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Solid-State Supercapacitor Created with Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers at Rice University in Houston have developed a supercapacitor that can store large quantities of energy and charge quickly, and in a solid-state design made possible by the use of carbon nanotubes. Their findings appear online in the journal Carbon (paid subscription required). Capacitors are devices that regulate flow or supply quick bursts of…
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Radio Antennas Embedded in Clothing Developed, Licensed
Ohio State University engineers in Columbus have developed a process to sew radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread. Their work was published recently in the journal IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters (paid subscription required), and licensed to a Virginia company for commercialization. Research engineering professor Chi-Chih Chen says the…
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Scheme Protects Against Wireless Network Security Breach
Computer scientists at MIT have devised a method for plugging a security gap in wireless networks that allows attackers to hijack log-on signals from network devices. MIT faculty Nickolai Zeldovich and Dina Katabi, with postdoc Nabeel Ahmed and grad student Shyam Gollakota presented their findings and demonstrated the system earlier this month at the Usenix…
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Consortium Awarded Grant for Bioweapon Defense
A collaboration of universities, private company, and national lab have received a $2.4 million grant from National Institutes of Health to develop tools that detect and protect against biological weapon attacks. The grant, from NIH’s Partnerships for Biodefense Program, will fund work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, University of Texas Medical Branch, University…
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FDA Gives Accelerated Approval to Lymphoma Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) developed by Seattle Genetics of Bothell, Washington, to treat two types of lymphoma. FDA approved Adcetris under an accelerated review procedure for promising drugs to treat serious diseases. Lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the cells that play a role in…
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NIH Approves Four More Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
BioTime Inc. in Alameda, California says it has received approval from National Institutes of Health (NIH) for adding four human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines to the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry. Two of the company’s hES cell lines are already listed in that registry. All of the lines were developed by Biotime’s subsidiary ES…
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Microbes Reduced Adverse Impact of BP, Exxon Valdez Spills
A review of the worst two oil spills in U.S. history shows that oil-degrading microorganisms played a significant role in reducing their overall adverse environmental impacts. The results of the review of the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and Exxon Valdez running aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 are…
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Monitors to Prevent Elderly Falls Before They Happen
Grants from the National Science Foundation’s Smart Health and Wellbeing Program are funding development of a sensor-based system to detect the risks of falls by frail elderly people. One of the grants, to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, will involve collaboration between the school’s engineering and gerontology departments; a smaller grant will fund similar engineering work…
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Clinical Trial Shows Drug Improves Heart Muscle Functions
A clinical trial conducted by University of Hull in the U.K. shows the drug omecamtiv mercabil improves the heart’s ability to pump blood in heart failure patients. The findings by Hull cardiology professor John Cleland and colleagues appear in the 20 August issue of the journal The Lancet (paid subscription required). Omecamtiv mercabil is one…
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Self-Powered Prosthetic Leg Developed, Patented, Licensed
Vanderbilt University engineers in Nashville have developed a prosthetic lower leg, which allows amputees to walk without the leg-dragging that characterizes conventional artificial legs. The university has patented basic elements of the device’s design, and licensed the technology to a California company for commercial development. The prosthesis is as much an electronic as an assistive…