Science Letter articles from February 2003

Science Letter archives from February 2003

Discovery of a brown dwarf makes it nearest known to our Sun.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team of astronomers has just found one of the closest neighbors to the Sun - an exotic 'failed star' known as a 'brown dwarf' moving rapidly across the sky in the southern constellation Indus (The...

Novel self-assembly processes developed for nanotech applications.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed a series of novel techniques in nanotechnology that hold promise for applications ranging from highly targeted pharmaceutical...

New technique uses electroflotation to purify purines.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- ADE Biotec and the INASMET Foundation, both from the Basque Country, after three years of working together, have developed a new purification technique for purines. The technique is based on...

Dinosaurs experienced climate changes before K-T collision.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Climate change had little to do with the demise of the dinosaurs, but the last million years before their extinction had a complex pattern of warming and cooling events that are important to our...

Ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide is increasing, but slower than forecast.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Australian and U.S. researchers have identified a new technique that modifies previous estimates of how much human-induced carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the world's oceans. The scientists...

Speeding electrons will be snapped by new attosecond 'camera'.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ultrafast lasers helping to make some of the shortest pulses of light ever seen in the U.K. will be at the heart of a new system to capture the movements of electrons as they whiz around the nucleus of...

Report examines effects of irrigation curtailment on Klamath Basin.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Oregon State University and the University of California released a joint report recently that examines the effects of irrigation curtailment in the Upper Klamath Basin during 2001. Analysis within...

Wheat growers use remote sensing for nitrogen management.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Today's wheat growers face many economic and environmental challenges, but arguably their greatest challenge is the efficient use of fertilizer. Growers need to apply nitrogen-based fertilizer in...

Two icebreakers heading to McMurdo Station.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Extremely unusual ice conditions at McMurdo Station, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) logistics and science hub in Antarctica, will require two Coast Guard icebreakers to ensure that resupply and...

Shipwreck is oldest found in the Black Sea.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Florida State University anthropology professor is among a group of scientists working with underwater explorer Robert Ballard who have found the oldest shipwreck ever discovered in the Black Sea. ...

Funding supports study of the history of Earth's magnetic field.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A recent grant of BP936,500 has funded a new archeomagnetic research training network that will include researchers from around Europe. The University of Bradford was awarded the grant to record the...

Earth's demise, already begun, will happen in 7.5 billion years, scientists say.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in a new book, two noted University of...

Company's cooperative agreements with NASA planned to expand in 2003.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In 2003, the business cooperation between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Analytik Jena USA, Inc. will be extended considerably, according to Analytik Jena. Analytik Jena...

Discovery of young stars near Earth could aid understanding of planet formation.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, astronomer and his undergraduate research partner have discovered previously unknown young stars relatively close to earth - a discovery that could open the door to...

Eruption of hypergiant star observed.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An international team of astronomers, led by astrophysicist Alex Lobel of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, announced at the 201st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle,...

First observations with the MID-Infrared interferometric instrument reported.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Following several weeks of around-the-clock work, a team of astronomers and engineers from Germany, the Netherlands, France, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has successfully performed the...

Isolated star-forming cloud discovered in intracluster space.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- At a distance of some 50 million light-years, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest galaxy cluster. It is located in the zodiacal constellation of the same name (The Virgin) and is a large and dense assembly...

Dark energy dominates energy density of the universe.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Dartmouth researcher is building a case for a "dark energy"-dominated universe. Dark energy, the mysterious energy with unusual anti-gravitational properties, has been the subject of great debate...

Company plans increased antioxidant capacity at Ontario plant.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Crompton Corporation's Petroleum Additives business plans to expand Naugalube aminic antioxidant capacity at its manufacturing facility in Elmira, Ontario, Canada. The capacity increase is expected...

Study suggests ADP glucose plays versatile role in metabolic diversification.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The cosmetic, textile, and food industries, and even the construction industry use starch, the main energy reserve of plants, as a biodegradable and renewable substance for a variety of applications....

Industry outlook somewhat brighter for 2003.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. chemical industry should record fairly solid growth in sales and earnings in 2003, though probably not at pre-recession levels, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) says. In its annual...

New awards for innovation presented by Royal Society of Chemistry.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New awards for innovation were presented by the Royal Society of Chemistry on January 16, 2003. Two Teamwork in Innovation Awards went to teams from Avecia, Huddersfield, U.K., and Thomas Swan &...

Study reconsiders formation of Antarctic ice sheet.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study posits an alternative theory as to why Antarctica suddenly became glaciated 34 million years ago. It challenges previous thinking about why the ice sheet formed and holds ramifications for...

Analyst says nanotechnology poised to redefine electronics markets.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nanotechnology promises devices that are small, fast, and inexpensive. These devices are poised to enable a range of innovative products, transforming industries from medicine to transportation. It is...

'Clean Coal' grants awarded to two U.S. cities.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced the awarding of a $25 million grant to Wisconsin Electric Power Company, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to develop an integrated mercury and...

Electricity supply problems in Spain being solved with wind.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The University of the Basque Country, IBERDROLA (an electricity utility supplying the Basque Country), the enterprises INGETEAM and INDAR, and innovative energies company EHN have participated jointly...

Interagency study of oil and gas resources in five U.S. basins issued.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Interior's assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management Rebecca Watson delivered to the Congress a study of U.S. oil and gas resources in five western basins. The interagency...

NASA tests environmentally friendly rocket fuel.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA has successfully tested an alternative rocket fuel that may increase operational safety and reduce costs over current solid fuels. The new paraffin-based fuel could eventually be used in Space...

Propane fuel cell system delivered to Propane Education and Research Council.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- IdaTech has delivered a fully integrated fuel cell system operating on propane to the Propane Education and Research Council (Council) as part of a project funded by the Council's grant program which...

Solar powered air-conditioning of buildings studied.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Basque Energy Authority (BEA) has been chosen to develop a project involving the air-conditioning of buildings using renewable energies as an alternative to the traditional systems based on energies...

Wind power data for upper midwest U.S. available.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Landowners and industrial wind energy developers worldwide can now investigate more wind resource data from the upper midwest region of the U.S. The Energy & Environmental Research Center's (EERC)...

Anecdotal evidence supports electromagnetic "stirring" of cement.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Physicists from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology, Russia, have invented an unusual method for improving concrete. The researchers believe that the concrete structure will become...

Reversible switch presages new paradigm for surface design.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team of researchers, including University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) chemical engineer Samir Mitragotri and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and UC Berkeley,...

Roadside beacons would warn motorists of danger ahead.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Fog-related pileups such as the 71-car collision that occurred in December 2002 in Texas could become a thing of the past with roadside "smart beacons" that use the latest wireless technology to sense...

Monitor developed to analyze diesel exhaust.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- What's in diesel exhaust, and how does it impact diesel performance? William Partridge and other engineers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Tennessee, in cooperation with Cummins Diesel...

Prize awarded for elimination of hexenuronic acid in paper production.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Finnish scientists Johanna Buchert, Maija Tenkanen, and Tapani Vuorinen, and Swedish scientist Anita Teleman have been awarded a major international technology award, the Marcus Wallenberg Prize. ...

Used plastic milk bottles are being recycled into furniture.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Northumbria University, U.K., graduate plans to milk a new technique he has devised to turn recycled plastic milk bottles into furniture. Currently the recycled bottles are made into plastic block...

Water Environment Research Foundation research informed new EPA policy.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) research figured prominently in the decision-making process that led to the formation of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Water Quality...

CO[subscript]2 emitters among electric utilities face shareholder resolutions.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In an unprecedented move, the five largest carbon dioxide (CO[subscript]2) emitters among U.S. electric power companies - American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Southern Company (NYSE: SO), Xcel Energy...

Connection seen between volcanic systems.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Geologists say an outpouring of lava from the Kilauea volcano that began in May 2002 may have stemmed from activity beneath neighboring Mauna Loa, reviving a decades-old debate over whether the two...

New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake forecasts updated.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis have updated their expectations for earthquakes in the New Madrid...

Stone circles, other strange patterns in northern regions explained.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Perfect circles of stones cover the ground in parts of Alaska and the Norwegian islands of Spitsbergen. Elsewhere in the far north, stones form other striking patterns on the ground: polygons, stripes,...

Isotope tracing used to track groundwater movement.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An Oregon State University hydrologist is using one of the more peaceful forms of nuclear technology to help experts in China learn more about water movement in their streams, groundwater, and soil,...

Research leads to new computation of Dutch weirs.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Higher water levels and new insights into water behavior prompted a PhD student to develop a new model for risk-based design of Dutch weirs. Hessel Voortman defended his thesis on the model, which...

Manufacturing, life science experiments begin new year aboard Space Station.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Remotely operated science combined with the human touch got the second Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG) experiment off to a good start in January 2003, NASA reports. On January 3, Expedition Six...

New software should improve marine management information services in U.K.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A project funded in part by the European Union's Information Society Technologies (IST) program (part of the EU's 5th Framework Program FP5) is developing software that will revolutionize information...

New furnace melts any metal.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Even the strongest metals melt under the extreme heat of a new furnace that will help scientists conduct higher quality research and develop new products. "It's a new tool in our tool box," said...

Award granted for study of severe weather, turbulence.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Colorado State University professor has been granted a unique and prestigious $400,000 Special Creativity Award by the National Science Foundation to enhance severe storm-related research, including...

Lightning really does strike more than twice.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA-funded scientists have recently learned that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places and that the chances of being struck are about 45% higher than what people...

NASA scientists take first 'full-body scan' of evolving thunderstorm.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A doctor gets a better view inside a patient by probing the body with computer-assisted tomography (CAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning equipment. Now, NASA meteorologists have done a...

Satellite project aims to improve forecasting, climate models.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Colorado State University researcher is leading a more than $100 million NASA-funded satellite project that will improve weather and climate prediction and develop critical new space technologies. ...

Unique group comes together to improve climatological services for Iowa.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Until very recently, weather data were taken by numerous public agencies and private firms throughout Iowa on a daily basis. For the most part that information was not shared among the various agencies...

Computational chemistry code answers questions on how molecules behave.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory are fostering and expanding a computational chemistry code that provides extensive and detailed information about how things work on the...

Magnetic 'Slinky effect' may power aurora.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The spectacular aurora borealis displays that light up the northern nights could be powered by a gigantic "Slinky" effect in Earth's magnetic field lines, according to research performed at the...

Superconducting sensor helps detect gravitation waves.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- To be able to detect gravitation waves in space, physicists have to measure truly minimal displacements ten billion times smaller than the size of an atom. A researcher in The Netherlands says an...

Shuttle features European Space Agency payloads.
February 3, 2003... 2003 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- European scientists will be 'turning off' the effects of gravity during the STS-107 Space Shuttle research mission in order to gain a better understanding of processes in medicine, technology, and...

Texture of polymer coatings helps rebuff barnacles.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hundreds of miles from the sea, a Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, chemist is fighting barnacles. "[Barnacles] are very good at what they do," says Paul Armistead, Office of Naval...

Researchers achieve electrical control of electron spin.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have provided "proof of concept that quantum spin information can be locally...

Giant exoplanet orbits giant star.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When, in the distant future, the Sun begins to expand and evolves into a "giant" star, the surface temperature on the Earth will rise dramatically and our home planet will eventually be incinerated by...

Asian monsoon system and North Atlantic climate are linked.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More than half the world's population depends on the Asian monsoon to bring much needed moisture for agriculture and basic human needs. But the yearly rains can also bring peril. Surging flood...

Long-lost records confirm Australian sea levels are rising.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The discovery of 160-year-old records in the archives of the Royal Society, London, U.K., has given scientists further evidence that Australian sea levels are rising. Observations taken at...

"Unified theory" of calculus has many applications.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of Missouri, Rolla (UMR), mathematician's research into a "unified theory" of continuous and discrete calculus is gaining the attention of mathematicians worldwide for numerous...

Exceedingly low temperature plus molecule mobility is winning combination.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists at the University of Leicester, U.K., are on the way to solving a problem that has long beset chemists trying to study chemical reactions. To establish reaction mechanisms the...

UV-Vis spectrum of acid fraction of humus has applications for forensic science.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Chemists in Greece have applied multivariate chemometrics based on the UV-Vis spectrum of the acid fraction of humus for the purpose of forensic soil discrimination. They collected 44 soil samples...

Gulf Stream is not responsible for mild winters in Europe.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research shows that the Gulf Stream has little effect on the contrast in winter temperatures between Europe and eastern North America, dispelling a long-held assumption. Instead, atmospheric...

Longest ice cores retrieved from Canadian Yukon.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In their quest to understand what drives the climate of North America, a team of American, Canadian, and Japanese scientists is studying ice cores collected from the highest mountain range in Canada....

Whaleborne sensors probe Arctic waters.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists in Norway and Britain used whale-mounted water temperature and depth sensors to measure the salinity and temperature patterns of an Arctic fjord during its initial winter freezing. When...

New center for organic and polymer electronics planned.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Linkoping University in Sweden is to host a new national center for research on organic and polymer electronics (i.e., plastic conducting materials). The Foundation for Strategic Research (SFF) is...

Experimental fiber optic cables to warn of potential pipeline damage.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Every year natural gas pipelines are damaged by construction activities even though warning signs often mark utility right-of-ways. Now, a new fiber optic cable system being tested in a joint U.S....

Government-backed eco-labeling more effective than private programs.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When it comes to purchasing appliances, consumers in the U.S. prefer to read simple labels and to see a government seal of approval on the package, a new study shows. "Eco-labeling is a promising...

New design could lower cost of wind energy in electric power marketplace.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A company in Bellevue, Washington, is working on a new design for wind turbines that officials believe could lower the cost of wind energy in the electric power marketplace. The Wind Turbine Co....

Device detects nerve gases and blister agents.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A half-ounce "sniffer," intended to ride on small aerial drones to detect possible gas attacks on cities and military bases, has been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories,...

Fireproof insulation derived from paper.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- What can happen when steel girders soften during a fire was sadly illustrated by the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Civil engineers are well aware that the use...

Grant awarded for study on desalination plant in Pakistan.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) recently signed a $287,480 grant agreement with the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) of Pakistan to partially fund a feasibility study for a proposed 25 million...

Modeling soot shell formation should improve design of combustion engines.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Engineers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, have "developed a numerical model for motion of flame-generated (soot) particles in the neighborhood of sooting fuel droplets burning in...

Profession must talk with the public, says the Royal Academy.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In an innovative collaboration by leading social scientists and engineers and other professionals, The Royal Academy of Engineering on January 29, 2003, issued a series of reports on three specific...

Switch to unleaded fuel in sight for Africa.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An international effort to phase out lead, the health-hazardous heavy metal, from petrol is accelerating as increasing numbers of African countries switch to unleaded fuel. Research presented to...

Scientists find geochemical fingerprint of World Trade Center collapse.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Dust and debris deposits associated with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center have left a distinct fingerprint on the sedimentary record in New York Harbor, scientists...

Antarctica's Lake Vostok formed by tectonic activity.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The cavity which became Lake Vostok, a body of water located beneath more than 4 km of ice in the middle of East Antarctica, was formed by tectonic processes in the earth's crust millions of years ago,...

Computer program reveals optimum microstructure for new materials.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Princeton chemist has developed a general mathematical system for designing materials that perform two functions at once, even when the desired properties sometimes conflict with each other. ...

Power station steel research could cut electricity bills.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pioneering materials research could ensure that consumers' electricity bills stay as low as possible in the future. The work is contributing to the development of steels that enable power to be...

Western drought, outlook prompt forecasters' concerns.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A thin snow pack is raising concerns that stream flows and water supplies will be low for the spring and summer in several western U.S. states, forecasters at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

Research project promises faster, cheaper, more reliable microchips.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A project between academia and industry is aiming to spark a world electronics revolution by producing faster, cheaper, and more reliable microchips. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.,...

"Spaser" beams can probe tiny structures.
February 10, 2003... 2003 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Just as a laser can fire tightly focused light at a point, a new proposed device - the "spaser" - will shoot surface plasmons (localized energy fluctuations on the surface of materials) on a nanoscale....