R & D articles from January 2005

R & D archives from January 2005

An ocean of opportunities.(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy completed a two and a half-year study of the world's oceans last September and submitted its report in December to President Bush with 212 specific recommendations for protecting the seas. This report...

A new twist on organic solar cells.(Materials)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Researchers from Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated new progress into the realm of organic solar cells by creating a nanocomposite combining the well-known properties of pentacene with carbon buckyballs (C60)....

Rover instrumentation selected.(Analytical Instruments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has officially selected eight proposal investigations for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, scheduled for launch in 2009. As part of its objective, the self-powered, mobile MSL...

COINS initiative finds a home.(Laboratory Design)(Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems location)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... One of six new nanoscale science and engineering centers funded by the National Science Foundation, the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems or COINS is set to be built on the campus of the Univ. of California (UC) at Berkeley in the...

EU industrial R&D shrinks.(Bulletin)(European Union)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Conclusions drawn from the European Union's (EU) first EU Industrial Research & Development Investment Scoreboard, published in December 2004, depict a shrinking investment base for EU R&D. Based on the performance of the top 500 EU...

Google Scholar launches.(Lab Equipment)(www.scholar.google.com)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The folks at Google, Mountain View, Calif., have released the beta version of its latest web-based endeavor, Google Scholar. The new, free service has been designed to help users search scientific journals, peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and...

Coming soon--PITTCON 2005.(Upcoming Conference & Events)(Calendar)
January 1, 2005... The 56th annual Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (PITTCON) will take place on Feb. 27-March 4, 2005, at the new Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The conference's technical...

Indiana secures bio funding.(Life Science)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Life science research efforts at Indiana Univ. (IU)., Bloomington, will gain an infusion of momentum with the receipt of $53 million in funding from the Lilly Endowment, a private foundation set up by members of the Eli Lilly family. The grant,...

Holography shows promise in video projectors.(Lasers & Optics)(composite video signal converted to high-quality 2-D holographic video)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The migration of digital video projectors into small footprint devices such as cell phones has been relatively slow due to limitations within the current technology. A possible solution being explored by researchers at Light Blue Optics,...

Tracking glucose with CNTs.(Micro/Nano Technology)(implantable carbon nanotube based glucose sensor for monitoring diabetics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The discomfort and inconvenience typically associated with blood glucose monitoring for millions of diabetics has provided the framework behind an implantable carbon nanotube (CNT)-based glucose sensor, developed by engineers at the Univ. of...

J&J unveils potential TB breakthrough.(Pharmaceutical)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Researchers at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, LLC, Beerse, Belgium, along with other colleagues, may have created the most promising new antibiotic for tuberculosis (TB) in 40 years. According to the developers, the...

New transparent transistors.(Vacuum & Thin Films)(zinc oxide transistors)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Teams from Oregon State Univ. (OSU) and HP's Advanced Materials and Process Laboratory, both of Corvallis., Ore., have reported the creation of a new class of transparent transistors based on a thin-film formulation of zinc-tin-oxide. The...

Snapshot into advanced ceramics.(Microscopy)(scanning transmission electron microscope imaging techniques)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Silicon nitride (SiN) advanced ceramics are crucial for high temperature applications, such as gas turbine engines, since they have the potential to withstand temperatures that far exceed that of any metal or alloy. But for these material to be...

"Best in test" recognized.(Test & Measurement)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The editors of Test & Measurement World (T&MW), a sister publication of R&D Magazine, have recently named the winners of the 14th annual Best in Test competition for the electronics test and measurement industry. Along with the top 12 winners,...

Continued defense spending offsets flat industrial R&D.(2005 R&D Funding Forecast)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * Overall growth in U.S. R&D spending is forecast to grow to $312 billion in 2005, a 3.6% increase over that spent in 2004. * Driven by defense increases, federal spending will grow 5.9% to $98 billion in 2005. * Industrial R&D...

Battelle: 75 years of innovation.(Company Profile)
January 1, 2005... How does a company thrive--or even survive--for 75 years? In a business environment where the rule of thumb is that 90% of new enterprises fail within the first five years, can a company founded the year of the Great Depression; that has...

Government spending continues to drive R&D growth: fueled mostly by large non-industrial investments, U.S. R&D spending is expected to grow nearly 3.6% in 2005, its largest forecast improvement in four years.(2005 R&D Funding Forecast)
January 1, 2005... In the 1990s, industry drove dramatic growth in U.S. R&D following one of the longest economic growth periods in U.S. history. After the high-tech bubble burst in 1999 and 2000, the largest increases in government R&D spending in a decade took...

Battelle's top ten outstanding achievements--1929-2004.(Top 10)
January 1, 2005... Recent Battelle R&D Funding Forecasts have showcased our Top 10 lists of innovations for the future--technology predictions for the next decade and beyond compiled by a team of Battelle "futurists." This year, to celebrate our 75 years in the...

Software improves x-ray analysis.(Data Management & Analysis)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Two scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., have created a software tool for scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) aimed at enhancing the analysis of x-ray data. Developed by Dale Newbury and...

Filtering out unauthorized queries.(Data Management & Analysis)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... One solution to the ongoing problem of unauthorized database access is the retrieval of approved data by authorized users only. This approach is enforced today through access controlled modules built separately into individual databases....

Thriving nanosensor market.(Data Management & Analysis)(www.nanomarkets.net)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The emerging applications for nanotechnology-based sensors are expected to increase their global revenue from $2.7 billion in 2008 to $17.2 billion in 2012. In homeland security and biomedicine, these tiny sensors' markets are forecast to reach...

Microscope sales soar.(Data Management & Analysis)(www.bccresearch.com)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The global market for microscopes and accessories is forecast to increase at an 11% average anneal growth rate (AAGR), rising to $2.77 billion in 2009. Accounting for 40% of the microscopy market, charged particle microscopes occupy the...

Cisco invests in asian R&D.(R&D Asia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif., has announced plans to open a Tokyo-based R&D center in February 2005. This announcement complements Cisco's earlier announcements to open a research center in Shanghai, China, in the third quarter of 2005 and...

Lenovo purchase raises questions.(R&D Asia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In December, IBM, Armonk, N.Y., agreed to sell its PC business to China's Lenovo Group (formerly Legend) for about $1.75 billion in cash and stock, while IBM would retain about 19% ownership in the new company. Many analysts have questioned the...

Hyundai Indian R&D hub.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Hyundai, Seoul, Korea, has announced that it will set up a manufacturing plant and an R&D center in India (location not yet determined) with an investment of $50 million over the next five years. Hyundai India Telecom (HIT) received a license...

SAP expands China R&D.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... SAP, Walldorf, Germany, a global leader in the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will expand its presence in China with the development of a new software park in Shanghai's Pudong Software Park in 2005. Planned for...

SGI to grow Indian share.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... SGI, Mountain View, Calif., (Silicon Graphics Inc.) has indicated that it is considering establishing an R&D facility in India to capitalize on the technology skills available in the region and to support a healthy and growing market share in...

How friendly is your statistical software? The catch-phrase "ease-of-use" often describes new software. But with the current statistical software offerings, who it's designed to serve often outweighs how it does it.
January 1, 2005... Software that is designed exclusively around "user-friendliness" can, in fact, be very inflexible, since users are limited only to the set of reports and charts that the software designers anticipated in the design. The best solution then is a...

Fiber lasers scale up: fiber lasers undergo a series of upgrades in the quest to become the preeminent industrial laser technology.
January 1, 2005... Long in the shadows of their conventional solid-state counterparts, fiber lasers (FL) have undergone a quiet revolution with respect to their design and overall performance in recent years. First marketed for optical telecommunications in the...

Retro-modulators enable secure free-space communications: retro-reflector and modulator technologies combine to deliver a modern-day semaphore.
January 1, 2005... A secure, high-speed communications link is vital on the battlefield as it enables the coordination between troops, transfer of information through the command chain, and reliable friend/foe identification. Currently, wireless technology is...

Feds weigh in on drug imports.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The intense debate surrounding U.S. prescription drug costs has prompted the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) to survey the potential cost-savings to consumers from the volume of non-FDA approved drugs coming into the U.S. and the effects...

Auto industry challenges California.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In early December 2004, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers filed a federal suit challenging California's new standards for greenhouse gases emissions. The new standards, which were adopted by the California Air Resources Board last...

No drugs in my cornflakes.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... An independent panel of agricultural experts commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released its conclusions on protecting the U.S. food supply from contamination by crops genetically engineered to produce drugs, vaccines,...

Suborbital travel plans.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... President Bush, with the support of the U.S. Congress, recently signed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, or H.R. 5382, into law. Under the terms of this legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will now serve as the...

Network helps preserve pandas.(Industrial)
January 1, 2005... A wireless broadband communication network was recently deployed within one of the last protected homes for the world's giant pandas--China's Wolong Nature Reserve. The network's installation by Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., covers the...

Improving traffic control.(Industrial)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Vehicles on UK's roads may soon be used to control congestion and reduce pollution levels. Developing this technology are researchers at BT, London, UK, who are collaborating with other organizations to examine how vehicles can be used to...

Ultra-thin circuit board.(Industrial)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The conventional photolithography process used to generate multilayer circuit boards suffers from numerous drawbacks. A manufacturing process that overcomes these problems was recently used by Seiko Epson Corp., Nagano, Japan, to produce the...

Gel electrophoresis sub.(Industrial)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Large-scale proteomic and genomic research will be streamlined thanks to a new system designed to supplant gel electrophoresis. Developed by Agilent Technologies Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., the Agilent 5100 Automated Lab-on-a-chip Platform is the...

Sensor measures breath C[O.sub.2].(Eureka)
January 1, 2005... Minor variations in the concentration of carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) gas in human breath are often monitored by healthcare professionals to assess an individual's physical condition. These changes allow anesthesiologists, for instance, to keep...

Generic image categorizer.(Eureka)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A system that recognizes and categorizes generic objects in digital images was developed by researchers at Xerox Research Centre Europe, Grenoble, France. In this system, the images are categorized through the identification of an object's...

Smart yarn.(Eureka)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... An alliance between scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization's Textile and Fibre Technology, Victoria, Australia, and the NanoTech Institute at the Univ. of Texas at Dallas, has applied wool spinning...

III-V materials integrate.(Eureka)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The integration of III-V materials into the silicon-based semiconductor industry was advanced by a team effort between Dutch researchers at Royal Philips Electronics, Amsterdam, and the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft. The scientists...

Next step in digital hot plate and stirrer technology.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... The NEW affordable digital Barnstead/Thermolyne brand Super Nuova[TM] hot plates and stirring hot plates feature a remote probe that allows accurate solution temperature readings to 0.1 [degrees]C for temperatures below 100 [degrees]C. The...

CDTX-300 pH and conductivity transmitter.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... The CDTX-300 two-wire transmitter from OMEGA Engineering Inc. is useful in industrial conditions where electrical interference is an important factor. By galvanically isolating the signals, any interference created is prevented from reaching...

Measure surface contact pressure.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Pressurex[R] pressure indicating sensor film from Sensor Products, Inc. quickly, accurately, and inexpensively measures pressure distribution and magnitude between any two contacting or impacting surfaces. Common applications include bolted...

CARVER offers new Monarch hydraulic lab presses.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... CARVER, Inc. introduces Monarch presses with integral hydraulic systems and high technology options. All equipped with expanded metal safety guards for operator and bystander protection. Available in 30-, 50-, 75-, and 100-ton clamp capacities...

Next-generation high-resolution spectrometer.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... The HR4000 from Ocean Optics, Inc. is a user-configurable, high-resolution miniature fiber optic spectrometer that measures just 148 mm x 104 mm x 45 mm. Its 3648-element detector provides optical resolution to 0.2 [Angstrom] (FWHM)....

Scanning electron microscopes--low cost with great performance.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... SEMTech Solutions sells and services reconditioned scanning electron microscopes (SEM). On many instruments they perform an "extreme makeover" to previously owned Field Emission, LaB6, and Tungsten SEMs with electronic upgrades, which include...

MINITAB Release 14.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... MINITAB Release 14 is a powerful statistical software package designed for quality professionals. Its visually engaging graphs and easy-to-use collection of methods--including Basic and Advanced Statistics, Regression and ANOVA, Reliability,...

Electro-Optical Products Corp.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Scanners & Deflectors Resonant, A-O, & E-O X,Y Scanners and Scanning Systems Modulators Tuning fork choppers Rotating choppers E-O & A-O modulators Pockels cells Q-swtiches Shutters Shutter/Choppers Modulating systems Polychromatic...

Laboratory automation solutions.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Applied Robotics, a global end-of-arm tooling supplier, offers a customizable suite of products including servo and pneumatic grippers, microplate handling fingers, microplate hotels, tool changers, and collision sensors for the life sciences...

JMP Version 5.1.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Learn how JMP software can help your organization make significant process improvements that increase the efficiency of doing business and give you a competitive edge. JMP links statistics with graphics to interactively explore, understand, and...

Focusable optical C-mount.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Edmund Industrial Optics offers a barrel mount with an unusually wide range of travel (16 mm) allows users to adjust the position of a lens with a smooth helical movement. The mount measures 30-mm in diameter by 41.9 mm long. and holds 12.5-mm...

Coreco Imaging introduces X64-AN Quad.(R&D Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Coreco Imaging has recently unveiled the X64-AN QuadT, a high performance image acquisition board that interfaces with up to four independent analog cameras providing an ideal solution for high-speed multiple-view machine vision applications....