Tag: physical sciences
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Companies, University Team-Up on Drug Side Effects Model
Researchers at University of California in San Francisco, with colleagues from San Francisco start-up SeaChange Pharmaceuticals and the drug company Novartis, have devised a computer model that predicts adverse reactions to drug compounds, based on the chemistry of the drugs and known molecular causes of side effects. The team’s findings appear online in the journal…
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Small-Scale Surveillance/Emergency Robot Developed
ReconRobotics Inc. in Edina, Minnesota has unveiled a compact and lightweight robotic device for military, police, and emergency-response applications. The company plans to demonstrate the Throwbot XT Reconnaissance Robot at the Eurosatory defense and security exhibition, 11-14 June in Paris. The Throwbot is designed to be physically thrown into harm’s way by military, police, and…
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New Data Encoding Method Cuts Energy for Memory Cards
Engineers and computer scientists at Rice University in Houston and University of California in Los Angeles have discovered a way to write data on computer memory cards that cuts the energy needed for the task by 30 percent. The team from Rice’s Adaptive Computing and Embedded Systems Laboratory, led by Ph.D. student Azalia Mirhoseini (pictured…
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Grant to Fund Research on Earthquakes, Building Design
Engineers at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and UC-Berkeley will study the impact of building construction practices, particularly the design and performance of structural walls, on resisting earthquake damage. The team led by UCLA civil and environmental engineering professor John Wallace is funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s…
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High-Energy Infrared Beams Adapted for Tabletop X-Ray Device
Physicists from University of Colorado at Boulder, with colleagues from the U.S., Austria, and Spain, have developed an X-ray system that captures concentrated infrared beams, in a compact device that can fit on a lab table. The team led by Colorado researchers Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane published their findings in the 8 June issue…
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Universities Awarded Clean Coal Research Grants
The U.S. Department of Energy says 10 universities will receive grants for research on the development of clean coal technologies. Each grant of about $300,000 will be supplemented with additional funds from the schools, for a total research budget of $3.1 million. The grants are expected to support research on high-pressure corrosion-resistant alloys, protective coatings,…
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Cellulosic Biofuel Process Close to Cost-Competitive
Chemical engineers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana have devised a process for producing biofuels from non-food feedstocks they say is nearly cost-competitive with fossil fuels. An economic analysis of the process developed in the lab of Purdue’s Rakesh Agrawal is described in the journal Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (paid subscription required). This method,…
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Low-Dose, High-Rez CT Scanning Technique Developed
Researchers from France, Germany, and Switzerland have devised an X-ray imaging technique that can improve the contrast of computed tomography (CT) scans while reducing the radiation dose of those scans. The results of the team led by Irene Zanette of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France will be published this week in the…
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Math Model Helps Predict Future Medical Problems
A University of Washington statistician, with colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, have devised a mathematical model that predicts a patient’s possible medical conditions in the future based on the patient’s current and past medical history. The work of Washington’s Tyler McCormick (pictured right), with MIT’s Cynthia Rudin and Columbia’s David Madigan,…
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U.S. STEM Grad Student Growth Rate Matches Foreign Students
A National Science Foundation report says the number of U.S. science and engineering graduate students at American universities increased 35 percent from 2000 to 2010, the same rate as students from overseas. The numbers of women, African-American, Hispanic, and Native American grad students in science and engineering — which includes technology and mathematics, to make…