R & D articles from January 2006

R & D archives from January 2006

How literate are you?(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... When's the last time you took a formal class in a subject that could help you in your job? Likely, for too many of R&D Magazine's readers, the answer will be measured in several, if not many, years. Yet, the current thinking in modern education...

Microfluidic chip aids PET imaging.(MICRONANO)(Positron emission tomography)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Positron emission tomography (PET) has remained a powerful technique for the detection of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease. Now researchers at UCLA, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford Univ., Siemens,...

Material Science in the springtime.(Upcoming Conference and Events)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 1, 2006... The 2006 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting will be held April 17 to 21 in San Francisco, Calif. The technical meeting and exhibits will be located at the Moscone West Convention Center, including 35 symposia and three technical...

NIST library grows.(ANALYTICAL)(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... After three years of development, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., has released a major upgrade of the widely used NIST/EPA/NIH Mass Spectral Library. The new edition of the library, NIST 05,...

Zeroing in on RNA.(LIFE SCIENCE)(University of Buffalo develops new guidelines for the creation of RNA-based disease treatments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A group led by Matthew Disney, at the Univ. of Buffalo (UB) is currently working on developing new guidelines for the creation of RNA-based disease treatments. Finding compounds that bind and inhibit an RNA sequence has long been a tedious...

Telecom improvements through THz.(terahertz radiation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The increasing demand for transmitting large amounts of information can make today's gigabit (billion bits per second) telecommunications systems a thing of the past. Using terahertz GHz) waves from a free electron laser, researchers from the...

Advancing transistors.(MATERIALS)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., along with Qinetiq, Hampshire, UK, have recently unveiled a new, ultra-fast, yet very low power prototype transistor using new materials that could form the basis of its microprocessors and other logic products...

Honda targets thin-film solar.(Honda Motor Company Ltd. plans to starts production on solar cells composed of non-silicon compounds )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Honda Motor Co., Tokyo, Japan, has announced its plans to begin mass-production of independently developed thinfilm solar cells composed of non-silicon compounds in 2007. A mass production plant with annual capacity of 27.5 MW is already...

Pittcon products get showcased.(LAB EQUIPMENT)
January 1, 2006... Officials from the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) have announced the topics for the 3-day New Product Forum to be held at Pittcon 2006, March 12-17, in Orlando, Fla. Topics and presenters...

EU compiles top 100 list.(PHARMACEUTICAL)(report of biotechnology developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... In an effort to promote European innovations in biotechnology, drug discovery, and medical technologies, the European Commission has released its 100 Technology Offers Stemming from EU Biotechnology RTD results. The report is a catalog of...

Best in Test awarded.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)(Test and Measurement Worlds' award for software industry)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The editors of Test and Measurement World, a sister publication of R&D Magazine, have released this year's winners of the Best in Test awards. The awards recognize the most innovative and useful test and measurement products released between...

AFM provides insight into cell workings.(MICROSCOPY)(atomic force microscope)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Teams from the Univ. of California, Berkeley, and Stanford Univ., Calif., have found evidence for how the fibrous scaffolding within human cells, which is made up of the protein actin, responds to obstacles in its environment. Scientists...

UC retains LANL.(University of California and Los Alamos National Laboratory 's contract)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Months of competition has ended with the Univ. of California (UC) retaining management and operations rights to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), N.M. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman noted that the new contract "marks a new approach to...

CDC lab complete.(McCarthy Building Cos.' construction contract with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Construction giant, McCarthy Building Companies, St. Louis, MO. has recently completed construction of a $165 million expansion to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) campus in Atlanta. The new facility, the Emerging Infectious Diseases...

RFID spending increases.(Data Management & Analysis)(radio frequency identification equipment sales)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Worldwide spending on radio frequency identification, RFID, is expected to reach $504 million in 2005, up 39% from 2004. The adoption of RFID will gather momentum in late 2006 and 2007, and by 2010, worldwide RFID spending will surpass $3...

Network components.(Data Management & Analysis)(spending on network semiconductors may increase)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Spending on network semiconductors will increase from $2.6 billion in 2005 to $3.7 billion in 2010. Chip suppliers will see the unit shipments rise at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 10.3% from 242 million to 397 million. Wired Ethernet...

Finding needles in haystacks.(Data Management & Analysis)(Case Western Reserve University's statistical techniques that improve the chances of detecting a signal)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A research team from Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio, has created innovative statistical techniques that improve the chances of detecting a signal in large data sets. In many practical problems, a suspected signal may only be a...

Computer-chemistry yields new insight.(Data Management & Analysis)(Duke University's research of protein crosslinking)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... An interdisciplinary team from Duke Univ., Durham, N.C., has discovered the probable orientation required for a Cdc25B phosphatase enzyme to dock with and activate a kinase protein complex. A successful docking not only requires the "active...

2006 R&D funding improves amid increasing restraints: most indicators are up for the new year, but overall R&D spending is at reduced levels from previous years and the next several years looks like more of the same.(2006 R&D Funding Forecast)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2006... For more than half a century, the U.S. has been in a dominant position relative to the absolute amount of resources that has been invested in Research and Development (R&D). Coming out of the experiences of World War II and a realization of the...

HK and Singapore freest economies.(Hong Kong)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Hong Kong and Singapore have been ranked as the world's freest economies, according to a survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. These two Asian port cities have held the first and second spots in...

China expanding its nuke power.(R&D ASIA)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Mainland China currently has nine nuclear power plants in operation, with two additional units under construction. More reactors are planned with a five-fold increase in nuclear capacity expected to 40 GW by 2020. China is also working to...

Chinese stem cell center.(R&D ASIA)(Tianjin Economic and TecResearch Institute of Preclinical Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences research agreement)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... China has announced that it will build its largest stem cell research and development industrialization base in Tianjin, an industrial center in northern China. The Tianjin Economic and Technological Development zone will team with the Research...

Japanese HDD R&D.(R&D ASIA)(Showa Denko K.K. plans to open hard disk media research and development facility)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Tokyo-based Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) announced that it will build a new R&D facility in Chiba, Japan, to promote development of the next-generation hard disk media with greater storage capacity. Completion is scheduled for April 2006 with an...

China-UK carbon initiatives.(R&D ASIA)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... China and the UK have established a joint development program for capturing atmospheric carbon and storing it in an effort to combat global warming. Under the memorandum, the UK has pledged to fund Chinese scientists in several research...

Photonic switches put the Internet on steroids: NSF's Optiputer project is designed to optimize network performance using photonic switches to establish dedicated lines for scientific collaboration. The advances in data visualization have to be seen to be believed.(National Science Foundation)
January 1, 2006... Keywords: * Photonics * Computing * Internet Researchers around the world use the Internet to share data, collaborate on analyses, and publish results. But communication glitches that inconvenience the casual user disrupt scientific...

Employing multivariate methods: researchers in industry use three distinct multivariate methods in an effort to find hidden relationships in volumes of data.(Keywords: Data Analysis * Software * Statistics)
January 1, 2006... Keywords * Data Analysis * Software * Statistics When you have a large data table, either with a large number of observations, or a large number of variables, or both, finding relationships and making predictions can be overwhelming. There...

Predicting crystal microstructure.(Academic: Emerging Technologies)(Yale University's research)
January 1, 2006... Researchers in many fields including materials science, geology, physical and bio-chemistry, will now be able to tailor material properties that are sensitive to microstructure due to a breakthrough from researchers at Yale Univ., New Haven,...

Quantum dots light up.(Academic: Emerging Technologies)(Vanderbilt University's hybrid light-emitting diode )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A hybrid light-emitting diode (LED) that gives off a warm white light could become the successor to the light bulb. A chemist at Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn., discovered that extremely small quantum dots spontaneously produce this...

Conductive plastic diode.(Academic: Emerging Technologies)(The Ohio State University's research)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Researchers from Ohio State Univ., Columbus, have invented an organic polymer tunnel diode which transmits electrical current at room temperature. The researchers were able to fashion two diodes into a simple logic switch which opened on a...

Enabling safer chemicals.(Academic: Emerging Technologies)(Rutgers University discovers room temperature ionic liquids)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Environmentally friendly chemicals could replace hazardous, petroleum-based solvents used in science labs and industrial plants. A new class of ionic liquid chemicals with these attributes has been discovered by chemists at Rutgers Univ., New...

Stretchable silicon making waves.(Eureka: Emerging Technologies)(University of Kentucky)
January 1, 2006... A new form of silicon has been developed by researchers at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This fully stretchable form of single-crystal silicon has wave-like geometries and can be used to build high-performance electronic...

Helping metals lose weight.(Eureka: Emerging Technologies)(University of Liverpool's use of selective laser melting)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Researchers at the Univ. of Liverpool, UK, have developed a manufacturing process based on selective laser melting (SLM) that can turn titanium, stainless steel, and many other metals into light, customized components. The new parts are built...

Lower power transistors.(Eureka: Emerging Technologies)(University of Kentucky's research for reducing gate leakage current of transistors )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Researchers from the Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, have discovered a means of reducing gate leakage current of transistors in computer chips that will permit chip producers to develop more efficient and powerful chips with reduced power...

Dots detect DNA.(Eureka: Emerging Technologies)(Johns Hopkins University's research of nucleotide sequencing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A new method of finding specific sequences of DNA has been developed by researchers from Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, Md. Two DNA probes seek out and bond to the target strands of DNA and then attach to a quantum dot. When a laser...

Bill plots telecom reformation.(Digital Age Communications Act)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A new telecommunications reform bill, the Digital Age Communications Act (DACA), is currently moving through Congress. The bill, sponsored by Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), proposes that the communications industry be regulated "like any other...

Algorithm targets NSF proposals.(Regulatory Update)(National Science Foundation's review of applications)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Each year the National Science Foundation (NSF), Arlington, Va., faces a daunting challenge. Annually, more than 40,000 grant applications are received and must be assigned to reviewers. The task must be done in such a way that no reviewer is...

Chemicals on tap.(water pollution)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Two new rules were recently laid down by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, D.C. One rule is designed to prevent microorganisms from entering public water supplies, while the other is aimed at restricting the amount of...

Clean-burning fuel in U.S.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Americans will start the new year by gassing up with nearly 3% of clean-burning, domestic renewable fuels such as ethanol under new standards issued by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, this is...

India urges move to IPv6.(Internet Protocol version 6)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recently issued recommendations for India's move to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). The agency believes deploying IPv6 would increase the existing IP address space and provide better service,...

Keithley's 2006 test & measurement product catalog.(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)(Keithley Instruments Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Keithley's 2006 Catalog offers details and specifications on the company's general-purpose and sensitive sourcing and measurement products, DC switching, RF switching and measurement, data acquisition solutions, semiconductor test systems, and...

MINITAB Release 14.(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)
January 1, 2006... 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,...

DIN rail mount configurable signal conditioners.(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)
January 1, 2006... The DRF series DIN rail signal conditioners are designed to accept a broad range of input signals, such as AC and DC voltage and current, frequency, temperature, and process transducers, and provides standard process outputs of either 4 to 20...

Leak-free connections!(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)
January 1, 2006... Brochure describes new Loctite coated seals. These seals fit all standard flared fittings, 37[degrees] or 45[degrees] degree, insuring a robust leak-free connection. Seals are available for your hydraulic and pneumatic applications from Eaton...

STATGRAPHICS Centurion XV.(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)
January 1, 2006... Just launched! Latest release of StatPoint's flagship product. Powerful and intuitive statistical software with features unmatched by the competition. 150+ procedures for basic and advanced statistics, including ANOVA, regression, DOE, SPC,...

Free 2006 NI measurement and automation catalog.(MANUFACTURERS' SHOWCASE)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2006... Featuring new product information, comparison charts, key specifications, and information on: * NI LabVIEW 8 Distributed Intelligence * PCI Express M Series * PXI Flexible-Resolution Digitizer * USB Data Acquisition Modules...