Tag: physical sciences
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Math Model Developed to Determine Vaccine Combinations
Engineers and computer scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and University of Illinois in Urbana have developed a mathematical model to determine the optimum combination of vaccines for children that keeps the injections affordable yet remains financially attractive to manufacturers. The team led by RIT’s Rubén Proaño published their findings last month…
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U.K. to Fund Sustainable Biofuel By-Product R&D
A consortium of research funding councils and industry in the U.K. will finance new ways of extracting valuable chemicals from the by-products of brewing grains for ethanol. This call for proposals aims to challenge researchers to find processes that yield chemicals which would otherwise be produced from fossil fuels. The project comes under the Integrated…
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Fuel Cell Powered Forklifts Built for Demo Project
A fleet of 30 forklift trucks that run on hydrogen fuel cells are being built and tested for use at ports and loading docks in Europe. The trucks are being built under the auspices of the HyLIFT-DEMO project, funded by the EU. The 2.5 ton forklifts are being built by the Danish forklift manufacturer Dantruck…
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Grants Awarded for Biomass Research and Development
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have awarded a new series of grants for research on the production of biofuels and related bio-based products from a variety of biomass sources. The eight project awards — four recipients in the private sector and four university or federal lab projects — total $47 million. Funding is…
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Neural Network Simulates Human Schizophrenia Symptoms
A research team from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and University of Texas in Austin developed a simulation of schizophrenia using a computer network model. Their findings appear in the April issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry (paid subscription required). The researchers used a virtual computer model called a neural network to simulate the…
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New Technology Promises Faster Drug Candidate Testing
Scientists at the Universities of Toronto, Stanford, and Columbia have developed a technology called mass cytometry that measures the action and function of candidate prescription drugs faster and on a larger scale. The team’s findings appear this week in the journal Science (paid subscription required). Mass cytometry enables the measurement of up to 100 biomarkers…
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One Nation, Under Geeks
Review: Geek Nation by Angela Saini. Hodder & Stoughton (3 Mar 2011). Science writer Angela Saini describes the rise of science and engineering in India in her new book Geek Nation. But if you’re looking for a triumphant Indian victory march you may be disappointed. The book instead offers a sophisticated and nuanced analysis of…
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Antibody-Based Biosensor Aids Environmental Cleanups
Researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point have built and tested an aquatic sensor device that uses antibodies to detect marine pollutants. The developers of the device published their test results that appear today in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (paid subscription required). The research team that built the…
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Researchers, Designer Develop Lighter Sound-Absorbing Fabric
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (French acronym EMPA), along with a silk weaving company and textile designer, have developed lightweight, translucent curtain materials that absorb room noise. The Swiss textile maker Weisbrod-Zürrer AG and designer Annette Douglas were part of the team. Sound absorbing surfaces that decrease sound wave…
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Clinical Trial: Glass Nanofibers Aid Wound Healing
A trial of super-thin glass fibers show the fibers helped heal venous stasis wounds in eight of 12 patients who had not responded to other treatments. Results of the small-scale early trial appear in the May issue of the American Ceramic Society’s Bulletin magazine. The fibrous glass material (pictured left) is produced by Mo-Sci Corporation…