Working with capsules of dye just a few billionths of a metre in diameter, researchers at University of Toronto and the advanced optical microscopy facility at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital have created a new strategy for encrypting photographs, signatures and fingerprints on security documents.
“This technology will give security or customs authorities the confidence that documents are not fake,” says U of T chemistry professor Eugenia Kumacheva, who holds the Canada Research C
Police dogs across the country could soon be out of work, replaced by an electronic “dog-on-a-chip” that sniffs out cocaine and other narcotics. Scientists at Georgia Tech have created a new detection tool that is portable, inexpensive, and doesn’t require feeding or grooming. They say it is superior to previous “electronic noses” designed for this purpose.
The report will appear in the Nov. 15 edition of Analytical Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, t
45th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics
A new invention removes noisy microwave signals from microwave ovens and prevents them from interfering with cordless phones and wireless computer networks. The new technology, developed by plasma physicists at the University of Michigan, is also expected to lead to more efficient microwave ovens, with little or no addition to the ovens’ cost.
Microwave ovens heat food by emitting microwaves from a device called a m
A real renaissance in European manufacturing was the focus of a briefing chaired by European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin today. The briefing highlighted the EMO MILANO 2003 Fair in Milan, the world’s largest trade event for the machine tools, robots and automation industries which attracted over 1600 exhibitors from 38 countries and 200,000 visitors. It also emphasised the contribution of EU research in support of the European manufacturing industry. Currently, Europe provides for 52% of t
In Friday’s edition of Applied Physics, TU Delft researchers will publish an article on how coatings are made and why they so often let go. “Finally, after 30 years, we know exactly what happens,” says Dr. Guido Janssen, materials expert at TU Delft and first author of the article to be printed in the prestigious American journal. Together with his colleagues at the Netherlands Institute for Metals Research (NIMR), he has brought the coating of very small components one step closer.
Ta
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lifa Air Oy Ltd have jointly developed a room filter that traps particles, toxic gases, bacteria and viruses in the incoming air. Low-priced and energy-efficient, the filter can be fitted in the existing air-conditioning systems. Room-specific filtering of inlet air has been attracting increasing international attention in the face of the possibility of a terrorist strike with chemical warfare agents introduced into the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air-
An industrial engineer at Purdue University has created a method to increase the efficiency, profitability and capacity of recycling operations for electronic products such as computers and television sets.
The work also promises to open up a new area of research in a field known as scheduling.
More than 1.5 billion pounds of electronic equipment is processed every year in the United States, and the quantity of discarded personal computers is expected to rise substantially over the
MIT engineers report a new approach to creating three-dimensional samples of human tissue that could push researchers closer to their ultimate goal: tissues for therapeutic applications and replacement organs. The technique could also help answer questions in cell and developmental biology.
The team “seeded” human embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to differentiate into a variety of specialized cells, onto a biodegradable polymer scaffold. By treating the scaffold/stem cell stru
Researchers at Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science have recently made great lengths in both engineering and monitoring 3-dimensional tissue.
Engineering tissue involves the seeding of appropriate cells into a scaffold to form a bio-construct or matrix. The Oxford team has improved this process by developing a new kind of nutrient circulation and scaffold system for 3-D bulky tissue culture. The scaffold, made from biopolymers or synthetic polymers, has a network of capillar
Could impact fiber-optics, other industries
Assembling a machine sounds straightforward, but what if the components of that machine are nanoscopic? Similarly, bringing together the ends of two cables is simple unless those cables have a core diameter many times smaller than a human hair, as is the case with fiber optics.
Although there are devices on the market with similar credentials, they are expensive and have inherent limitations. Using a fundamentally new design, an MI
With new, one-of-a-kind test equipment, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers aim to stamp out costly, delay-causing errors in the design of dies used to make sheet-metal parts ranging from car hoods to airplane wings to pots, pans and cans.
The U.S. auto industry alone is estimated to spend more than $700 million a year on designing, testing, and correcting new dies for its latest models, each containing about 300 stamped parts shaped by dies and presses. About
SMART-1, Europe’s first science spacecraft designed to orbit the Moon, has completed the first part of its journey by achieving its initial Earth orbit after a flawless launch during the night of 27/28 September.
The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 was one of three payloads on Ariane Flight 162. The generic Ariane-5 lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 2014 hrs local time (2314 hrs GMT) on 27 September (01:14 Central European Summer time o
Using laser light as tweezers and a scalpel, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the use of artificial cells as nanovials for ultrasmall volume chemistry. The approach may be useful for faster, cheaper identification of new pharmaceuticals and for studying cellular-level processes. The researchers will report their results in the Sept. 30 edition of Langmuir.
The artificial cells, called liposomes, are tiny spherical containers that se
A new “smart blending” process developed by Clemson University researchers could change the way plastics are made and improve their performance. Early results published in August’s Polymer Engineering and Science have already drawn interest from European and United States plastics manufacturers.
Dave Zumbrunnen, who heads the Clemson research team, said smart blending could bring plastics production into the 21st century. “Most people would be surprised to learn that many plastics are n
A very efficient engine, plenty of room for instruments, accurate performance, good price. All these features characterise ESA’s SMART-1, due for launch during the night of 27-28 September.
SMART-1 is much smaller, cheaper and, in many ways, ’more powerful’ than conventional spacecraft. Its secret lies in several new technologies being tested on board, which will be essential for spacecraft of the future. But this space adventure is not only for engineers; scientists t
Many of Europe’s historic buildings, monuments and civil engineering structures are gradually decaying. Already weakened by age, they are damaged by earth tremors, pollution and traffic vibration. And this is more than just a cultural problem. Continual maintenance is extremely costly and obtrusive, not least because of its negative impact upon tourism and traffic.
Conventional rehabilitation methods using wooden or steel buttresses, tie rods and scaffolding supports dominate the landscape a
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