Tag: physics

  • Neuroscience, Computational Physics Help Diagnose Autism

    A team led by a computational physicist and neuroscientist at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts have devised a technology that can lead to noninvasive tests for evaluating the risk of autism in infants. Their findings appear today in the journal BMC Medicine. The technology combines the standard electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the…

  • U.K. Universities to Forecast Reactor Lifetimes

    Materials scientists and engineers from six universities in the U.K. are taking part in a joint project to forecast the life expectancy of the country’s nuclear power reactors. The research team comes from the University of Leeds, with colleagues from the universities of Manchester, Nottingham, Salford, Sussex, and Huddersfield. The project runs for three years,…

  • New Process Developed for Thin-Layered Nanomaterials

    An international research team has devised a new, yet practical method for creating super-thin layered materials with chemical properties potentially useful to electronics and energy storage technologies. The team from Ireland, U.K., U.S., and Korea published their findings in the 4 February edition of the journal Science (paid subscription required). Materials built at nanoscale —…

  • University Opens Silicon Photonics Chip Design Service

    The University of Washington in Seattle opens today a new service called OpSIS to help scientists and engineers share the high cost of developing a new type of light-based computer chips. OpSIS — Optoelectronics Systems Integration in Silicon — is a multi-project wafer service for silicon photonics, and part of the university’s College of Engineering.…

  • Collaboration Tracks Solar Streams Disrupting Communications

    A university-government partnership is making operational a prediction model designed for weather forecasting, and put into use to track solar activity that disrupts communications. The Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) at Boston University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center reported the news of the collaboration today at…

  • Study: Energy Dept Lab Generates $271 Million for State

    An economic study estimates that the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear physics research laboratory in Newport News, Virginia, generates more than $271 million in economic output and 2,200 jobs in Virginia. The study for Jefferson Science Associates LLC, the contract operators of the lab, was conducted by The Wessex…

  • U.K. University Hosts Environmental Tech Training Center

    The University of Leicester in the U.K. will soon launch a new €3.5 million ($4.54 million) research center to train environmental researchers in using current satellite technologies. The new European Centre of Excellence in Earth Observation Research Training or GIONET is set to begin on 18 January 2011. The center plans to train 14 researchers…

  • National Lab, University Develop Tougher, Stronger Glass

    A group of engineering and materials scientists have developed a new type of damage-tolerant metallic glass, demonstrating a strength and toughness that they say goes beyond that of any known material. The team had members from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.…

  • Collaboration Finds Cryptography Flaw, Creates Countermeasure

    Two European universities, one research institute, and a computer security company developed a technique to exploit imperfections in quantum cryptography systems, then created a countermeasure for it. Quantum cryptography allows the distribution of a cryptographic key across an optical network, then applies the laws of quantum physics to guarantee its secrecy. The technique uses the…

  • Iowa State Awards Research Grants with Economic Potential

    Ten individual researchers and teams at Iowa State University in Ames have received grants to develop technologies and processes with potential to grow the state of Iowa’s economy. The state Board of Regents recently approved the grants, totaling more than 942,000, from this year’s Grow Iowa Values Fund. The largest grant, $120,075, was awarded to…