R & D articles from November 2004

R & D archives from November 2004

The economic R&D.(Editorial)(Editorial)
November 1, 2004... The world is run by economics. But, economics is an imprecise science with numerous short-term perturbations and long-term irregular cycles. The short-term changes are caused by random occurrences like the profit statements of individual...

Research Systems, Inc. (RSI): emerging software technologies--delivering enabling technologies to power your R&D.(Profile)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... Research Systems, Inc. (RSI), a commercial software provider and the creator of IDL software, is in the business of R&D every day, creating innovative software technologies to support many of the leading R&D organizations around the world....

Z machine-part II.(Energy)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Measuring in at roughly one-third of a football field in diameter, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., Z Machine will be undergoing a $61.7 million refurbishment within the next two years aimed to boost the nuclear fusion system's...

Oscilloscope breaks performance barrier.(Laboratory Equipment)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Agilent Technologies Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., has achieved a milestone in its product line by recently breaking the double-digit bandwidth barrier with the introduction of the industry's first oscilloscope and probing measurement system with a...

Faster than a speeding ...(Automotive)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Engineering students at Ohio State Univ., Columbus, have achieved a notable victory by recently setting the international and national world records for the fastest electric car. The affectionately termed "Buckeye Bullet" blazed down the...

University demonstrates first silicon laser.(Lasers & Optics)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Semiconductor-based lasers have been prevalent since the late-1950s. Usually the materials used to manufacture such devices are based off of direct band-gap semiconductors or those that emit light. Silicon in its crystalline form, as an...

R&D tax credit extended.(Bulletin)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... In early October, President Bush signed legislation approving an extension of the R&D tax credit, The credit, which was first enacted as a temporary tax credit in 1981, allows R&D companies to receive a tax credit of up to 10% of their R&D...

Developments in aviation and aerospace.(Conferences & Events)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is hosting its 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting from Jan 10-13, 2005, in Reno, Nev. This event provides a forum for scientists and engineers from industry, government, and...

DESI challenges standard mass spec.(Analytical Instruments)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Performing mass spectrometry in air is a concept that serves as the foundation for a newly christened technique devised by a research group at Purdue University's, West Lafayette, Ind., Aston Laboratory. Headed by Zoltan Takats and Graham...

Resizing the human genome.(Life Science)
November 1, 2004... After more than 13 years of development, members of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium have released their findings on the completed human genome sequence. Their work now shows the number of human protein-coding genes to be...

Revamping today's LCDs.(Materials)(liquid crystal displays)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... With an almost unlimited application space, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) continue to make inroads into the consumer market, with some industry reports projecting LCDs to completely supplant the cathode ray tube segment as early as 2007....

Big bio on the farm.(Laboratory Design)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Chevy Chase, Md., is on course with the creation of its latest research center, Janelia Farm. Upon completion in mid-2006, the 1.1-million [m.sup.2] site, located on the southern bank of the Potomac...

Nanograss tech finds a home.(Micro/Nano Technology)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... mPhase Technologies, Norwalk, Conn., and Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, N.J., have announced the successful integration of Lucent's nanograss technology within battery cells. According to mPhase, "Lab tests, which have been replicated, prove...

Photomicrographs receive praise.(Microscopy)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Leading microscopy/digital camera providers, Nikon and Olympus America, both of Melville, N.Y., have recently recognized some of the world's best photomicrographs ever produced in two independent digital imaging competitions. Celebrating...

2003 biopharm job stats.(Pharmaceutical)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Research conducted by economic think tank the Milken Institute, Santa Monica, Calif., reports the biopharmaceutical industry contributed to the creation of over 2.7 million jobs in the U.S. The report entitled, Biopharmaceutical Industry...

Proof of the digital age.(Data Management & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The rate at which digital content is being created and disposed of has left countless Web sites, edocuments, and other digital material at risk of being permanently lost as resources. To save such valuable, historical material, the Library of...

Platform tackles the R&D loop.(Data Management & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The fast-moving field of scientific discovery and development continues to generate massive amounts of data. Sifting through are R&D professionals, the majority of whom depend on improvised math productivity tools, outdated modeling programs,...

System downtime rises.(Data Management & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Corporations that do not adopt software security measures are expected to see an increase in downtime from 5% in 2004 to 15% in 2008. This rise will stem from growing security vulnerabilities in IT functions associated with a growing use of...

Nanomagnetics' sale grows.(Data Management & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... Nenostructured magnetic systems' unique characteristics such as superparamagnetism and tunneling magnetoresistance are enabling their use in different commercial applications. This has propelled nanomagnetic materials and devices' global...

IBM opens SMB R&D center.(R&D Asia)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., recently opened an extension of its Shanghai based China Research Lab (CRL). The new small and mid-sized business (SMB) Innovation Center will focus oil providing resources to Chinese independent software...

3COM jumpstarts Asian R&D.(R&D Asia)
November 1, 2004... 3COM, the Marlborough, Mass., provider of voice and data telecommunications networking solutions recently announced the opening of a state-of-the-art R&D facility in Hyderabad, India, that will focus on R&D for VolP (voice over Internet...

AO Smith goes to China.(R&D Asia)
November 1, 2004... A.O. Smith, the 130-yr-old Milwaukee-based manufacturer of hot water heaters, will put its R&D center in Nanjing, China, into service in December 2004 and plans to make additional investments in 2005 for a planned second phase project. The new...

More human cloning.(R&D Asia)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Hwang Woo-Suk, the leader of the team from Seoul (South Korea) National Univ. that first successfully cloned a human embryo in February 2004, has indicated that he plans to resume his therapeutic human cloning research. In the face of mounting...

Google facility sets course.(R&D Asia)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Google, Mountain View, Calif., has decided that its 6-month old R&D center in Bangalore, India, will be used to develop complete products. The center will follow an open culture where engineers define their own projects and work on all aspects...

Array of developments extend MS capabilities: tomorrow's mass spectrometers will be easier to use and able to do more analyses.
November 1, 2004... The growth of mass spectrometers (MS) into mainstream use is driving the need for more user-friendly, faster instruments. But as the analytical problems get more complex, researchers are also requesting instruments that have higher resolution...

Government labs seek new ways to improve R&D: federal research managers are looking outside of their own environments to find ways to support their research efforts.
November 1, 2004... Over the past six years, the editors of R&D Magazine have conducted CEO roundtables with independent, academic, and government research and development organizations every fall to determine what issues and trends are affecting the conduct of...

General areas of expertise.(Government Labs)
November 1, 2004... Government Labs General Areas of Expertise Advanced computers and Advanced Organization instrumentation engineering Air Force...

Pad offers a new approach to film deposition.(Case Study)
November 1, 2004... Metal-oxide films are used to make flat-panel displays, microelectronics, and superconducting tapes. They may also be used to make efficient, inexpensive photovoltaic devices. Until recently, most high-quality metal-oxide films have required a...

Guarding air quality with soundwaves.(Case Study)
November 1, 2004... With fear of toxic and hazardous airborne pollutants and biotoxins escalating, the inexpensive, low-maintenance, piezoelectric device, Aerosonic, has the potential to be a lifesaving innovation. Employing a small, thin, piezoelectric...

Los Alamos National Laboratory.(Corporate Profile)
November 1, 2004... "At Los Alamos National Laboratory, our core values are service to our nation, integrity and openness, passion for excellence and innovation, personal accountability, respect for others and teamwork. Our five performance priorities are safety,...

Constant focus on the future: R&D's 2004 scientist of the year uses his strong interdisciplinary research background to build new paradigms for future academic growth.(2004 Scientist of the Year)(Cover Story)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... When George Poste left SmithKline Beecham in late-1999 after nearly 20 years of running many of their R&D operations, he thought that his future commuting route would be a lot different than his nearly weekly trips between SmithKline's...

Nanotech yields deformable diffraction grating: nanotechnology uses perturbations in the optical near-field to significantly influence the optical far-field response.
November 1, 2004... Nanotechnology has captured the imagination of the general public, with many foreseeing the field enabling everything from miraculous medical cures to ingenious smart materials. Of late, however, a healthy level of skepticism about...

U.S. cracks down on IP theft.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... In mid-October, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the creation of a new and far-reaching campaign against intellectual property (IP) theft. This latest measure stems from findings in the final report of a Dept. of Justice...

Preventing medication errors.(Regulatory Update)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The United States Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention, Rockville, Md., has updated the capabilities of its national, anonymous, online medication error reporting program, MEDMARX. The latest edition of MEDMARX, Version 6.0, includes a new...

New IT compliancy tools.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... IBM, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., has released six new offerings geared for U.S. businesses striving to comply with initiatives such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Patriot Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Among the...

VolP under scrutiny.
November 1, 2004... Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Michael Powell, announced at this year's Voice over Net (VON) conference in Boston, Mass., that he would force a vote at the FCC before the end of 2004 to declare Voice over Internet Protocol (VolP)...

Seismic-based building.
November 1, 2004... The International Code Council and the Metal Building Manufacturers Association have published the Seismic Design Guide for Metal Building Systems to help engineers, building officials, and plan checkers ensure metal building designs are...

Spinach promotes solar power.(Emerging Technologies)
November 1, 2004... Since the emergence of portable electronic devices, scientists have been searching for lightweight energy sources. A number of these researchers have focused their efforts on green plants' photosynthetic characteristics, trying to harness this...

Antimicrobial nanocarpet.(Emerging Technologies)
November 1, 2004... By combining a hydrocarbon diacetylene with a quarternary ammonium salt group, scientists at the Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pa., have synthesized a "nanocarpet." The 1-[micro]m-high nanocarpet was generated from nanotubes with an 89-nm dia and 27-nm...

Shrinking p-n junctions.(Emerging Technologies)
November 1, 2004... A method that could enhance conventional ion-implantation technology used for fabricating transistors has been created at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With the help of surface chemistry, researchers were able to control and...

Pinecone-inspired clothing.(Emerging Technologies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Researchers at the Univ. of Bath, UK, and the London College of Fashion are developing smart garments that use pinecones as a guide to adapt to changing temperatures. The clothing is composed of material that lets in or shuts out air, similar...

Precise atom manipulation.(Emerging Technologies)
November 1, 2004... Research groups are concentrating their efforts on building nanostructures by moving atoms one at a time, trying to reliably position these atoms in precise locations. Unfortunately, such efforts are based on time-consuming trial and error...

Constant optical output.(Emerging Technologies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... A quantum dot laser that reduces temperature-sensitive output fluctuations has resulted from a joint research effort between Fujitsu Ltd., Tokyo, and the Univ. of Tokyo. Without any electrical current adjustments and across a temperature range...

Managing RFID systems.(Emerging Technologies)(radio frequency identification )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The ever-changing radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions market is forcing companies to contend with the problem of linking and managing RFID software and hardware from various vendors. Addressing that challenge are Infineon...

Shopping buddy.(Emerging Technologies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Grocery shopping will never be the same thanks to Internet-connected shopping carts. Set to be installed in selected Stop & Shop stores in early 2005, these "Shopping Buddies" from IBM, Armonk, N.Y., and Cuesol, Quincy, Mass., are equipped with...

Spectrometer for fluorescence application.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... BRF-2004 miniature Array Spectrofluorometer from B&W TEK Inc. is a pre-configured spectrometer for fluorescence application. Aspherical lenses collect the maximum fluorescence signal. The soft ware allows customers to put their own gating...

IEEE Enterprise.(Manufacturers' Showcase)
November 1, 2004... IEEE Enterprise provides desktop access to IEEE periodicals and conferences at prices any organization can afford. Search the IEEE Xplore delivery system until your downloads run out. Papers are available online instantly, and are stored in an...

CDH-90, CDH-95 handheld resistivity and salt meters.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... The CDH-90 from Omega Engineering is a handheld salt analyzer designed for the food and beverage industry, which measures the percent age of salt over two ranges of concentration. The unique one-hand operation is ideal for "dip-and-read"...

Bringing chemical analysis to scanning electron microscopy.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... Renishaw's structural and chemical analyzer for SEM (scanning electron microscopy) combines the resolving and visualizing power of SEM with molecular spectroscopy to allow simultaneous and unambiguous chemical and structural characterization of...

EO Thermovision A40 cameras.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Edmund Optics)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... Edmund Optics' Thermovision A40 camera images thermal emission at wavelengths from 7.5 to 13/am. The 320 x 240-pixel focal plane array offers thermal sensitivity of 0.08 [degrees]C at 30 [degrees]C and spatial resolution of 1.3 mrad. The...

JMP version 5.1.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... 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...

Keithley's 2005 catalog.(Manufacturers' Showcase)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... Keithley Instruments' 2005 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...

Measure surface contact pressure.(Manufacturers' Showcase)
November 1, 2004... 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...

Portable GC training CD.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Photovac, Inc. introduces computer-based training for the new PetroPRO high-speed portable gas chromatograph (GC). The self-paced training CD is partitioned into dedicated sections and offers a complete overview of the PetroPRO to aid in the...

6-Channel Optical-to-Electrical Converter.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Highland Technology, Inc. announces the Model V730 6-Channel Optical to Electrical Converter. When used with a compatible optical transmitter module, the V730 provides fast, low-jitter, EMI-proof distribution of pulses, triggers, and precision...

High capacity modules.(New Products)(Heim Data Systems, Inc)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Heim Data Systems, Inc. is adding compact, high-channel capacity modules for the acquisition of video and PCM and avionics bus data to its range of signal interfaces. These plug in modules are available for operation in systems producing both...

Stainless steel 3/8" sockets.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Designed for cleanroom and sterile production environments, Steritool's new 3/8" drive deep sockets are made entirely from stainless steel and are designed for repeated autoclaving. Developed for applications that require longer reach and...

Ultra-miniature check valve.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The CKV-M3, the new ultra-miniature check valve from Beswick Engineering, incorporates an elastomeric duckbill within its design that allows it to withstand up to 250 psig backpressure. It cracks open to allow flow as low as 1/2 psig. This...

VC2068/E megapixel smart camera.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Used for high accuracy progressive scan applications, the new VC 2068/E from Vision Components GmbH is able to acquire full frame 1240(H) x 1024(V) pixel images at 10 fps while executing real-time image processing functions. The VC2068/E is...

Vertical replacement heating elements.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Ultra Performance replacement heating elements from MRL Industries, Inc. are designed to improve the longevity and performance of a wide range of vertical heaters used in semiconductor processing. All replacement heating elements feature...

Totally passive, fiber optic Rotary Encoder.(New Products)(Micronor Inc)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... MR312 ZapFree Incremental Rotary Encoder's all-optical design requires a single optical fiber connection to its companion DIN rail-mountable MR310 Remote Encoder Interface module. MR312 offers immunity to lightning and atmospheric static that...

Water-soluble Pb-free solder paste.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... For those water-soluble solder paste users who need to comply with Pb-Free requirements, Indium Corp. of America has developed a water-soluble Pb-free solder paste with exceptional printing, ideal for fine-pitch applications. Indium3.1 exhibits...

High performance LaB6 TEM.(New Products)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The new LaB6 Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) from JEOL can be used in a wide range of high resolution imaging and analytical applications in the fields of materials, nano-electronics, and biological sciences. While stabilizing both...