Tag: nanotechnology
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Nanotech Solution Could Block Laser Beams from Aircraft
Researchers at University of Central Florida in Orlando and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh created a new material based on nanotechnology that could keep lasers from affecting aircraft pilots and sensitive equipment. Optical science professor Jayan Thomas of Central Florida’s NanoScience Technology Center (pictured right) led the team, which published its findings last month in…
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EU Grant Funds Research on Programmable Chemical Systems
The European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme is funding a project to build autonomous self-assembling electronic microreagents that can exchange chemical and electronic information. Biochemistry professor John McCaskill at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany (pictured left) with colleagues at Bochum and teams from Europe, Israel, and New Zealand, will take part in the three-year, €3.4 million…
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Electronic Nanotech Sensors Added to Bioengineered Tissue
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Boston Children’s Hospital developed a way to embed nanoscale electronic sensors in engineered tissues. The team of medical researchers and engineers published their findings yesterday online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The study addressed the need to better monitor bioengineered tissues as well…
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Process Developed for Stronger Alloys at High Temperatures
Materials scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology devised a process for growing and merging nanoscale metallic crystals to create alloys that can withstand the stress of high temperatures. MIT graduate students Tongjai Chookajorn and Heather Murdoch (pictured left), with faculty advisor Christopher Schuh, discuss their methods in this week’s issue of the journal Science; paid…
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Nanotech Sensor Detects Glucose for Diabetes Testing
Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana created a non-invasive biosensor that detects minute concentrations of glucose in saliva, tears, and urine. The team at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center published its findings this week in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (paid subscription required). The sensor has three main parts: layers of nanosheets resembling tiny rose petals…
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Energy Dept to Fund Minnesota Chemistry Computation Centers
University of Minnesota’s chemistry department received two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy for research on software and computational methods on materials from nanotechnology and systems for transporting solar energy. The two five-year grants total $13.1 million, and will be shared by other universities and national labs. The Nanoporous Materials Genome Center, headed by…
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Carbon Nanotubes Found Toxic to Aquatic Animals
Engineers at University of Missouri and U.S. Geological Survey in Columbia found carbon nanotubes — sub-microscopic structures increasingly used for their strength and conductivity to create innovative new materials — to be toxic to several species of aquatic animals. The research led by Baolin Deng, professor and chair of chemical engineering at Missouri, appears in…
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Power Cell Converts and Stores Energy in Single Unit
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta developed a single device that converts mechanical energy directly into chemical energy, and stores the power until released as an electrical current. The Georgia Tech team led by materials scientist and engineer Zhong Lin Wang (pictured right) published its findings earlier this month in the journal Nano…
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Effects Assessed of Manufactured Nanoparticles on Soybeans
Researchers from University of California in Santa Barbara found manufactured nanoparticles disposed after manufacturing or customer use can end up in agricultural soil and eventually affect soybean crops. Findings of the team that includes academic, government, and corporate researchers from elsewhere in California, Texas, Iowa, New York, and Korea appear online today in the Proceedings…
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Breakout Labs Backs Tissue Engineering, Diagnostic Start-Ups
Breakout Labs, an early-stage revolving fund for life sciences start-ups, revealed three new grant recipients planning to develop solutions with advanced technologies. Breakout Labs is a program of the Thiel Foundation, founded by entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel — co-founder of PayPal and early venture backer of Facebook — in October 2011. The new recipients…