Technologies & Strategies That Enable R&D
Detecting homemade explosives, not toothpaste
June 13, 2013 7:52 am | News | CommentsSandia National Laboratories researchers want airports, border checkpoints and others to detect homemade explosives made with hydrogen peroxide without nabbing people whose toothpaste happens to contain peroxide. That’s part of the challenge faced in developing a portable sensor to detect a common homemade explosive called a FOx mixture, made by mixing hydrogen peroxide with fuels.
Imaging technique captures ever-changing world of metabolites
June 13, 2013 7:38 am | News | CommentsWhat would you do with a camera that can take a picture of something and tell you how new it is? If you’re a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist, you use it to gain a better understanding of the ever-changing world of metabolites. A team of researchers has developed a mass spectrometry imaging technique that not only maps the whereabouts of individual metabolites in a biological sample, but how new the metabolites are too.
Nanothermometer enables first atomic-scale heat dissipation measurements
June 13, 2013 7:27 am | News | CommentsIn findings that could help overcome a major technological hurdle in the road toward smaller and more powerful electronics, an international research team involving Univ. of Michigan engineering researchers, has shown the unique ways in which heat dissipates at the tiniest scales.
Questions rise about seeding for ocean carbon dioxide sequestration
June 12, 2013 6:27 pm | by Tona Kunz, Argonne National Laboratory | News | CommentsA new study on the feeding habits of ocean microbes calls into question the potential use of algal blooms to trap carbon dioxide and offset rising global levels. These blooms contain iron-eating microscopic phytoplankton that absorb C02 from the air. But one type of phytoplankton, a diatom, is using more iron that it needs, which is reducing the amount of iron left over to support the carbon-eating plankton.
New quantum dot technique combines best of optical and electron microscopy
June 12, 2013 6:08 pm | News | CommentsIt's not reruns of "The Jetsons", but researchers working at NIST have developed a new microscopy technique that uses a process similar to how an old tube television produces a picture—cathodoluminescence—to image nanoscale features. The fast, versatile, and high-resolution technique allows scientists to view surface and subsurface features potentially as small as 10 nm in size.
Minute variations in brightness reveal whole new class of stars
June 12, 2013 5:41 pm | News | CommentsAstronomers using the Swiss 1.2-m Euler telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile have found a new type of variable star. The discovery was based on the detection of very tiny changes in brightness of stars in a cluster. The observations revealed previously unknown properties of these stars that defy current theories and raise questions about the origin of the variations.
Lockheed Martin, SNPAS of China sign agreement for nuclear plant safety systems work
June 12, 2013 3:03 pm | News | CommentsLockheed Martin and State Nuclear Power Automation System Engineering Co. (SNPAS) have signed an agreement to prototype, manufacture and qualify nuclear power plant reactor protection systems for China’s Generation III reactors. Lockheed Martin and SNPAS will develop a nuclear safety instrumentation and control platform based on field-programmable gate array technology.
Cooled Thermal Imaging Cameras
June 12, 2013 12:08 pm | Product Releases | CommentsFLIR Systems has introduced a new range of thermal imaging cameras optimized for industrial R&D applications. FLIR A3500sc/A6500sc series thermal imaging cameras incorporate a cooled 3 to 5 micron MW-IR detector. Achieving a high thermal sensitivity of <25 mK, the cameras are able to capture fine image details and temperature difference information.
CMOS-based X-ray Camera Models
June 12, 2013 11:54 am | Product Releases | CommentsTeledyne DALSA has introduced two new models—Shad-o-Box 512 HS and Shad-o-Box 1024 HS—in its Shad-o-Box x-ray detector product line. The models feature active areas of 10.4 by 6.9 cm (768 by 512 pixels) and 10.4 by 13.9 cm (768 by 1024 pixels), respectively. Both models use a 135 µm pixel size.
Imec and Holst Centre unveil fully organic imager
June 12, 2013 9:37 am | News | CommentsAt this week’s International Image Sensor Workshop in Utah, Belgium’s imec and Holst Centre, in collaboration with Philips Research, will present a large-area fully-organic photodetector array fabricated on a flexible substrate. The imager is sensitive in the wavelength range suitable for x-ray imaging applications.
Video gamers really do see more
June 12, 2013 9:24 am | News | CommentsHours spent at the video gaming console not only train a player's hands to work the buttons on the controller, they probably also train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke Univ. researchers.
Genetic switches play big role in human evolution
June 12, 2013 8:45 am | by Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell Univ. | News | CommentsA Cornell Univ. study offers further proof that the divergence of humans from chimpanzees some 4 to 6 million years ago was profoundly influenced by mutations to DNA sequences that play roles in turning genes on and off. The study provides evidence for a 40-year-old hypothesis that regulation of genes must play an important role in evolution since there is little difference between humans and chimps in the proteins produced by genes.
Alternative-fuel cars are no carbon cure-all
June 12, 2013 8:31 am | News | CommentsMaking cars more fuel-efficient is great for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but rather than promoting sales of electric and other alternative-fuel vehicles, policymakers should turn their focus to cutting emissions in other energy sectors—from oil wells and power plants to farms and forests affected by biofuels production—says a Univ. of Michigan researcher.
Controlling magnetic clouds in graphene
June 12, 2013 8:14 am | News | CommentsWonder material graphene can be made magnetic, and its magnetism can be switched on and off at the press of a button. This opens a new avenue towards electronics with very low energy consumption. In a report published by a Univ. of Manchester team shows how to create elementary magnetic moments in graphene and then switch them on and off. This is the first time magnetism itself has been toggled.
Fukushima plant steps closer to fuel-rod removal
June 12, 2013 7:34 am | by MALCOLM FOSTER - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsMore than two years after Japan's nuclear disaster, debris remains strewn about the Fukushima plant. Scores of pipes and hoses cover the ground in some places, part of the company's makeshift system to pump water into the damaged reactors to keep them from overheating. Plant chief Takeshi Takahashi said Wednesday that workers have cleaned up much of the debris, but priorities are keeping the plant stable and working toward shutting it down
