R & D articles from January 2003

R & D archives from January 2003

Choices of paths. (Editorial).
January 1, 2003... Forty-four years ago, in January of 1959, Neil Ruzic published volume one, number one of Industrial Research, "The Management Magazine of Technical Progress." In 1988, the book changed its name to R&D. The cover of that first issue contained an...

Eavesdropping on space. (Microscopy).
January 1, 2003... Using powerful new computer processing systems and a multitude of inexpensive antennas, an international collaboration of astronomers is creating LOFAR, or Low Frequency Array. In comparison to the Hubble Space Telescope, the "most...

Agilent and Paradigm launch toxicogenomics database. (Analytical Instruments).
January 1, 2003... With support from Agilent Technologies Inc., scientists at Paradigm Genetics are building a database of toxicogenomics studies. The database, which will be accessible to the scientific community, will contain the findings of Paradigm's gene...

Food contamination lawsuit settled. (Bulletin).
January 1, 2003... ProdiGene Inc., a major biopharmaceutical company, has settled its lawsuit with the USDA. Last year, ProdiGene was cited for contamination with "volunteer" drug-producing corn growing in the same field in Nebraska. The following day, USDA's...

NIST innovations to improve industrial temperature measurement. (Laboratory Equipment).
January 1, 2003... The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physics and Chemical Science and Technology (CSTL) laboratories are working towards improving reference thermometers for industry and research. One of these advancements involves...

PITTCON goes to Florida. (Upcoming Conferences & Events).
January 1, 2003... The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy will hold its 54th annual conference in Orlando, Fla. March 9-14. "Bringing Together the Elements of Science" will feature Lab Products and Instrumentation in the...

Labs21 promotes efficient lab design. (Laboratory Design).
January 1, 2003... Labs21, Labs for the 21st century, is an organization working to optimize the environmental and energy efficiency of a laboratory by examining the facility as a whole rather than concentrating on the individual sections of the building. This...

The first application-guided pulsed C[O.sub.2] laser. (Lasers & Optics).
January 1, 2003... Lumenis Ltd., a major manufacturer of state-of-the-art proprietary lasers has received FDA clearance for the first application-guided pulsed C[O.sub.2] surgical laser, the UltraPulse SurgiTouch. Since its introduction in the 1960's, the...

UT Austin develops nano-sized particles for drug delivery. (Micro/Nano Technology).
January 1, 2003... University of Texas at Austin researchers, led by Keith Johnston, professor of chemical engineering, and Bill Williams, associate professor of pharmaceutics have recently developed a pair of new nano-particle engineering technologies. The...

Patent awarded for hybridization device. (Life Science).
January 1, 2003... Genomic Solutions Inc,, a unit of Harvard Bioscience, Inc,, has been awarded a patent for a device that "automates the processing of DNA and protein microarrays." The patent, entitled "Thermal and Fluidic Cycling Device for Nucleic Acid...

Camouflage paint comes to the military. (Materials).
January 1, 2003... Scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), led by Daniel Watts, have signed a lucrative contract with the U.S. Army to develop a smart coating that would enable military vehicles, if corroded or scratched, to detect and heal...

Skin cream for soldiers. (Pharmaceutical).
January 1, 2003... A license for a patented topical skin cream has been granted by the United States Army Medical Research & Material Command to DFB Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its two partners DPT Laboratories, Ltd. (San Antonio, Texas; Lakewood, N.J.), and...

NMR molecular photography. (Test & Measurement).
January 1, 2003... A research team, led by Bing Fung at Oklahoma University, has imprinted a 32x32-bit digital pattern onto hydrogen atoms in a liquid crystal molecule--and then retrieved the information. This is the largest piece of information ever written...

Smallest AMLCD uses color filter technology. (Vacuum & Thin Films).
January 1, 2003... Kopin has introduced the Cyber-Display 180K, the world's smallest active matrix liquid crystal display featuring color filter technology. AMLCD uses CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology, where several transistors at each...

Patents supply CAS registry. (Data Management & Analysis).
January 1, 2003... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, reports that more than 50% of the organic and inorganic chemical substances recorded in the CAS Chemical Registry System during 2002 were derived from patent...

Next generation DVD. (Data Management & Analysis).
January 1, 2003... The DVD Forum, a DVD industry organization (www.dvdforum.org), is working on determining specifications for the next generation DVD technologies. A larger DVD disc storage capacity is needed to offer higher-resolution movies and the ability to...

Growing US micropower demand. (Data Management & Analysis).
January 1, 2003... US MICROPOWER DEMAND (million dollars) % Annual Growth Item 1996 2001 2006 01/96 06/01 Micropower Products Demand ...

UF market to top $725 million. (Data Management & Analysis).
January 1, 2003... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] The ultrafiltration market is expected to grow by 9.7%/yr over the next five years, exceeding $725 million by 2007. UF has applications in hemodialysis, food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, potable...

Supercomputing enjoys 21st century renaissance. (Data Management & Analysis).
January 1, 2003... Researchers and manufacturers revealed the latest technologies in supercomputing hardware, networking tools, and software at the 15th Annual SC2002, held this past November in Baltimore. The conference attracted more than 220 exhibitors and...

LEDs light up the way. (Photonics business trend solid-state lighting).
January 1, 2003... With today's global economic outlook, many viable research projects are being shelved into the proverbial basements of major companies and labs. The focus, or money, has shifted towards defense-related spending and it has become increasingly...

Instrument makers look to 2003 for renewed growth and opportunities: the analytical instrument market has suffered through flat growth over the past several years. Managers see miniaturization, automation, and a global marketplace reversing that trend. (Business trends chromatography spectroscopy).
January 1, 2003... As in many industries, the economic downturn in 2002 has had a negative effect on the instrumentation marketplace, generally lowering sales by about 5% from 2001 levels. The last quarter of 2002 saw stabilization, and in some areas, a reversal...

US tackles neighboring pollution. (Regulatory Update).
January 1, 2003... The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico's Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) have proposed a multi year program designed to protect the public health and the environment along the US-Mexico border. ...

New and improved color matching. (Regulatory Update).
January 1, 2003... The Optical Technology Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has designed a new, highly accurate reference colorimeter that determines the surface color of products. Since the acceptability of a material is...

Up to IEEE's standards. (Regulatory Update).
January 1, 2003... The IEEE has announced the creation of a multidimensional website for users in the sectors of information technology, telecommunications, energy and power. This site called StandardsAmericas provides consumers with the ability to obtain and...

Science funding gets boost. (Regulatory Update).
January 1, 2003... While the nation struggles with economic hardship and an impending war, education issues, particularly funding, have been ignored. Proponents of education have criticized the Bush presidency for concentrating on foreign affairs while domestic...

Investigating regulations. (Regulatory Update).
January 1, 2003... The regulatory division of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is examining various federal guidelines, including labels on genetically altered edible goods, and energy conservation rules for washing machines. The OMB understands that the...

Saliva-based ID drug detection. (Industrial: emerging technologies).
January 1, 2003... Vicki Thompson and her colleagues at the US Dept. of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory have joined forces with Miragen, Inc., Irvine, Calif., to produce a novel drug detection technique that delivers drug test...

Flow meters for MEMS. (Industrial: emerging technologies).
January 1, 2003... University of Arkansas researcher Steve Tung has collaborated with Umachines to fabricate and test a MEMS low-flow meter that can accurately monitor gas flow in very small systems. Devices or industrial processes that require gas or other fluid...

Nanotechnology spending rises worldwide. (Industrial: emerging technologies).
January 1, 2003... While the economic outlook seems grim for many sectors, Nanoelectronic technology is thriving. Built with nanotubes and various self-assembling molecular structures, scientists can anticipate a switch from lithographed silicon chips to...

JPK Instruments AG profitable in nanobiotechnology. (Industrial: emerging technologies).
January 1, 2003... Berlin-based JPK Instruments AG hit the profit zone in the 4th quarter of 2002, and looks to finish this coming year with positive results. Its Nanowizard Atomic Force Microscope, which combines Atomic Force Microscopy with traditional visible...

Digital image restoration microscopy system. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... Delta Vision Spectris, the new digital image restoration microscopy system from Applied Precision produces quantifiable, high-quality cellular data for researchers in Live-Cell Microscopy. The real-time imaging, crucial to experts in the field,...

Bar code generating control. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... ActiveX LL, the affordable "Limited License" version of TalTech's Bar Code ActiveX control for Windows applications is not unrestricted and can only be applied on up to 5 workstations. ActiveX LL is ideal for small establishments that desire...

DC power supply. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... Created for bias functions and sputtering, the Pinnacle 3000 DC power supply provides a high feature set that allows hard disk thin film deposition, precision optical coatings, including additional associated PVD uses. Its size is half-rack,...

Ceramic materials for microarray slides. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The new wide selection of ceramic materials and coatings by Morgan Advanced Ceramics for microarray slides are perfect for protein and DNA analyses. These ceramic materials, which are resistant to both optical properties and protein binding,...

Food texture analyzer. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The CHATILLON TAPlus from Ametek is an affordable food texture analyzer offering a considerable working area, and a wide array of food texture probes, grips and attachments. It is capable of both complex and routine texture analyses with data...

Image analysis drivers. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The Media Cybernetics Image-Pro Plus drivers provided by Imaging Planet enable the Jenoptik C14 and Optronics Microfire high-resolution microscope cameras to function within the Image-Pro domain. This new functionality by both cameras...

Compact Scale. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The CPW Compact Scale is a portable weighing scale with an easily accessible detached keypad allowing the scale to be placed in one location, while the measurement indicator remains within reach. The LCD display shows a symbol indicating when a...

Parallab workstation. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The Parallab workstation is a fully automated, integrated multiple-processes robotic system. Its basis is the Nano-Pipettor (NP), which consumes a reagent volume of a nanoliter only, suits various biological procedures, and processes 96...

Extensional Rheometer. (New Products).
January 1, 2003... The CaBER 1 Extensional Rheometer is the first of its kind to analyze elongational properties of fluids available on the market. Unlike rotational rheometers, the CaBER 1 supplies important information about the physical properties of a...

Federal R&D offsetting industrial cutbacks. (January 2003 Funding Forecast).
January 1, 2003... * After a decade of unprecedented growth, industrial R&D growth is expected to be flat for 2003. * Record Federal R&D increases are expected to be passed in Congress with early 2003. * Overall growth in total R&D spending is expected...

Battelle: the business of innovation.
January 1, 2003... Technology and innovation have never been more crucial to business and industry, our national interests, or the potential for improving our daily lives. Advancements in technology extend the reach of global prosper-change the ways we work and...

Continued overall R&D growth forecast for 2003: an economic recession, homeland security issues, telecom and e-biz collapses, overcapacity, deficit spending, and stock market jitters have all failed to stop the continued increases in total US R&D spending. (2003 Battelle Research Funding Forecast).
January 1, 2003... Over the last few years, R&D expenditures in the US have risen from a period of stagnation through a period of unprecedented growth, this following closely the overall growth of the economy. Much of that industrial bubble deflated as we entered...

Automation drives changes to chemical kits: what can be done by hand, simply can't be done by robots. Here's why automation is making chemical suppliers rework their kits. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2003... Automation has done wonders for the modern laboratory. The repetitive drudgery of many laboratory techniques, such as sample preparation and quality assurance trials have now been automated, allowing the researcher to focus on more important...

Automated genomic DNA purification on Hamilton's MICROLAB STAR workstation. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2003... Efficient DNA purification for downstream PCR-based applications is critical for various laboratories working with genomic material. Hamilton Company has automated the Xtra Amp genomic DNA purification and amplification kits from Xtrana for...

Automation in aerospace--taking the human out of the loop. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2003... Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and robotic satellites are all the rage, but their well-kept secret is that humans still pilot them from the ground. The next generation of these vehicles will need enough on-board intelligence to cut that tether for at...

Tip control ups liquid handling capabilities: nanoliter liquid handling demands individual feedback on each channel to minimize variances. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2003... Nanoliter dispensing has proven to be beneficial in efficiently managing compound libraries and reagents. The challenges in this technology, however, are in moving the nano-scale volumes accurately and precisely, and avoiding such issues as...