A VTI study performed in the driving simulator shows that using a mobile phone with a handsfree kit is no safer in traffic than using a hand-held mobile phone.

The study shows that the attention of drivers is negatively influenced by a telephone conversation, whether it is with a handsfree or hand-held mobile phone. The participants were however a lot more positive about using a handsfree than a hand-held phone while driving. They also had the impression that their driving performa

Solar Photovoltaic Systems converting sunlight into electricity are a key technology in reaching Europe’s objectives of safe, secure and sustainable energy supply. World-wide production of solar electricity has continued to increase by more than 30% per year, reaching 1000 megawatts (enough to meet the domestic needs of 660.000 European citizens) in 2004 and has become one of Europe’s foremost growth industries. Certified power measurements are crucial to guaranteeing the competitiveness of solar

To develop ever-smaller chips that consume less. These are the indispensable requirements of the current market for portable applications such as mobile telephone technology and biomedical systems, obtaining correct and trouble-free operation of the devices over the maximum possible duration of time. One of the techniques which, in fact, can be used for the development of this type of reduced-size, low-consumption microchip is one analysed by Carlos Aristóteles de la Cruz in his PhD defended at t

Another important step towards realizing the promise of lightning fast photonic technology has been taken by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley. Researchers have demonstrated that semiconductor nanoribbons, single crystals measuring tens of hundreds of microns in length, but only a few hundred or less nanometers in width and thickness (about one ten-millionth of an inch), can serve as “wa

A common mineral can remove carbon dioxide from combustion gases, but in its natural state, it is glacially slow. Now, a team of Penn State researchers is changing serpentine so that it sequesters the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning in hours, not eons.

“Serpentine naturally sequesters carbon dioxide over geologic time, but it is too slow to help us,” says Dr. M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer, assistant professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering and program coordinator fo

Vulnerabilities inadvertently built into the U.S. power grid, which is one of the most complex systems ever constructed, have been identified by a research team lead by Reka Albert, assistant professor of physics at Penn State. The team’s topological analysis of the grid structure reveals that, although the system has been designed to withstand the random loss of generators or substations, its integrity may depend on protecting a few key elements.

“Our analysis indicates that

A new high-speed cargo catamaran could significantly reduce the number of lorry journeys on European roads thanks to a grant of almost one million euros from the EU’s Framework Programme.

PACSCAT (Partial Air Cushion Supported Catamaran) is a 30 month project to evaluate the possibility of using high-speed river transport to help deal with the rapid growth in freight movement throughout Europe. The capacity of each catamaran will be around 2,000 tonnes – the equivalent of 45 truck l

Pioneering fiber production methods similar to those of Kevlar(R), Zylon(R)

Rice University scientists are refining pioneering chemical production methods used to make pure carbon nanotube fibers. Research appearing in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Science describes the scalable production techniques, which yield highly aligned, continuous macroscopic fibers composed solely of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), the type of carbon nanotubes with the best mechanical and trans

Tamoxifen alone may adequately control breast cancer, avoiding side effects

Older women treated with tamoxifen after removal of early-stage breast cancer by lumpectomy may safely be able to avoid radiation therapy and its unpleasant side effects. In the Sept. 2 New England Journal of Medicine, investigators from several major cancer research groups report that adding radiation to post-surgical tamoxifen treatment of women age 70 or older does not improve survival, has minimal impact o

Researchers master self-assembly of novel nanodots

Using pulsed lasers, researchers have coaxed the metal nickel to self-assemble into arrays of nanodots – each spot a mere seven nanometers (seven billionths of a meter) across – one-tenth the diameter of existing nanodots.

Because the method works with a variety of materials and may drastically reduce imperfections, the new procedure may also bolster research into extremely hard materials and efforts to develop ultra-dens

Want a tennis racket that propels balls faster than a race car or a sturdy ship hull that never rusts? Finding the recipes for such remarkable materials – called amorphous metals – should be easier using a new computational approach developed by Carnegie Mellon University physicist Michael Widom.

Described in an upcoming issue of Phys. Rev. B (September 1, 2004), this method already has been used to virtually generate recipes for more than 1,700 structures, many of which have never b

A new type of microfluidic device that can help industry to optimize paints, coatings for microelectronics and specialty polymers has been developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers. The device is made of a chemically durable plastic that is resistant to many common organic solvents. It was fabricated with a rapid prototyping method also developed at the agency.

Described in the Aug. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society,* such

To the wonderment—and the befuddlement—of scientists, the patterns that form as plastics, metals and many other materials crystallize can vary incredibly, ranging from sea-urchin-like spheres to elaborate tree-like branches.

Now, Hungarian and National Institute of Standards and Technology scientists report in the September issue of Nature Materials* that they have developed a way to predict the polycrystalline microstructures that will form as complex liquid mixtures cool and

Technical Insights plastics materials – Emerging technology and trends analysis

Economical, performance-focused plastics materials application development is dependent not only on leveraging traditional, well-defined ‘cost-performance’ parameters, but also on understanding the strategic nuances essential for sustaining long-term growth.

“Adherence to regulatory legislation – particularly in the areas of continuous improvement in size and weight reduction – is one of th

Austrian-German research team demonstrates for the first time an attosecond “oscilloscope” rendering the hyper-fast field oscillations of visible light

The human eye can detect changes in the intensity of light, not however the wavelength because light oscillates too fast (approximately 1000 trillion times per second). An international collaboration led by Ferenc Krausz and made up of researchers from the Vienna University of Technology, the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Opt

Most of the energy that goes into building U.S. homes is consumed – not by the power tools, welding and trucking during construction – but during the manufacture of the building materials, according to a comprehensive life-cycle assessment comparing typical wood-, steel- and concrete-frame homes.

Using the least energy-intensive building materials – and taking steps toward such things as recycling and reusing more building materials – makes sense considering the nation’s energy conc