Tag: physics

  • Nanotech Lights Improve on Fluorescent, LED, CFL Bulbs

    Physicists at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland developed a new type of electric lighting that improves on many of the current commercial and display lighting technologies. Professor David Carroll, director of Wake Forest’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, led the team that published its findings online in…

  • High-Tech Sheet Fabric Developed to Reduce Bed Sore Risk

    Researchers at Empa, a scientific institute in Switzerland, the Swiss Paraplegic Centre, and Schoeller Group, an advanced textiles company also in Switzerland, created a new type of bed linen that reduces the chance of bed sores developing on immobile patients. Schoeller Group’s medical division plans to introduce the new material as a commercial product next…

  • Wear-Resistant Diamond Tip Created for Nano-Manufacturing

    Engineers at University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, and Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc. in Romeoville, Illinois, developed a diamond tip for nanoscale lithography better able to meet heat and wear demands of semiconductor manufacturing. The team led by Illinois engineering professor William King (pictured left) published its findings yesterday online in the journal Nanotechnology; free…

  • Metamaterials Enhanced to Improve Invisibility Functions

    Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina improved the invisibility functions of materials engineered to deflect light waves and hide objects from view, with potential uses in fiber optic communications. Engineering graduate student Nathan Landy and professor David Smith published their findings online yesterday in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). In 2006, Smith…

  • Wake Forest, NanoMedica to Partner on Sequencing Technology

    Physicists at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and NanoMedica Inc., a biotechnology company also in Winston-Salem, received a Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop a faster process of drug development. The $700,000 grant from National Institutes of Health is supplemented by a $160,000 award from North Carolina Biotech Center to develop the…

  • Earthquake Model Helps Assess Building Vulnerabilities

    Engineers and earth scientists at University of California in Berkeley built a physical earthquake fault model in the lab that can assess the vulnerabilities of buildings and other structures when an earthquake happens. The study reporting on the model, first-authored by Gregory McLaskey now at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, appears in…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Graphene Layers Used to Build Nanoscale Power Transformer

    Researchers from the U.K., Netherlands, U.S., Russia, and Japan created a nanoscale electric power transformer from one-atom layers of graphene and other materials. The work led by Leonid Ponomarenko and Andre Geim at University of Manchester is described online in the journal Nature Physics (paid subscription required). The process developed by Ponomarenko, Geim, and colleagues…

  • University/Company Team Develops Nanomaterial Analytic Tools

    Engineering researchers from University of Illinois in Urbana and Anasys Instruments Inc. in Santa Barbara, California developed analytical tools to measure and analyze nanoscale manufactured products, such as those used in electronic devices, solar cells, and medical diagnostics. The findings from the team led by Illinois engineering professor William King (pictured right) appear in the…