Process Engineering

A new type of nanotechnology-based filter that can separate out mixtures of biological molecules has been developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The technology could potentially be used, for example, to build small-scale devices for research in genomics by sorting mixtures of different proteins or DNA molecules.

The filter consists of a polycarbonate membrane etched with tiny, evenly-sized pores less than 10 nanometers — a few billionths of an inch — in size. The

It was the early 1990s and building Jefferson Lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator was in high gear. The Accelerator Division was busy installing some 30 vacuum ion pumps in the tunnel. Simultaneously, above ground in the long, low service buildings sitting over the tunnel, workers were installing and wiring the 7 kV, high-voltage power supplies for those ion pumps.

“With the procedures we had in place we were never in danger,” recalled Rick Gonzales, Accelerator Electronics Suppo

The same material that makes the theft detectors go off in a department store when the salesperson forgets to remove the anti-theft tag, may make inexpensive, passive temperature and stress sensors for highways, concrete buildings and other applications possible, according to Penn State researchers.

“These materials typically cost about $100 a mile and each sensor is about an inch long,” says Dr. Craig A. Grimes, associate professor of electrical engineering and member of Penn State’s

Taking their cue from fish, scientists in the US have built a navigational aid that will help robots and remote sensors find their way around the world`s vast oceans. The team describes its research today in the Institute of Physics publication Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

Fish and many amphibian animals find their way through even the murkiest of waters, navigate raging torrents and spot obstacles, predators and prey using a sensory organ known as the lateral line system.

A first-of-its-kind, small-scale natural gas liquefaction facility designed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was unveiled today by Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials in Sacramento, Calif.

Other significant partners in the pioneering liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility effort include the California Energy Commission, Sacramento Air Quality Management District, SoCal Gas Company and South Coast Air Quality M

Machines not bigger than a molecule will one day surf our blood stream, search and destroy infected tissues, and heal our wounds. This is just one of the applications of nanotechnology. EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin will chair an information day on nanotech new frontiers in Grenoble, France, on 14 June 2002. Nanotech research is still in its start-up phase, and will be far more effective if co-ordinated and supported at EU level. The Commission will therefore allocate € 700 million to nan