Tag: physics
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Helmet Testing Expands to Baseball, Hockey, Lacrosse
Biomedical engineers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University will rate helmets for concussion protection in a variety of sports, and for youth football, over the next five years. The rating program applies research conducted by Stefan Duma and Steven Rowson of the joint biomedical engineering program at the two universities published earlier this month…
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Material Developed for Warm White Light from LED Bulbs
Researchers from the U.S. and China created a light-emitting diode (LED) bulb that emits warm white light with a single light-emitting phosphor. The findings of University of Georgia physicist Zhengwei Pan, with colleagues from Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Oak Ridge National Lab, Argonne National Lab, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were published online today…
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Semiconductor Research Corp, DARPA, Launch University Nets
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia unveiled their support for six U.S. university research centers. STARnet, as the program is called, will devote $194 million microelectronics research over five years. SRC is university-company research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies…
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Nanotech Coating Provides Liquid-Repellent Surface
Materials scientists at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Air Force Research Lab at Edwards Air Force Base in California developed a new coating material that can repel virtually any liquid from a surface. The team led by Michigan engineering professor Anish Tuteja reported its findings in the current issue of the Journal of…
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Color X-Ray System Devised for Health, Security, Industry
Materials scientists at University of Manchester in the U.K. developed a faster and more feasible 3D color X-ray system with potential uses in health care, security inspections, and industrial quality assurance. The researchers, led by Manchester’s Robert Cernik, describe their invention in the current issue of the journal Analyst (free registration required). Cernik’s team, which…
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Addition of Lightning Data Increases Tornado Warning Times
Engineers at Earth Networks in Germantown, Maryland developed a system for analyzing lightning occurrences during severe weather they say can increase lead times in predicting most tornados by 50 percent. Chonglin (Charlie) Liu of Earth Networks will discuss the company’s dangerous thunderstorm alert system in a presentation this week at a meeting of the American…
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University Develops, Patents New Coke Fuel Process
Researchers at Purdue University’s Calumet campus in Hammond, Indiana created a new less-expensive process for producing coke, a derivative of coal used in the making of steel, and received a U.S. patent for their discovery. Patent number 8,287,696 was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October to Purdue-Calumet physics professor Robert Kramer…
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$50,000 Challenge Seeks Simple, Inexpensive Timer
A new challenge on InnoCentive asks for a simple, reusable, and inexpensive timing mechanism based on the principles of reverse fluid flow and color change, with a total purse of $50,000. This type of competition — called a reduction-to-practice challenge — requires a written description and evidence of a working prototype, with one-page abstracts due…
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U.K. Universities Form Advanced Materials Consortium
The universities of Manchester, Cambridge, and Lancaster in the U.K. received funding from the European Research Council to develop new two-dimensional materials similar to graphene. The €13.4 million ($US17.7 million) grant was awarded to the three institutions under the council’s Synergy Grant initiative. The universities will form what they call a Synergy Group to support…
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Lasers, Nanoscale Bubbles Kill, Modify Diseased Cells
Researchers at Rice University in Houston developed a process using lasers and tiny gas bubbles to kill or modify diseased cells, without affecting neighboring cells. The team from the lab of biochemist Dmitri Lapotko published its findings online in a recent issue of the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). Lapotko, with research scientist and…