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Understanding the formation and evolution of ice in astrophysical environments can provide information about the physical conditions encountered in space and the chemical similarities and differences between planetary and stellar systems. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Edith Fayolle, an astrochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will talk about how scientists are trying to understand properties of ice on astrophysical bodies, such as its formation, composition and sublimation -- the process by which ice transitions directly into gas, without being in its liquid phase in between.

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Electrocatalysts accelerate energy conversion, which is an integral component to many industrially important technologies, such as fuel cells. While many models show promising results to improving this approach, technologies to demonstrate a decrease in degradation to optimize performance are lacking. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Serhiy Cherevko, a physicist at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, will talk about the challenges facing current electrocatalysis techniques and possible analytical tools to optimize this approach for widespread commercialization.

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In recent years, glass has become an important part of our day-to-day lives, acting as a physical boundary between humans and digital information and communication. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Albert Fahey, an associate scientist at Corning Incorporated, will present on the methods scientists use to study the chemical and mechanical properties of glass and other optical surfaces, how they are working to better understand these surfaces and their limits, and what new things are being done to improve user friendliness.

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Future space-based telescopes that may replace the Hubble Space Telescope will require access to the far-ultraviolet region, where light has a very short wavelength. However, astronomical observations in this region present challenges due to the oxidation of the aluminum films used in optical studies in FUV. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, David Boris, a physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, will discuss work being done to optimize aluminum thin films for use in space applications.

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Nature has inspired innovative research throughout human history, and three scientists recently studied white beetles to understand the physics of light scattering. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, researchers will talk about their study of these scales to better understand thin “super-white” coatings that can reject solar spectrum and radiate through transparent windows. By studying light scattering at such a small scale, they were able to calculate light scattering in the biological structures faster and more accurately.

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Scientists at Exogenesis Corporation are using accelerated neural atom beam technology, a low-energy accelerated particle beam, to bombard the surface of the medical devices on a very small scale. They found bacterial cells had a decreased ability to attach themselves to the treated surfaces. At the 66th annual AVS International Symposium and Exhibition, scientist and Exogenesis Corp. CEO Dimitry Shashkov will discuss how progress has been made to make implantable medical devices safer for patients by using ANAB.

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Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab want to know more about the potential harmful effects of organic contamination on space exploration hardware and how to prevent it. They will talk about their research at the 66th annual AVS International Symposium and Exhibition. JPL scientist Martin Maxwell will present a session on how increased sensitivity of instruments and missions calls for an update in outdated contamination procedures.

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Modern advances in oncology have significantly improved cancer survival rates. However, personalized treatment methods are necessary, since tumors may behave differently for different patients. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Cristina Canal, a researcher at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, will present cold plasmas as a promising tool for minimally invasive cancer therapy. She will discuss the benefits of using plasma jets for cancer therapy, and explain the use of different liquid media, hydrogels and their properties.

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At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 20-25, Daniel Gunlycke will present a study on using symmetry to reduce the effects of random quantum entanglement in quantum computing applications. When deliberate, quantum entanglement can make algorithms more powerful and efficient, but uncontrolled entanglement adds unnecessary additional complexity to quantum computing, making algorithms suboptimal and more prone to error. Gunlycke says by reducing the frequency of accidental entanglements, quantum computing can be improved.

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Scientists and companies will showcase their latest research, tools, equipment and services at the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition. The event will be held Oct. 20-25 in Columbus, Ohio. This will be a great opportunity for reporters to interact with experts in a variety of science fields, such as quantum science, plasmas, biomaterials, photonics, nanometer scale technology and more.

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The scientific community is gearing up for the ultimate challenge -- to race the speed of light. In this quest, they are tinkering with the electronic and magnetic properties of new materials to improve the performance and capabilities of logic, memory and energy devices for next-generation technology. During the 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition, being held Oct. 21-26, Alexander Gray will discuss his work using soft and hard X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to explore the depth- and momentum-resolved electronic structure of quantum materials and nanostructures.

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Electrical engineer Koichi Takaki has used nanosecond-long pulses of high-voltage electricity and discharge plasma -- like that found in lightning -- to promote the growth of fruits, vegetables and edible fungi and to preserve the freshness of a variety perishable foods. Takaki will describe his findings at the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 21-26.

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The next generation of phones, computers and wearable devices requires materials that can meet extraordinary demands. Engineers and physicists aim to meet these needs by developing new materials that can perform faster while using less energy. During the 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition, being held Oct. 21-26, researchers will discuss different techniques, from evaporating germanium to creating strategic voids, to improve the electrical performance of succeeding technologies.

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Researchers have developed a new class of molecular layer deposition chemistry that paves the way for a new photoactivated molecular layer deposition technique. They report that their new method will expand the tool kit for forming covalently bound organic multilayers at surfaces. These emerging deposition techniques have enabled engineers to produce organic thin films with improved conformality. Richard Closser, Stanford University, will present the findings at the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 21-26, 2018.

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Imagine a coating as hard as a diamond and a fraction the thickness of a human hair. Researchers are exploring new approaches to create resilient thin films that could be used in a variety of electronic applications from cutting tools to the aerospace industry. During the 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition, being held Oct. 21-26, Grzegorz Greczynski will present a new deposition method that improves the thermal and chemical stability of transition-metal nitride thin-film layers.

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As the phones get slimmer, the optics crisper and the processors faster, have you ever wondered what is happening behind the scenes that make these remarkable achievements possible? During the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 21-26, Svetlana Radovanov will discuss the research and development that ultimately are used to create the particle accelerators driving these technological advances.

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Researchers are finding new ways to use artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to enhance treatments, from routine dental techniques to attacking cancerous tissue. At the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 21-26, Dean Ho will present the results of two clinical trials that show how AI-enabled personalized medical treatment for a prostate cancer patient and nanotechnology improved recovery for patients after a root canal.

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Nanosensors are incredible information-gathering tools for myriad applications, including molecular targets such as the brain. Neurotransmitter molecules govern brain function through chemistry found deep within the brain, so University of California, Berkeley researchers are developing nanosensors to gain a better understanding of exactly how this all plays out, and will discuss their work at the AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition, Oct. 29-Nov. 3, 2017, in Tampa, Florida.

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The ruddy flakes of a rusted nail are a sure sign that an undesirable chemical reaction has occurred at the surface. Understanding how molecules and atoms behave with each other, especially at surfaces, is central to managing both desirable chemical reactions, such as catalysis, and undesirable reactions, like a nail’s corrosion. Yet the field of surface chemistry has been challenged for nearly 100 years to develop predictive theories for these reactions. Now there’s progress, thanks to some new approaches.

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Dazzling dragonfly wings may send poets rhapsodizing, but scientists yearn for a better understanding. In particular, they want to know the chemistry of the different layers giving rise to natural photonic crystals that help create color. Now, a collaboration of Brazilian researchers have teamed up with Minnesota experts to puzzle out the color mechanism of the male Amazonian glitterwing dragonfly.

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Researchers at the University of Maine have studied fungi, researching how these smallest of life forms break down giant trees, some of the few organisms able to do so. The team now focuses on generating new technology based on how living systems such as these do what they do. They will present their work during the AVS 64th International Symposium and Exhibition, in Tampa, Florida.

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While the creation of a paper swan using origami may be intriguing, the idea of creating 3-D circuits based on similar design principles is simply mindboggling. Researchers at the University of Chicago have focused on large scale synthesis and device fabrication using ultra-thin materials, which has led to improvements in 2-D models and the introduction of 3-D vertically integrated devices. They will present the details of their circuit construction and its potential applications at the AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition.

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Accurate and accessible detection technologies are necessary to ensure continuous water quality control and early warning capabilities to avoid public safety catastrophes like the ongoing Flint water crisis in Michigan. During the AVS’s 64th International Symposium & Exhibition, in Tampa, Florida, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will present work about inventing a graphene-based sensing platform for real-time, low-cost detection of various water contaminants. The new sensor detects heavy metals, bacteria, nitrates and phosphates.

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Polysilicon is the material most commonly used as a membrane for microphone devices today. But, in general, single-crystal and polycrystalline-silicon-based devices are brittle and prone to fractures that can cause interior defects during the fabrication processes. This has lead researchers to search for a replacement material. During the AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition, Oct. 29-Nov. 3, 2017, in Tampa, Florida, researchers from will present their work with a potential replacement material that shows promise for MEMS microphones: amorphous metallic glass.

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In a presentation during the AVS 64th International Symposium and Exhibition, in Tampa, Florida, astrophysicists Rai Weiss and Michael Zucker will describe how LIGO scientists and engineers designed and constructed LIGO’s ingenious, ultra-high vacuum system. The system is an integral part of what makes it possible to identify gravitational waves, minute distortions in the fabric of space and time that propagate at the speed of light.

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In 2014, the Rosetta probe became the first spacecraft to orbit the nucleus of a comet and later land on its surface. The mission ended in 2016 with the probe’s dive into the comet but its close-up studies of the comet continue to yield scientific insights. In a presentation at the AVS 64th annual International Symposium and Exhibition, researchers will describe findings from Rosetta’s ROSINA instrument, which obtained the first detailed, in situ measurements of the chemical composition of a comet’s atmosphere, or coma.

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Solid-state batteries, which eschew the flammable and unstable liquid electrolytes of conventional lithium-ion batteries, could be a safer option. Now, researchers have demonstrated a new way to produce more efficient solid-state batteries. This proof-of-principle study may lead to safer and more compact batteries useful for everything from sensor networks to implantable biomedical devices. Researchers at the University of Maryland will present this work during the AVS 64th International Symposium and Exhibition, in Tampa, Florida.

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Among the diverse research studies being presented at this year’s 64th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition are two biomaterial interfaces sessions that feature some highly unusual applications of engineering. The first describes the use of stress forces -- more commonly employed to evaluate the failure mechanisms of materials and devices made from them -- to discover how barnacles stick to surfaces. The second explores the development of two novel mechanical systems, both smaller than the eye can see, for use with gas molecules: one to detect them with ultra-high sensitivity and the other to precisely measure their molecular weights.

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Traditional leather manufacturing requires the use of several toxic chemicals, such as halogenated flame retardants or organic antimicrobial solvents, which cause pollution. Now, a team of researchers led by Robert Franz of the Montanuniversität in Leoben, Austria are testing an eco-friendly alternative: silver-titanium nanoparticles.

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016 ,in Nashville, Tennessee, Taraneh Bozorgzad Moghim and a team of researchers from the University of Surrey in the U.K. studied how the high-performance organic coatings used on aircraft surfaces physically and chemically degrade after exposure to ultraviolet light and ozone at high altitudes.

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, Stephane Evoy, an applied physicist from the University of Alberta, will explain how the team recognized the limited reliability of antibodies in providing bacteria detection with specificity. Instead they used phage-derived proteins, proteins developed from the bacteria-invading viruses, for detection of pathogenic bacteria to address this deficiency. This work has implications not only in disease diagnosis, but also in food and water safety.

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, Kateryna Artyushkova and her colleagues in the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the New Mexico Water Science Center, have used X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to determine the roles that metals and their chemistries have played in these three environmental problems

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In work that will be presented during the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, Sarah Bergbreiter and her colleagues in the Maryland Microrobotics Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park, have not only build microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices the size of insects, but have also created them to move just like real insects.

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A research team from Shizuoka University in Japan has explored the permeability of skin and will present their work during the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee. As a means to interact with skin, the team used plasma, a state of matter where electrons have dissociated from their corresponding ions and exhibit more collective behavior. Using plasma, which conducts electricity, they successfully decreased its barrier function for transdermal drug delivery.

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The 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition will take place November 6-11, 2016, at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN. Over 1400 presentations will be made for the 3000 registered attendees, featuring papers from AVS technical divisions, technology groups, and focus topics on emerging technologies. The symposium fosters a multidisciplinary environment that cuts across traditional boundaries between disciplines. The equipment exhibition, which is free to the public

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, Zachary Voras, a surface chemist at the University of Delaware in Newark, and his colleagues will explain how they study the complex dynamics behind the aging of Renaissance-era artwork.

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, Taher Saif and Brian Williams from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will explain how they have taken the first steps toward integrating microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) devices with living cells to form “biohybrid machines.”

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During the AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition being held November 6-11, 2016 , in Nashville, Tennessee, David Gracias of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will explain the decade-long effort of his laboratory to develop a “microgripper hand” that can can travel through the circulatory system.

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A special “suitcase under ultrahigh vacuum conditions,” created by researchers in Japan, will enable researchers to securely transport air-sensitive scientific samples from one advanced laboratory facility to another. The researchers describe their findings in this week's Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A.

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The AVS has selected its major award winners for 2015. The AVS established an annual awards program to encourage excellence in research and innovation in technical areas of interest to the AVS.

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Food scientists and farmers alike are keenly interested in boosting crop yields and shortening harvest times, without affecting food safety. A team of researchers led by plasma engineer Kazunori Koga, an associate professor at Kyushu University in Japan, has now developed a new technique to safely achieve both goals using a non-thermal plasma -- a type of partially ionized, low-temperature gas currently used in a wide variety of applications including decontaminating ready-to-eat foods and their packaging, sterilizing medical instruments, reducing pollutants in exhaust gas, and even for wound healing and cancer therapy.

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Cartilage is filled with fluid -- about 80% of the volume of the cartilage tissue -- that plays the essential roles of supporting weight and lubricating joint surfaces. Loss of this fluid, called synovial fluid, results in a gradual decrease in cartilage thickness and increase in friction, which is related to the degradation and joint pain of osteoarthritis. Since cartilage is porous, fluid is readily squeezed out of the holes over time. Yet the symptoms associated with osteoarthritis usually take decades to develop. Researchers at the University of Delaware have proposed a mechanism that explains how motion can cause cartilage to reabsorb liquid that leaks out.

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Advances in software, materials, and equipment have made it possible to cheaply "print" custom designs -- including such diverse products as airplane engines and action figures. Researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory are doing their part to boost the burgeoning field, popularly known as 3-D printing, but more generally named additive manufacturing. The group has demonstrated that a combination of two technologies -- one to create a thin film and the second to "cut" designs out of the film -- could be a potentially powerful tool to create custom electronic components. They will discuss their findings at the AVS 62nd International Symposium and Exhibition, held Oct. 18-23 in San Jose, Calif.

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A shed skin of the California King Snake, examined in molecular detail by a team of researchers in Oregon and Germany, may have just yielded one of the reptile's slippery secrets. Using a combination of techniques that allowed the team to explore how molecules are arranged on the surface of the scaly skin, the team discovered a never-before-seen evolutionary adaptation that allows the animal to reduce friction on its underbelly and slither smoothly over surfaces.

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The International Space Station (ISS) is in some ways like most homes -- over time, it occasionally requires repairs. When the ammonia cooling system on the exterior of the ISS springs a leak, however, tracking down its location is by no means an easy task. So researchers and engineers from SRS, a manufacturer of test instruments, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center teamed up to create an “Ammonia Leak Locator.” Researchers will describe the new tool and its capabilities at the AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition.

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It's estimated that the U.S. fails to use more than half of the energy it generates -- mostly because it escapes as waste heat. Scientists from the University of Colorado are developing a new type of system to efficiently capture some of that lost heat. They have designed a surface that enhances low frequency thermal radiation, which is easier than higher frequencies to "harvest" directly out of the air and turn into usable DC electricity. The researchers will describe the surface at the AVS 62nd International Symposium and Exhibition, held Oct. 18-23 in San Jose, Calif.

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A group of scientists in Sweden has taken an important step towards the goal of peering inside a working cell. They are among researchers around the globe who are seeking a method that enables the observation of proteins, lipids and DNA inside individual cells, as well as gaining a better understanding of how this intricate and interconnected system changes with time. Gijs van der Schot, a Ph.D. student at Uppsala University, will describe the researchers' new approach to imaging during the AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition.

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Whereas human and many animals use teeth to crush or grind food as an initial part of the digestive process, some species such as birds that lack teeth grind food inside the gizzard -- a structure between the mouth and the stomach -- with the help of stones. Another interesting adaptation of this approach to digestion has evolved in most of the Cephalaspidean gastropods, a common type of marine mollusks, who use hardened plates that line the gizzard for crushing or grinding. Recently, a team in Israel studied the properties of gizzard plates of the cephalaspid Philine quadripartite, and they will discuss their work at the AVS 62nd International Symposium and Exhibition.

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In March 2011 at Fukushima, the fuel’s cladding, a zirconium alloy used to contain the fuel and radioactive fission products, reacted with boiling coolant water to form hydrogen gas, which then exploded, resulting in the biggest nuclear power-related disaster since Chernobyl. Challenged by this event, two research teams have made progress in developing fuel claddings that are capable of withstanding the high temperatures resulting from a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA), like that at Fukushima. Both teams will present their results at the AVS 62nd International Symposium and Exhibition, held Oct. 18-23 in San Jose, Calif.

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Imagine being fortunate enough to get to study historical art up close, examining the details of every paint stroke applied to the canvases to gain knowledge about artists’ preferred materials and techniques. Then add a team of art scholars and scientists who can provide historical details or even help you to “see” beneath the painting to reveal anything hidden or painted over on its canvas and you will have a sense of the rich collaborations that some museum professionals enjoy every day.