Progress to a vaccine for acne

Sanofi-Pasteur, the world’s biggest vaccine company, has signed a contract with the University of California, San Diego, to develop “an immunological approach to acne prevention and treatment”. Acne is no joke. “More than 85 per cent of teenagers and over 40 million people in the United States alone are suffering this disease” and many adults …

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NASA will fly laser communication that is 100 times faster than todays space communication

NASA has selected three proposals, including one from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as Technology Demonstration Missions to transform space communications, deep space navigation and in-space propulsion capabilities. The projects will develop and fly a space solar sail, deep space atomic clock, and space-based optical communications system. NASA will fly the Laser Communications …

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Physicists Devise Perfect Magnetic Shield

Physicists and engineers had already demonstrated rudimentary invisibility cloaks that can hide objects from light, sound, and water waves. Now, they’ve devised an “antimagnet” cloak that can shield an object from a constant magnetic field without disturbing that field. If realized, such a cloak could have medical applications, researchers say. The researchers demonstrated the feasibility …

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Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind and suggests a visual brain machine interface is feasible

Imagine tapping into the mind of a coma patient, or watching one’s own dream on YouTube. With a cutting-edge blend of brain imaging and computer simulation, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are bringing these futuristic scenarios within reach. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in …

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Research towards superconducting direct-drive generator for wind turbines

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is working toward generating 20 percent of the nation’s electricity supply from wind power by 2030. To help make this vision a reality, DOE recently awarded six projects to help develop next generation wind turbines and accelerate the deployment of advanced turbines for offshore wind energy in the United …

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Greece labour unions representing half the workforce vow to oppose austerity measures

Greece’s two biggest labour unions will jointly stage 24-hour strikes on Oct. 5 and Oct. 19 to protest new austerity measures which the government is expected to agree with its international lenders to meet its fiscal targets. “We will fight to the end, to topple this policy,” Ilias Iliopoulos, general Secretary of public sector union …

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Graphene-Based Supercapacitors with energy density of nickel hydride batteries

Professor Jie Tang, Group Leader of the 1D Nanomaterials Research Group of the Materials Processing Unit, Japan National Institute for Materials Science, and Mr. Qian Cheng, a doctoral student and NIMS Junior Researcher in the same Group, have succeeded in dramatically increasing the energy density of supercapacitors, which are used to store electrical energy. Supercapacitors …

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First controlled vertical flight of a biologically inspired microrobot

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics – First controlled vertical flight of a biologically inspired microrobot In this paper, we present experimental results on altitude control of a flying microrobot. The problem is approached in two stages. In the first stage, system identification of two relevant subsystems composing the microrobot is performed, using a static flapping experimental setup. …

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Thermoelectric materials produced via microwave in minutes instead of days

Rapid Microwave Synthesis of Indium Filled Skutterudites: An energy efficient route to high performance thermoelectric materials Filled skutterudites are promising thermoelectric materials due to reduced thermal conductivity upon inserting a guest atom or ‘rattler’ into the CoSb₃ structure. By using an indium rattler dimensionless Figure of Merit (ZT) values over 1 at 650 K have …

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Is Strontium Valley the follow up to Silicon Valley ?

Researchers have invented a tiny Etch-A-Sketch® that draws infinitesimally small “wires” on a surface, then erases them. The device works by switching an oxide crystal between insulating and conducting states. The interface between these two materials can be switched between an insulating and metallic state using a sharp conducting probe. Electronic circuits can be “written” …

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