyris’s industrial synthetic biology technology across various biological platforms and cell types. DARPA awarded the contract under its Living Foundries research program. With the Living Foundries program, DARPA…
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GE Healthcare, CSIRO to Partner on Alzheimer’s Diagnostics
GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company, and CSIRO, Australia’s science agency, will collaborate on the development of imaging tools to better predict people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. CSIRO is the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which is funding the Australian Imaging, Biomarker & Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL).…