Tag: chemistry
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University Patents Chemical Measurement Device and Process
Baylor University in Waco, Texas has received a U.S. patent for a new type of polarimeter, an instrument to measure and interpret transverse waves, such as light waves. The new polarimeter was developed by Baylor chemistry professor Kenneth Busch and lab coordinator Dennis Rabbe. United States Patent 7911608 covers not only the device hardware, but…
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New Class of Insect Repellant Developed, Patent Filed
Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee have developed a new type of insect repellant that they say is more effective than current products on the market. Their results appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). The new type of repellant, from the lab of biology and pharmacology…
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U.K. to Fund Sustainable Biofuel By-Product R&D
A consortium of research funding councils and industry in the U.K. will finance new ways of extracting valuable chemicals from the by-products of brewing grains for ethanol. This call for proposals aims to challenge researchers to find processes that yield chemicals which would otherwise be produced from fossil fuels. The project comes under the Integrated…
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Grants Awarded for Biomass Research and Development
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have awarded a new series of grants for research on the production of biofuels and related bio-based products from a variety of biomass sources. The eight project awards — four recipients in the private sector and four university or federal lab projects — total $47 million. Funding is…
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New Technology Promises Faster Drug Candidate Testing
Scientists at the Universities of Toronto, Stanford, and Columbia have developed a technology called mass cytometry that measures the action and function of candidate prescription drugs faster and on a larger scale. The team’s findings appear this week in the journal Science (paid subscription required). Mass cytometry enables the measurement of up to 100 biomarkers…
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New Process Devised For Efficient Hydrogen Production
A research team at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has discovered that catalysts based on the element molybdenum can make possible a more cost-effective and sustainable process for producing hydrogen. Their findings appear in the journal Chemical Science (paid subscription required). Hydrogen is an abundant element on earth, but still remains difficult…
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Chlorine Found to Boost Flat Panel Display Technology
Materials scientists at University of Toronto in Canada have found a simple way to use chlorine to reduce the complexity of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) devices and improve their efficiency. The faculty/student team published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required). OLEDs are used in a wide variety of…
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New Material Filters Radioactive Drinking Water Contaminates
Researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have developed a material from natural sources that can remove radioactive contaminates from drinking water. The material, made from a combination of forest byproducts and crustacean shells, works without electric power and can also remove heavy metals from drinking water, or salt from sea water. A team…
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Dow Chemical, Biotech to Partner on Bio-Based Acrylic Acid
Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan and OPX Biotechnologies Inc. in Boulder, Colorado have agreed to develop an industrial scale process for the production of bio-based acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks. OPX Bio recently completed an 18-month pilot project showing that its technology based on genomic engineering could manufacture acrylic acid from renewable sources. The…
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Ozone Acts As Vaccine to Protect Fruit from Spoilage
Biologists at Newcastle University in the U.K. have found that exposing fruit to a blast of ozone gas can protect them against spoilage from fungus. Microbiologist Ian Singleton (pictured right) and plant biologist Jerry Barnes at Newcastle present their findings today at the spring conference of the Society for General Microbiology. Singleton says the ozone…