The same stuff that stains your coffee mug could reduce pollution in the computer hard-drive industry, while saving drive makers millions of dollars in manufacturing costs.
The compound is derived from the tannin phytochemicals commonly found in plants. Green tea has a lot of them.
John Lombardi, president of Tucson-based Ventana Research Corp. combined phytochemicals from green-tea extract, synthetic proteins and an abrasive to produce a lapping slurry that is three to four times f
Possible uses include biological labeling, laser light, catalysts, memory storage, and relief for physicists
A wish list for nanotechnologists might consist of a simple, inexpensive means – actually, any means at all – of self-assembling nanocrystals into robust orderly arrangements, like soup cans on a shelf or bricks in a wall, each separated from the next by an insulating layer of silicon dioxide.
The silica casing could be linked to compatible semiconductor devices. The
Moscow scientists have managed to do simply and inexpensively something which normally proves complicated and expensive. The concept thought out and then implemented is a device which allows you to check the quality of ground and polished surfaces with unprecedented precision and rapidity and to detect every single defect of such surfaces. The effort has been funded by both the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Foundation for Promotion of Small-Size Enterprises in Research and Technical A
Experiment uses biomolecules to write on a gold substrate Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on a gold surface. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme “ink” represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant.
A safer way to heat food products that retains nutritional qualities, which experts acknowledge has a positive effect on health, is being developed with the help of €693,000 from the Food Quality and Safety Programme of the European Union’s Framework Programme
In most cases, the production of safe food products requires some form of heat treatment and, in traditional heating methods, the result is often a loss of nutritional quality. This is because the heat is generated outside the food an
Researchers at Purdue University have developed the first system capable of searching a company’s huge database of three-dimensional parts created with computer-aided design software.
Such “parts search engines” could save time and millions of dollars annually by making it easier for companies to “reuse” previous designs, benefiting from the lessons learned in creating past parts.
“Designers spend about 60 percent of their time searching for the right information, which is rated as
CSIRO marine scientists have developed a technique that gives new hope in the battle to stop the spread of aquatic pests
“What we have is a probe acting as a magnet to detect a needle in a haystack,” says Dr Jawahar Patil, who designed the technique which has been successfully tested in Australia.
The new DNA probe involves seawater sample extraction of DNA, and amplification of a target specific “DNA signature or fingerprint” to identify the presence of pest species in water
Police who need to dust suspicious packages for fingerprints could someday rely on a robotic device to do this dangerous work.
The device, developed by scientists from U of T and the University of Calgary, offers a safe way to collect fingerprint evidence from packages that might be too dangerous for a human to approach. A study describing the development of the device, called a Robot Accessory for Fuming Fingerprint Evidence (RAFFE), appears in the March 2004 issue of the Journal of Forensi
New, biodegradable machining compound is more effective than industry standards
Derived in part from green tea, a new biodegradable machining compound for computer hard drive manufacturing is three to four times more effective than toxic counterparts. In an industry where more than 161 million hard drives leave assembly lines each year, the new compound could significantly improve manufacturing efficiency and minimize environmental risks.
Engineered by John Lombardi of Ve
Research aids drug design; sheds light on plague and other diseases
A new technique for engineering protein crystals is helping scientists figure out the three-dimensional structures of some important biological molecules, including a key plague protein whose structure has eluded researchers until now. The technique, developed with support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), promises to help pharmaceutical compani
Engineers from Duke University have described progress building so-called “smart nanostructures,” including billionths-of-a-meter-scale “nanobrushes” that can selectively and reversibly sprout from surfaces in response to changes in temperature or solvent chemistry.
In talks delivered during the March 28-April 1 at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Anaheim, researchers from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering also told how they are using an atomic force microscope to creat
For two decades, chemists have been making great strides in analyzing the biological functions that drive living cells. But many biological substances still remain undetectable.
That will soon change, thanks to a biological sensor being developed by University of Arizona chemists. Their new sensor platform has many capabilities that current ones lack.
Most intracellular sensors are made from hard plastics (polymers). The plastic is formed into solid, nanometer-sized, BB-like beads,
Tiny machines built as part of silicon chips are all around us, and their need for lubrication is the same as large machines such as automobile engines, but conventional lubricants, like oils, are too heavy for these micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), so Penn State researchers are looking to gases to provide thin films of slippery coating.
MEMS today are mostly found in automobile air bags as the sensor that marks sudden deceleration and triggers airbag use. They can also take the for
Australian researchers who have worked quietly over several years in a long ignored area of metallurgy have been rewarded with a startling discovery, which is set to reshape the way metals are manufactured around the world.
CSIRO’s (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation) Advanced Thixotropic Metallurgy (ATM) casting technology is now in the final proving-out stage and the results herald a new age of quality high-pressure die-casting (HPDC).
ATM is particul
Creating a tool small enough to measure friction on a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device is not an easy task. The tool has to be about the width of a human hair.
Yet, researchers at the at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories have developed a new “inchworm” actuator instrument that provides detailed information about friction at the microscale.
The main objective of the project was to study the validity of Amonton’s Law at
Self-cleaning hydrogen sensors may soon join the ranks of self-cleaning ovens, self-cleaning windows and self-cleaning public toilets, according to Penn State researchers.
“The photocatalytic properties of titania nanotubes are so large — a factor of 100 times greater than any other form of titania — that sensor contaminants are efficiently removed with exposure to ultraviolet light, so that the sensors effectively recover or retain their original hydrogen sensitivity in real world applic
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