Tag: physical sciences
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BASF to Boost R&D Spending, Staffing
The global chemical company BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany says it plans to increase its research and development spending to €1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2012, and align its R&D programs more closely with high-growth business fields. The company also announced plans to increase its research staff, particularly in Asia and the Americas. The €1.7 billion…
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Cisco Systems Unveils R&D Collaboration Plans in Russia
Cisco Systems in San Jose, California revealed plans for new collaborations in Russia’s Skolkovo project, the country’s scheme to develop a technology and innovation center outside Moscow. The strategy unveiled today is part of a larger initiative with Russia announced by Cisco in 2010. The Skolkovo project is Russia’s attempt to build a technology and…
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Micro Lab Device Developed That Simulates Human Intestine
Biomedical engineers at Harvard University have created a miniature electronic device with living human cells that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine. The team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering published its findings online in the journal Lab on a Chip (paid subscription required). The team led by Wyss…
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Process Developed to Convert Polyethylene into Carbon Fiber
Materials scientists at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee have developed a technology for converting polyethylene, the material used in plastic bags, into carbon fibers engineered for specific applications. The findings of Amit Naskar and colleagues from Oak Ridge and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appear today online in the journal Advanced Materials…
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Process Developed for More Nutritional Supplement Stability
A Purdue University food scientist in West Lafayette, Indiana has develop a method for enveloping nutritional supplements to protect them from degradation. The process devised by Purdue professor Srinivas Janaswamy and former student Susanne Youngren, now at University of Hawaii in Hilo, appeared online earlier this month in the journal Food & Function (paid subscription…
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Nanoscale DNA Sequencing Process Developed
Physicists at University of Washington in Seattle and microbiologists from University of Alabama at Birmingham have developed a sensor with the ability to read the sequence of DNA one strand at a time. A description of their research, with implications for inexpensive DNA sequencing and personalized medicine, appears in this week’s issue of the journal…
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Nissan, College Establish U.K. Electric Vehicle R&D Center
Nissan Motors and Gateshead College have unveiled plans for an academic center for research on electric vehicle technologies on the college’s campus in northeast England. Nissan is the maker of the plug-in electric Leaf to be produced at a plant in nearby Sunderland. The Zero Emission Centre of Excellence (ZECE), as the joint project is…
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Robot Jellyfish Runs on Hydrogen, Oxygen in Water
Researchers at University of Texas at Dallas and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg have developed an autonomous undersea vehicle inspired by the common jellyfish that runs on hydrogen and oxygen in the water. The team, led by Dallas engineering professor and first author Yonas Tadesse (pictured left), published its findings this week in the journal Smart Materials…
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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…
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Study Shows Increased Heat Boosts Biochar as Soil Additive
A research team at Rice University in Houston, Texas has found that heating biochar — charcoal added to topsoil to enhance plant growth — to 450 degrees Celsius increases its ability to deliver water and nutrients to the targeted crops. Their findings appear online this week in the journal Biomass and Bioenergy (paid subscription required).…