R & D articles from February 2001

R & D archives from February 2001

Genomic Spin-Offs.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... It's been less than a year since Francis Collins and J. Craig Venter shook hands in the White House congratulating each other on completion of the initial draft of the human genome. Their announcement was based on a comparatively small amount...

The Anatomy of a UFO.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In a notebook entry awhile back, I was taken to task by a few UFO buffs for making light of a "serious study" by equally serous investigators--a most unscientific attitude on my part. Tsk. Since I was asked to do penance for my...

Bulletin.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... PerkinElmer Instruments moves. By relocating its headquarters to Shelton from Norwalk, Conn., in May, PerkinElmer (www.perkinelmer.com) will bring all its employees under one roof. The new 22,761-[m.sup.2] facility will accommodate...

Info Management.(Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Information security institute formed. A $10 million "seed" gift will make possible the formation of a research center aimed at tackling the challenges of keeping electronic information private and computer systems secure. The Johns Hopkins...

Microsystems Update.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... MEMS sales estimates leap to $1.5 billion by 2005. According the Cahners In-Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz. (www.instat.com), a high-tech market research firm, sales of MEMS for use in select consumer electronics segments will increase from about...

Long-Term R&D Collaborations Build Knowledge Base.
February 1, 2001... Equipment suppliers and government labs often work together to develop government-funded projects, Joint development of Livermore's fusion NIF project has driven state-of-the-art manufacturing in large optics and laser production. The site...

Making the Spectrometer Fit the Need.
February 1, 2001... Modular hardware and software adapt spectrometric offerings to the task at hand. Most people in the scientific instrument industry used to think that they were immune to the mass-customization process that has been going on across the...

Easing Into Molecule Analysis.
February 1, 2001... The trick of putting electrical charges on macromolecules without breaking them apart makes mass spectroscopy a powerful analytical tool for biotechnology. While mass spectrometers (MS) were powerful tools for precisely identifying...

Software For Scientists.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Datalogging and Supervisory Control The LabVIEW Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module from National Instruments, Austin, Texas (www.ni.com), delivers built-in utilities to easily configure, view, and log data. Users can implement...

Lighting Quality Comprises Many Factors.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The quality of lighting in today's general wet laboratory environment consists of many factors, including the level of illumination, shielding, color rendition, distribution, and orientation--as well as human perception. These issues and other...

How to Choose a Digital Camera.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The digital camera market has experienced so many changes so fast that it's difficult for anyone to keep up. So when choosing a digital camera system for photomicrography, many people simply compare specifications, features, and prices. But...

Web-Enabled Research.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Security of Wireless Networks Threatened After analyzing the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm, which is used to prevent unauthorized access to a wireless network known as Wi-Fi or 802.11 and protect wireless communication from...

Defining Internet-Ready Measurement Devices.
February 1, 2001... Remote monitoring can automate and control your lab's computer network systems to ease the burden of data acquisition. The Internet is more than just the familiar collection of hypertext pages, known as the World Wide Web, used by...

Search Tools Combine Technology and Content.
February 1, 2001... Searching the Web is more than just finding a good search engine--it's knowing where to look for the right information that will work for you. Looking for something online? Well, since few second-generation search engines are readily...

Innovative Designs Required to Improve Vacuum Components.
February 1, 2001... From more offerings in aluminum to new pendulum valves to redesigned feedthroughs, vacuum users have much to choose from to make their systems more effective. Improvements to vacuum components--those essential elements of a vacuum system...

How to Use and Getters and Getter Pumps.
February 1, 2001... Getter pumping can be an important addition to many vacuum processes if properly understood and applied. Gettering is a vacuum-pumping technology that has been with us, in many forms, for almost as long as vacuum technology itself has been...

Prevention Is Key to Vacuum System Safety.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Sensible precautions equal vacuum system safety. The most obvious safeguards begin with reading and following safety instructions. The rest depends on user awareness. Even though many vacuum-system components have built-in safety devices, risks...

Product/Literature Showcase.
February 1, 2001... New Optics 2000 Catalog Edmund Industrial Optics 2000 Optics and Optical Instruments Catalog features over 10,000 products, including over 300 newly introduced optics components and sub-assemblies. These optics and optical components are...

New Products.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Gas Standards Generator The 491M gas standards generator is a modular, versatile system for blending precision gas standards in the lab. Using single-step dilution, it can generate concentration ranges from sub-ppb levels to more than 50%...