A carefully controlled animal study provides clear evidence that a low-glycemic-index (low-GI) diet – one whose carbohydrates are low in sugar or release sugar slowly – can lead to weight loss, reduced body fat, and reduction in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“The study findings should give impetus to large-scale trials of low-GI diets in humans,” says senior author David Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) obesity program at Childre

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have recently demonstrated a novel method for chemically modifying and enhancing silica-based aerogels without sacrificing the aerogels unique properties. Aerogels are low-density, transparent materials used in a wide range of applications, including thermal insulation, porous separation media, inertial confinement fusion experiments and cometary dust capture agents.

Made of silica, one of the Earth’

Wonder where the fuel will come from for tomorrow’s hydrogen-powered vehicles? Virginia Tech researchers are developing catalysts that will convert water to hydrogen gas. The research will be presented at the 228th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia August 22-26, 2004

Supramolecular complexes created by Karen Brewer’s group at Virginia Tech convert light energy (solar energy) into a fuel that can be transported, stored, and dispensed, such as hydro

Researchers in England have found a promising method for producing hydrogen from sunflower oil, a development that could lead to cleaner and more efficient hydrogen production for powering automobile fuel cells as well as homes, factories and offices. The development was described today at the 228th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

Fuel cells show much promise for supplying the energy needs of the future, and their demand is

NASA decides to send astronauts to Mars and farther out, one of the biggest technological hurdles it will face will be making sure they don’t get thirsty.

A $49,000 toilet at Purdue University may provide part of the answer. When NASA engineers first considered manned missions to Mars to follow the moon landings, they imagined that the astronauts would simply pack lots of water and food.

“We could go to Mars with Apollo technologies,” said Dr. Daniel J. Barta, deputy manag

Engineers at Ohio State University have incorporated clay and other chemicals into a paint that keeps metal from corroding — and reveals when an airplane, boat, or bridge needs to be repainted.

Though the paint is still under development, early tests have shown that it prevents corrosion just as well as commercial paints that are less environmentally friendly.

The new paint is unique because its pigment contains tiny particles of clay that capture the chemicals that cause co

One of the most widely used plastics in the world — PVC — could be on the verge of becoming more fire retardant and environmentally friendly, thanks to the work of researchers at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

PVC is practically ubiquitous in our society, especially in many homes. Household products from water pipes to shower curtains and house siding to window shades and wall coverings are made from poly(vinyl chloride).

Polymer chemists developed

Solar hydrogen fuel dream will soon be a reality

Australian scientists predict that a revolutionary new way to harness the power of the sun to extract clean and almost unlimited energy supplies from water will be a reality within seven years.
Using special titanium oxide ceramics that harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, the researchers say it will then be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting n

Time is fast running out for the semiconductor industry as transistors become ever smaller and their insulating layers of silicon dioxide, already only atoms in thickness, reach maximum shrinkage. In addition, the thinner the silicon layer becomes, the greater the amount of chemical dopants that must be used to maintain electrical contact. And the limit here also is close to being reached.

But a Cornell University researcher has caused an information industry buzz with the discover

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Florida have uncovered information that may help “molecular wires” replace silicon in micro-electronic circuits and/or components in solar energy storage systems. The scientists were studying how electric charge is distributed in polymer molecule chains that are several nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in length.

Brookhaven chemist John Miller, the study’s lead scientist

A new generation of high surface-area porous materials for removing atrazine from water supplies has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The low-cost and wear-resistant fibers also can remove the hazardous contaminants chloroform and trichloroethylene, both byproducts of the commonly used chlorine disinfection process.

“We’ve shown that we can remove all these impurities to well below the maximum contaminant levels established by the Env

With hundreds of thousands of the nation’s bridges nearing the end of their design lives, cash-strapped states are searching for innovative solutions to repair and replace their decaying structures. One answer may lie in the same material that delivered the stealth aircraft, according to two researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Composite fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), first developed for use in the aerospace and automotive industries, may be able to help nurse the rapi

Automotive manufacturers may soon benefit from a new breed of metals – known as functionally gradient materials – that can withstand the high temperatures of die casting without cracking under pressure, according to a researcher at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

UMR researchers, led by Dr. Frank Liou, director of the manufacturing engineering program and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, hope to build better die-casting molds by developing materials that are both

People are just as likely to be killed, or property damaged, by the shock wave from an exploding bomb as from flying debris or flames. The rush of gases emanating from a bomb can travel more than 10 times the speed of sound, destroying everything in its path.

Two University of Rhode Island engineers have constructed a “shock tube” to simulate this rush of gas so they can test the ability of various new composite materials to withstand these extreme forces.

“What we’re

University of Michigan researchers have discovered a way to self-assemble nanoparticles into wires, sheets, shells and other unusual structures using sticky patches that make the particles group themselves together in programmed ways. This method could be used to fabricate new materials and devices for nanotechnology.

Using computer simulation of model particles, Zhenli Zhang, U-M research fellow in chemical engineering, and Sharon Glotzer, U-M associate professor in chemical engineer

Sophisticated tools used to survey and monitor passenger flows through busy metro stations may result in unmanageable data loads. ADVISOR’s decision support tools reduce the workload of operators and increase the utility of the data output.

ADVISOR, which stands for Annotated Digital Video for Intelligent Surveillance and Optimised Retrieval, “is a significant aid to the operators in charge of metro security,” says project coordinator Michael Naylor. “The principal of the [ADVISO