Business

Good day on Wall Street for A123 shareholders

By / September 24, 2009

The gamblers were running amok today. Reuters: Shares of A123 Systems, a maker of lithium-ion car batteries, had the second-best debut of any 2009 U.S. initial public offering, rising 50.3…

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Cutting PV costs, Part 2: Process improvements vs. science breakthroughs

By / September 24, 2009

Yesterday we posted a Technology Review video interview with Emanuel Sachs (1366 Technologies’ chief technology officer and professor of mechanical engineering at MIT) in which he and Craig Lund (1366’s…

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A123 Systems IPO to happen this week? [Update #3]

By / September 24, 2009

That’s what supposed to occur for the nanophospate lithium-ion battery maker, although the exact dates for IPOs are often a little soft. Right now it looks like 9/23/ or 9/24.…

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Two new MacArthur Fellows highlight materials R&D

By / September 22, 2009

The names of the 2009 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellows (the “genius” awards) were announced today, and I want to draw attention to two of the people…

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Friedman says the solar problem is . . .

By / September 17, 2009

Well, actually it is quite hard to tell what NYT columnist Thomas Friedman is saying about the solar industry. Like a lot of what he writes, his latest worry-fest is…

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Industry headlines

By / September 12, 2009

Kyocera introduces ceramic-metal bonding technologies Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corp. announces the availability of a wide variety of engineered feedthrough connectors with its ceramic-metal bonding technology. Many of these products are…

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Patrick Gallagher to lead NIST

By / September 11, 2009

The White House and U.S. Department of Commerce announced yesterday that physicist Patrick Gallagher will be nominated to be director of NIST. Gallagher is currently the NIST deputy director. According…

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Raw materials strategy 101

By / September 11, 2009

Via RareMetalBlog, here is a timely example of one nation’s strategy, in this case regarding rare earth metals: Japan Accelerates Moves to Secure Rare Metals Both the public and private…

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Who has the strategy for strategic materials?

By / September 10, 2009

Lithium, bauxite, rare earths? As ACerS corporate member Don Bubar, of Avalan Rare Metals, told CNBC yesterday (in something of an understated way), “There is a global scramble to secure…

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Giant solar farms in the works in China, India and U.S.

By / September 10, 2009

First Solar announced yesterday that it and the Chinese government had agreed upon a memorandum of understanding that, if a few more bridges are crossed, will result in a 2…

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