Penn State graduate students in materials science and materials engineering learn valuable career skills such as concise presentation of their research and win prizes during the 2021 Millennium Café PPG Elevator Pitch Competition on May 15 and May 18.
Giving a new spin to conventional chemical synthesis, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a way to automate the production of small molecules suitable for pharmaceutical use. The method can potentially be used for molecules that are typically produced via manual processes, thereby reducing the manpower required.
UC San Diego engineers developed a technology that turns a conventional light microscope into what's called a super-resolution microscope. It improves the microscope's resolution (from 200 nm to 40 nm) so that it can be used to directly observe finer structures and details in living cells.
Scientists have developed a toolkit that helps pave the way to a gene drive designed to stop Culex mosquitoes from spreading disease. Culex mosquitoes spread devastating afflictions stemming from West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and the pathogen causing avian malaria.
A team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new brain stimulation technique using focused ultrasound that is able to turn specific types of neurons in the brain on and off and precisely control motor activity without surgical device implantation.
Irvine, Calif., May 27, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has awarded funding to two University of California, Irvine scientists under its DOE Early Career Research Program. Mohammad Abdolhosseini Qomi, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Penghui Cao, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, were among 83 researchers selected from university and national laboratory applicants to receive the research awards.
The way the human brain works remains, to a great extent, a topic of controversy. One reason is our limited ability to study neuronal processes at the level of single cells and capillaries across the entire living brain without employing highly invasive surgical methods. This limitation is now on the brink of change.
If a ban were introduced on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, and they were replaced by electric cars, the result would be a great reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Mark B. Chadwick, chief scientist and chief operating officer of Weapons Physics, and Stuart A. Maloy, deputy group leader for Materials Science at Radiation and Dynamic Extremes, were named fellows, while D.V. Rao, program director for the Laboratory’s Civilian Nuclear Program, earned a special award for making advanced nuclear energy systems a reality.
Long interested in interactions between robots and humans, Columbia Engineering researchers have created EVA, a new autonomous robot with a soft and expressive face that responds to match the expressions of nearby humans. “The idea for EVA took shape a few years ago, when my students and I began to notice that the robots in our lab were staring back at us through plastic, googly eyes,” said Prof Hod Lipson, who led the team.
Portable Flamingo microscopes have the potential to democratize science by opening up new opportunities to wide ranges of researchers and institutions.
Crystals are wonders of nature and science with important applications in electronics and optics. Scientists from Argonne have new insights into how gallium nitride crystals grow. Gallium nitride crystals are in wide use in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and may form transistors for high-power switching electronics to make electric grids more energy efficient and smarter.
Researchers show in a new study that a single material, a layered crystal consisting of the elements rhenium and silicon, turns out to be the gold standard of transverse thermoelectric devices.
A team of researchers, led by a University of Minnesota associate professor, have developed a polymer “wafer” that, when placed under the tongue, can effectively deliver and preserve protein-based vaccines for diseases. The research could open the door for vaccines that can be more easily produced and distributed to communities around the world.
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have found strong evidence that warm ice – that is, ice very close in temperature to zero degrees Celsius – may fracture differently than the kinds of ice typically studied in laboratories or nature. A new study published in The Cryosphere takes a closer look at the phenomenon, studied at the world’s largest indoor ice tank on Aalto’s campus.
Artificial intelligence is being called “the next generation of the way we do science.” At Argonne, researchers are leveraging the lab’s state-of-the-art-facilities and unparalleled expertise to shape the very future of science.
The FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University has welcomed the first class of students into its Future Innovators Program, a new engineering internship opportunity aimed at introducing historically underrepresented students into the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) technical talent pipeline.
The “Road to Chula Engineering Journey – Learn Do Share” is a project for Chula Engineering faculty members to gain hands-on experience in sustainable development for a local community in Chiang Mai province.
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed SeKVM, the first system that guarantees--through a mathematical proof--the security of virtual machines in the cloud. “This is the first time that a real-world multiprocessor software system has been shown to be mathematically correct and secure,” said Computer Science Professor Jason Nieh. “This means that users’ data are correctly managed by software running in the cloud and are safe from security bugs and hackers.”
In an open access paper published in Science Advances, Johns Hopkins physicists and colleagues at Rice University, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), present experimental evidence of naturally occurring quantum criticality in a material.
A special livestream event at the 239th ECS Meeting with IMCS18 features representatives of a subcommittee of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee (BESAC) reporting on research and requesting input on the future of international scientific research. “Benchmarking Innovation: The Future of International Scientific Research” takes place on June 1, from 1400-1500h EDT, after which the content will be available through June 26, 2021.
Smart LED light bulbs for the elderly, the latest innovation from Chula and its partners, can do more than emitting light. They enhance the contrast among the primary colors of light thereby improving visibility and reducing accidents in the elderly. The product is expected to hit the market in May.
The ICARUS detector, part of Fermilab’s Short-Baseline Neutrino Program, will officially start its hunt for elusive sterile neutrinos this fall. The international collaboration led by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia successfully brought the detector online and is now collecting test data and making final improvements.
A new robotics project named Argonaut at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will share that same name and spirit of adventure. Argonaut’s mission will be to monitor conditions within ultracold particle detectors by voyaging into a sea of liquid argon kept at minus-193 degrees Celsius — as cold as some of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
An interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers has taken its breakthrough discovery – which melded the ability of soft organic materials to spontaneously self-organize with quantum materials to create superconductors with novel porous architectures – and upped the ante by designing a new cohort of these “quantum metamaterials” that can achieve superconductivity at temperatures competitive with state-of-the-art solid-state materials synthesis.
Now a team, again led by David Muller, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering, has bested its own record by a factor of two with an electron microscope pixel array detector (EMPAD) that incorporates even more sophisticated 3D reconstruction algorithms.
Many devices rely on rare earth elements. Disruptions to supplies have consequences. Argonne analyzed potential disruptions with a computer model called Global Critical Materials to forecast rare earth market dynamics.
The Society of Physics Students has awarded leadership scholarships to Elyzabeth Graham, Emma Moreland, and Natalie Douglass, three undergraduate members who are currently studying physics and engineering and will each receive a $2,000 scholarship. The scholarships are made possible by a gift from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for AIP-SPS members. The purpose of the LLNL-AIP leadership scholarship is to encourage the study of physics and the pursuit of higher education with a preference for those who are traditionally underrepresented in physics and astronomy, including women.
Cornell University engineers and plant scientists have teamed up to develop a low-cost system that allows grape growers to predict their yields much earlier in the season and more accurately than costly traditional methods.
In research published today in Nature Communications, a team of engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and clinicians from Massachusetts General Hospital developed a deep learning algorithm that can help assess a patient’s risk of cardiovascular disease with the same low-dose computerized tomography (CT) scan used to screen for lung cancer. This approach paves the way for more efficient, more cost-effective, and lower radiation diagnoses, without requiring patients to undergo a second CT scan.
Building more homes and buildings with wood has been on the radar for years as a way to offset carbon emissions, though construction companies have been hesitant to take the material in broader use. A study at Aalto University in Finland is now the first to show that building with wood can be a sound investment.
Researchers from NUS Engineering have developed a new method to increase the rate of an important chemical reaction known as hydrogenation by more than 5 times. Hydrogenation is used in the production of everyday items like plastics, fertilisers, and pharmaceuticals. The NUS team’s novel approach is a more direct and effective method that can lead to higher yields for industries and lower environmental impacts.
We Are AI is a 5-week course to introduce people to the basics of AI and empower individuals to engage with how AI is used and governed. No math, programming skills, or existing understanding of AI are required.
The Electrochemical Society (ECS) honored Marc Koper, Professor of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands, with the 2021 ECS Allen J. Bard Award in Electrochemical Science. He will deliver his Award Address, “Electrochemistry of Platinum: New Views on an Old Problem,” at the 239th ECS Meeting with IMCS18. The address can be seen live online at 0900h EDT, Thursday, June 3, after which it will be available through June 26, 2021. There is no cost to participate, however pre-registration is required.
The Electrochemical Society (ECS) honored Hiroshi Iwai, Vice Dean and Distinguished Chair Professor at the International College of Semiconductor Technology, Taiwan, and Professor Emeritus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, with the 2021 ECS Gordon E. Moore Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Science & Technology. He delivers his Award Address, “Impact of Micro-/Nano-Electronics, Miniaturization Limit, and Technology Development for the Next 10 Years and After,” at the 239th ECS Meeting with IMCS18. The address can be seen live online at 2100h EDT, Thursday, June 3, after which it will be available through June 26, 2021. There is no cost to participate, however pre-registration is required.
Not all embryo transfers succeed, which gives rise to the practice of freezing extra embryos from an IVF cycle for future transfers. This allows those with at-risk fertility, due to age or treatments such as chemotherapy, to delay their transfer. In the journal Biomicrofluidics, researchers introduce a standalone microfluidics system to automate the process of embryo vitrification of replacing water with cryoprotectants, which exposes embryos to a slow and constantly increasing concentration of cryoprotectants.
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers the most promising innovators in science and technology, has announced the recipients of the 2021 Hertz Fellowship. From improving treatments for cancer to investigating rising sea levels, these future leaders will address the most pressing challenges facing society.
Urban megaprojects tend to be the antithesis of good urban planning. They have a negative impact on local water systems, deprive local communities of water-related human rights, and their funders and sponsors have little accountability for their impact.
For the first time, the subsurface structural change of silica glass due to nanoscale wear and damage has been revealed via spectroscopy, which may lead to improvements in glass products such as electronic displays and vehicle windshields, according to a team of international researchers.
In an important step toward the clinical application of synthetic biology, Rice University researchers have engineered a bacterium with the necessary capabilities for diagnosing a human disease.