Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists can mineralize wood in record time

California has Silicon Valley. Could a Silicon Forest in Washington be next? A team of materials scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is on it.

Yongsoon Shin and colleagues at the Department of Energy lab have converted wood to mineral, achieving in days what it takes nature millions of years to do in such places as the Gingko Petrified Forest, an hour up the Columbia Riv

The University of Deusto (Bilbao) is developing a system for the remote monitoring of vehicles.

The NEXT-CAR project consists in developing a system for the management of a number of sensors incorporated into a vehicle and the subsequent sending of data from these to a monitoring control centre.

The basis of the project is a small pocket computer (PDA) which receives all the information from the vehicle’s network of electronic sensors, thus enabling it to monitor the compl

The GAIKER Technological centre is designing a project, together with the Catalysis and Petrochemical Institute of the CSIC, The Bilbao School of Industrial Engineers and the University of Malaga, aimed at obtaining biofuels from a renewable source of energy. To this end, an attempt to develop a process of heterogeneous catalysis has been undertaken, with new catalysts that enable the obtaining of automotive biodiesel from recycled oils or from crops from energy crops.

The project for ob

Europe’s ports are where land and sea traffic meet – and ways of managing them differ greatly. A variety of data and operations must be handled, from the control of crane movements and parking of lorries to loading freight onto ships.

EUREKA project E! 2351 LOGCHAIN GHADIS tackled this logistical complexity by developing a graphic database system to make the management, administration, optimisation and communications of port operations simple and efficient, saving time and reducing

Ohio State University engineers are designing super-slick, water-repellent surfaces that mimic the texture of lotus leaves.

The patent-pending technology could lead to self-cleaning glass, and could also reduce friction between the tiny moving parts inside microdevices.

Scientists have long known that the lotus, or water lily, makes a good model for a water-repellent surface, explained Bharat Bhushan, Ohio Eminent Scholar and the Howard D. Winbigler Professor of mechanical

ROBOTIKER-TECNALIA Technological Centre is currently developing the project known as TANGER (Technologies for New Generation Automobiles). These technologies will integrate novel and innovative solutions into new automotive products centred at the point of driving. Within its strategy of product and processes design and development, ROBOTIKER-TECNALIA have taken a clear decision to technologically enhance the point of driving, this being the centre of control of the vehicle, taking in both th

A Cornell University research group has made a sweet and environmentally beneficial discovery — how to make plastics from citrus fruits, such as oranges, and carbon dioxide.

In a paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (Sept. 2004), Geoffrey Coates, a Cornell professor of chemistry and chemical biology, and his graduate students Chris Byrne and Scott Allen describe a way to make polymers using limonene oxide and carbon dioxide, with t

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a novel carbon-nanotube-based material that chokes vibration and may have applications for both large and small devices.

In the January 9, 2004, advance online edition of Nature Materials, the researchers describe the new material and demonstrate its usefulness as a filler to enhance traditional vibration-reduction materials.

Conducted by Nikhil Koratkar and colleagues at Rensselaer, the research arose from Ko

Courtyard houses and terraced houses are the central topics of a newly released publication on the forms of horizontal densification in domestic architecture. Besides the history of these building types, the various types, quality criteria and their implementation within the purview of the numerous concepts of urban development are dealt with in detail. The book, published in German with the aid of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), thus offers a unique review of a residential building type that –

Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego are using the shell of a seaweed-eating snail as a guide in the development of a new generation of bullet-stopping armor. The colorful oval shell of the red abalone is highly prized as a source of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, jewelry, but the UCSD researchers are most impressed by the shell’s ability to absorb heavy blows without breaking.

In a paper published in the Jan. 15 issue of Materials Science and Engin

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a novel carbon-nanotube-based material that chokes vibration and may have applications for both large and small devices.

In the January 9, 2004, advance online edition of Nature Materials, the researchers describe the new material and demonstrate its usefulness as a filler to enhance traditional vibration-reduction materials.

Conducted by Nikhil Koratkar and colleagues at Rensselaer, the research arose fro

Car battery failing? Hazardous material leaching? Oil level dropping?

There you are, tapping your fingers on the cold steering wheel as your windows cloud over from your breath. How could you have known your car battery was that low? Sending weak beams of light through inexpensive glass tubes that resemble soda straws, Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jonathan Weiss – dubbed by some the “light wizard” – can inexpensively solve problems ranging from the migration of waste th

Research in Florida and Kansas

Driving in rural areas can be hazardous to your health. Many factors contribute to the severity of automobile accidents. Sunanda Dissanayake, assistant professor of civil engineering at Kansas State University, said some factors continually and significantly contribute to the severity of accidents.

In her most recent research, Dissanayake studied rural highway crashes in Kansas. A previous study looked at factors contributing to the severity

Imagine a home with “smart” walls responsive to the environment in the room, a digital camera sensitive enough to work in the dark, or clothing with the capacity to turn the sun’s power into electrical energy. Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented an infrared-sensitive material that could shortly turn these possibilities into realities.

In a paper to be published on the Nature Materials website Jan. 9, senior author Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks – Canad

CNSE spintronics lab research shows silicon can maintain a permanent magnetic field above room temperature, which could help to develop more effective magnetic semiconductors and future spintronic devices

Silicon is best known as the material used to make semiconductor computer chips with integrated circuits. Today, scientists at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University at Albany published research that could lay the foundation for using silic

Fraunhofer IIS presented the first DRM chip design for car radios. This car radio solution will enable drivers to select their preferred radio program from hundreds of different radio stations. However, it is something more than purely listening to favorite music: the new radio formats offer multilingual support to ethnic news or talk programs. In this way, drivers will get local news or may listen to programs in foreign languages – at any time and any place.

With the internati