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Engineers Set New Laser Data Transmission Speed Record
Scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have transmitted the largest data volume ever on a laser beam, the equivalent of 700 DVDs in one second. The team’s findings appear online in the journal Nature Photonics (paid subscription required). The KIT scientists, led by electronics professor Juerg Leuthold, encoded data at a rate…
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Lilly Spins Off Biotech to Develop Sepsis Drug
Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, Indiana has signed agreements with private investors Care Capital and NovaQuest Capital to establish BioCritica Inc., a new biotechnology company. BioCritica will initially focus on the continued U.S. development and commercialization of Xigris — drotrecogin alfa (activated) — Lilly’s medicine for severe sepsis. Under the agreement, BioCritica will acquire…
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University to Open Biomass Gasification Research Center
Luleå University of Technology in Sweden announced plans to start a research center on the production of fuel gas from biomass. The new Swedish Gasification Centre (SFC) on the Luleå campus is expected to have a budget of SEK 540 million (USD 84.7 million) over 10 years. SFC will combine industry and academic researchers from…
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U.S. Regional Industry Cluster Challenge Unveiled
The Economic Development Administration (EDA), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, announced a funding competition to promote the development of regional collections of innovative businesses. The $33 million program, called the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, will fund 20 “high-growth industry clusters” that best spell out strategies for meeting opportunities or overcoming obstacles to…
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Sygenta to Build U.S. Genetics Research Facility
Sygenta, in Basel, Switzerland says it will build a new biotechnology research facility adjacent to its current campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The $71 million facility is expected to be operational in the second half of 2012. The company says the new labs will focus on discovering and developing new genetic characteristics for…
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Ethanol By-Product Reprocessing Expands to Pilot Stage
A process developed by engineers at Iowa State University in Ames to turn by-products of corn ethanol into into animal feed has moved from the lab to a pilot plant. The process, called MycoMeal, developed by engineering professor Hans van Leeuwen and his team, has two patents pending and won several industry and academic awards.…
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FDA Approves HIV Drug in Combination Treatment
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved today the drug Edurant (rilpivirine) as a treatment for HIV infection in adults, when used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs. Edurant is manufactured by Tibotec Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in Raritan, New Jersey. FDA approved the drug for the treatment of HIV-1 — the…
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So-Called Legal High Drugs on Internet Found Phony, Illegal
A chemistry professor in the U.K. has found many drugs sold as “legal highs” on the Internet do not contain the ingredients they claim, and some contain controlled substances, for which Internet sales are illegal. Mark Baron, lecturer in chemistry at University of Lincoln published his findings online in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis…
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Report: Concentrating Photovoltaic Solar More Competitive
Traditional flat-plate photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies can expect to face increasing pressure in public utility markets from concentrating photovoltaic (CPV), according to a new study by GTM Research. The report — Concentrating Photovoltaics 2011: Technology, Costs and Markets — tracks 170 CPV projects underway by 70 companies, as well as cost and demand forecasts through…
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Nanotech Patch Repairs Damaged Heart Tissue in Lab Tests
Engineers at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and India Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur created a patch made from carbon nanofibers and a polymer material that restores damaged cardiac tissue similar to the damage resulting from a heart attack. The team reported their results online earlier this month in the journal Acta Biomaterialia…