Tag: physics
-
Method Devised for Inexpensive Graphene Production
Researchers from Poland, France, and India have developed a process for producing the high-performance material graphene using common laboratory equipment. The team led by the Institute of Physical Chemistry (translation provided by EurekAlert) of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, published a description of that process earlier this year in the journal Chemical Communications;…
-
Display Surface Developed from Air-Water Interaction
University researchers in Finland and the U.K., and Nokia Research Center in the U.K., have developed an optical display technology based on the ability of a surface structure to repel water. The findings of the team led by physicist Robin Ras (pictured left) of Aalto University in Finland appear online this week in the journal…
-
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…
-
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…
-
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Docks at Space Station [Updated]
Update: 31 May 2012 NASA reports that the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 11:42 a.m. EDT a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico, marking the completion of the first mission by a commercial company to resupply the International Space Station. The capsule earlier began a 9-minute, 50-second deorbit…
-
Technique Devised to Measure Pipeline Gas Bubbles
Researchers at University of Southampton in the U.K. have discovered a method to more accurately measure gas bubbles that develop in pipelines. The team led by Tim Leighton of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research describe their findings online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A (paid subscription required). Pipelines are used…
-
LED Process Adapts Ultraviolet Light to Kill Pathogens
Researchers from North Carolina and Japan have devised a light-emitting diode (LED) process that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Their discoveries are described in the May issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters (paid subscription required). The research team included materials scientists and engineers from North Carolina State…
-
Breakout Labs Makes First Early-Stage Science Company Grants
Breakout Labs, a revolving investment fund in San Francisco that aims to support early-stage enterprises developing radical new technologies, announced its first six grants yesterday. The fund is backed by the Thiel Foundation, established by entrepreneur Peter Thiel, a founder of online payments service PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. All of the recipient…
-
New PhD Grad, Professor Form Building Technology Company
An engineering professor and recent PhD graduate at University of Toronto have developed a technology to protect tall buildings from high winds and earthquakes, and started a company to take the technology to market. Civil engineering professor Constantin Christopoulos and recent Ph.D. Michael Montgomery (pictured left) developed the technology over 10 years, and founded Kinetica…
-
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…