Technologies & Strategies That Enable R&D
Soft matter offers way to study arrangement of ordered materials
May 21, 2013 7:46 am | News | CommentsA fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics, and materials. The doughnut-shaped droplets, a shape known as toroidal, are formed from two dissimilar liquids using a simple rotating stage and an injection needle.
Evaluating a new way to open clogged arteries
May 21, 2013 7:30 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsOver the past few decades, scientists have developed many devices that can reopen clogged arteries, including angioplasty balloons and metallic stents. While generally effective, each of these treatments has drawbacks, including the risk of side effects. A new study analyzes the potential usefulness of a new treatment that combines the benefits of angioplasty balloons and drug-releasing stents, but may pose fewer risks.
Entrepreneurs need to balance risk of persisting with payoff of succeeding
May 20, 2013 8:35 pm | News | CommentsIn a new business, sometimes the better part of wisdom is knowing when to quit, a new study concludes. Even though persistence is a key to business success, entrepreneurs might be more successful if they not only knew when to start a business and take risks, but also knew when to abandon it and find something that provides a greater opportunity, the research team concluded.
Non-wetting fabric drains sweat
May 20, 2013 3:54 pm | News | CommentsWaterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers at the University of California, Davis. The new fabric works like human skin, forming excess sweat into droplets that drain away by themselves, says inventor Tingrui Pan.
Inkjet-printed graphene may open doors to foldable electronics
May 20, 2013 3:15 pm | News | CommentsNorthwestern University researchers have recently developed a graphene-based ink that is highly conductive and tolerant to bending, and they have used it to inkjet-print graphene patterns that could be used for extremely detailed, conductive electrodes. The resulting patterns are 250 times more conductive than previous attempts to print graphene-based electronic patterns and could be a step toward low-cost, foldable electronics.
Researchers perform fastest measurements ever made of ion channel proteins
May 20, 2013 3:08 pm | News | CommentsA team of researchers at Columbia Engineering has used miniaturized electronics to measure the activity of individual ion-channel proteins with temporal resolution as fine as one microsecond, producing the fastest recordings of single ion channels ever performed. Ion channels are biomolecules that allow charged atoms to flow in and out of cells, and they are an important work-horse in cell signaling, sensing, and energetics.
Slow earthquakes: It's all in the rock mechanics
May 20, 2013 2:59 pm | News | CommentsEarthquakes that last minutes rather than seconds are a relatively recent discovery, according to an international team of seismologists. Researchers have been aware of these slow earthquakes, only for the past five to 10 years because of new tools and new observations, but these tools may explain the triggering of some normal earthquakes and could help in earthquake prediction.
Measles surges in U.K. years after flawed research
May 20, 2013 12:16 pm | by MARIA CHENG - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsMore than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.
XenoPort MS treatment fails in late-stage testing
May 20, 2013 12:01 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsShares of XenoPort Inc. sank Monday after the drug developer said a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis patients failed in late-stage clinical testing, and it will stop developing the drug. The Santa Clara, Calif., company said the treatment, labeled arbaclofen placarbil, failed to show a statistically significant improvement for patients taking it compared to a fake drug.
Computational tool simplifies complex data into 2D images
May 20, 2013 9:30 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. A sophisticated algorithm converts difficult-to-interpret data into visual representations similar to two-dimensional "scatter plots".
X-ray method shows how frog embryos could help thwart disease
May 20, 2013 9:25 am | News | CommentsAn international team of scientists using a new X-ray method recorded the internal structure and cell movement inside a living frog embryo in greater detail than ever before. This result showcases a new method to advance biological research and the search for new treatments for genetic diseases.
Competition in the quantum world
May 20, 2013 9:24 am | News | CommentsUsing a new tool called a quantum simulator—based on a small-scale quantum computer—researchers in Austria have simulated physical phenomena a classical computer cannot investigate efficiently. Scientists there are the first to have simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a new type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders
Protected data cloud to analyze cancer data
May 20, 2013 9:16 am | News | CommentsThe University of Chicago has recently launched the first secure cloud-based computing system that enables researchers to access and analyze human genomic cancer information, such as the The Cancer Genome Atlas, without the costly and cumbersome infrastructure normally needed to download and store massive amounts of data.
Research shows defects in twin boundaries that strengthen materials
May 20, 2013 9:11 am | News | CommentsThrough experiments and simulations, a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have found that twin boundaries with good electrical conductivity and a strengthening mechanism in materials may not be so perfect after all.
Thermistor Probes
May 20, 2013 8:23 am | Product Releases | CommentsOmega Engineering’s TH-21 Series thermistor probes are constructed with a glass-encapsulated thermistor element, which provide excellent stability and accuracy. With a maximum continuous temperature rating of -80 to 200 C (-112 to 392 F), and intermittent operation to 250 C (482 F), these thermistor sensors can be used in applications previously out of reach of epoxy-coated thermistor sensors.
