R & D articles from January 2002

R & D archives from January 2002

Times of change. (Editorial).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... After several years of planning for what to do with the first US federal budget surplus since 1960, there is talk now of planning for a government budget deficit as early as this year. Recession-induced lower tax receipts and the costs of...

Semiconductor Association forecasts upturn. (Vacuum & Thin Films).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... The global semiconductor industry will show slow growth throughout 2002, and return to a traditional pattern, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, San Jose, Calif., in its annual forecast. The growth pattern expected estimates...

Regulating electronic data still a struggle. (Bulletin).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Many organizations are still struggling to become compliant with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) rule governing electronic signatures and records, 21 CFR Part 11. According to a poll done by NuGenesis Technologies Corp., Westborough,...

Company plans subsidiary buy out. (Analytical Instruments).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Thermo Electron Corp., Waltham, Mass., has purchased more than three million shares of stock of its subsidiary, Spectra-Physics Inc., Mountain View, Calif. This transaction brings Thermo Electron's equity ownership of Spectra-Physics to around...

Laboratory design workshop scheduled for Pittcon. (Laboratory Design).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The eighth annual Laboratory Design Workshop, sponsored by R&D Magazine and Laboratory Design newsletter, will be held Wednesday morning, March 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:05 p.m., at the Pittsburgh Conference in New Orleans. The workshop...

Optics move chip data fast. (Lasers & Optics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Researchers at Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, have developed a fast and cost-effective way of getting data on and off a chip without using wire. The team from the university's Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering relied on the fiber...

Mini-fans solve maxi-heating problems. (Laboratory Equipment).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tiny, quiet fans that wiggle back and forth to cool laptop computers and portable electronic gear have been created by research engineers at Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind. The tiny fans work without motors that contain magnets, so consume...

Drug discovery tool provider acquired. (Life Science).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... PerkinElmer Inc., Boston, recently completed the acquisition of Packard BioScience Co. in an effort to provide more solutions to the company's growing base of life science customers. The gain of Packard BioScience's products, as well as sales...

Material bypasses superconductivity laws. (Materials).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Something that no material in nature has been known to do has just been done by physicists at the Univ. of Toronto. In an experiment, the researchers destroyed superconductivity in copper oxide (used in high-temperature superconductors) to...

Industrial sensors market sees growth in MEMS. (Micro/Nano Technology).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Growth for industrial sensors will increase at an average annual growth rate of 6.2% between 2001 and 2006, according to a report from Business Communications Co., Norwalk, Conn. The market is expected to increase from a total of $5 billion in...

High-tech movies feature mutations. (Microscopy).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Using an imaging technique that records movies of microscopic processes inside living cells, scientists and the Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, are learning new information about how mutations in certain genes cause cancer and how...

Pharmaceutical company settles liability lawsuits. (Pharmaceutical).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Pfizer Inc., New York, settled a Liberty, Mo., lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed the company's diabetes drug, Rezulin, left her in need of a liver transplant. While jurors were in the process of a 15-hour deliberation, the company and the...

AIDC market to increase gradually. (Test & Measurement).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A recent report indicates that the global market for automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) technology tapered in 2001. The report, "The 2001 Global AIDC Industry Business Planning Service" from Venture Development Corp. (VDC),...

Double-edged genes. (de facto).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Black Death was an experiment in natural selection that goes largely unconsidered. If it killed fully one-third of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351, as one estimate has it, the disease and the fleas that transmitted it--and the...

Software improves analysis. (Market trends).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... For the first time, scientific software combines presentation-quality graphics, the C language, and elements of the Numerical Algorithms Groups Inc. (NAG) library in a single package. The Origin 7.0 is a Windows-based scientific graphing and...

When dealing with sensors: sweat the small stuff. (Market trends).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The reliability of a sensor can depend on elements as small as the fine wires used in making electronic connections. These wires can be critical components that may put an entire system at risk if not coated properly. Yet when it comes to...

Upcoming events.
January 1, 2002... Feb. 11-14 BSDCON2002, San Francisco, www.usenix.org Feb. 18-21 Al 2002, 20th IASTED International Multiconference on Applied Informatics, Innsbruck, Austria, www.iasted.org Feb, 24-26 Tenth ACM International Symposium on...

OS wars: Linux versus XP. (Advanced Data Management & Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... After years of putting up with rickety Windows software, advances in Linux support and the October announcement of Windows XP are giving engineers and scientists some real operating-system choices for their computerized measurement and control...

Consumables, automation drive industry: good news for analytical instrument companies: Systems are "go" for growth in the upcoming year. Although this growth will be in specific areas only, the forecast bodes well for the economy. (Analytical Instruments).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... Although the future of analytical instrumentation as a whole is not on fire, the embers are certainly still glowing strong. Sources all point to an upward trend in the industry for the near future. An exclusive survey of R&D Magazine readers...

Automated systems move to a smaller scale: although precision and accuracy are still key to automated liquid handling systems, the focus now is on handling smaller sample amounts. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2002... Users of automated liquid handlers will all echo the same sentiments: They need a system that's precise, accurate, efficient, small, and cheap. Although these needs mirror those of nearly every other instrument on the market, automated systems...

Technology with a super-fast eye: product flaws? Alignment problems? You can't see them, but an imaging system can and the technology continues to improve. (Automation & Robotics).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... Applications for automated imaging systems are wide-ranging, and include inspection and detection processes for the semiconductor and electronics industries, for certain biological scanning functions, and for a host of consumer product...

Integration and open architectures drive software development: lab automation equipment developers are building their software control systems to be easy to use, support robust multitasking, and scalable enough to meet a variety of applications. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2002... Lab automation equipment manufacturers have always provided their customers with software systems for controlling their products. A new generation of PC-based open architecture control software is bringing needed enhancements to these products...

Motion control precision is key at the molecular level: nanopositioning tools can precisely position probes, tools, and other devices with incredible accuracy and repeatability. Flexure-guiding mechanisms are crucial to meeting these positioning needs. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A wide array of industries and applications, from manufacturing next-generation integrated circuits to unlocking the secrets of DNA, demand the ability to manipulate matter at the nanoscale with ultra-precise motion control. Nanopositioning...

Robots, sensors keep technologies moving: precision movement, vital to industrial and biomedical applications, make systems work and help eliminate human error. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2002... Systems that locate, identify, and move materials automatically depend on devices incorporating a wide variety of sensing technology. These include the most sophisticated automated laboratory workstations through the relatively large-scale...

Additional resources. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)(Directory)
January 1, 2002... 21CFRPart11.com www.21cfrpart11.com Offers information on the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11. Applied Scientific Instrumentation www.asiimaging.com Specializing in products for microscope automation, ASI offers a Web site tutorial on...

Slow growth expected across all tech sectors. (Funding Forecast).(research and development spending forecast)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Industrial R&D is expected to reach $195 billion, an increase of 3.2%. Federal support of R&D will increase 4.7% to $75.5 billion, with all agencies improving over FY2001. After a decade of rapid R&D slower growth is expected over the...

Battelle: the business of innovation.(Batelle Geneva Research Centre)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Technology and innovation are today's most crucial catalysts for progress in business and industry, service to our national interests, and improvements in our daily lives. Rapid technological advancements expand prosperity's global reach,...

Smaller increase forecast for US research spending: industrial R&D is expected to increase only 3.2% in 2002, its slowest growth in nearly 10 years. On the other hand, federal R&D, with all agencies getting increases, is expected to see its best growth in more than a decade. (2002 R&D/Battelle Research Funding Forecast).
January 1, 2002... Over the past few years, R&D expenditures in the US have risen from a period of stagnation through a period of unprecedented growth, closely following the overall growth of the economy. Corporate profits were rising, new technology was spurring...

A look into the future. (Battelle: The Business Of Innovation).(of industrial research)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... We asked several experts within the Battelle community to describe the trends they see emerging in some key areas where Battelle--and our client base--is involved. Here's what they had to say: Big Science Q "What new and exciting...