Eileen De Guire

Fujitsu demonstrates computational design of carbon nanotube and graphene nanodevice

By Eileen De Guire / August 17, 2011

Carbon nanotube and graphene electrode nanodevice. The electrical properties of a 1,000 atom nanodevice were calculated using first-principles computation methods. Credit: Fujitsu Laboratories press release. A key tenet of the…

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Medical device companies appeal to Congress and IRS to avoid excise tax in 2013

By Eileen De Guire / August 15, 2011

A bare-metal coronary stent. Credit: Frank C. Müller; Wikipedia Creative Commons license The 2010 Affordable Health Care Act includes a provision for a 2.3% excise tax to be levied against…

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Hafnium and zirconium diboride composites for leading edges of hypersonic vehicles

By Eileen De Guire / August 12, 2011

Artist’s rendition of DARPA’s Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft. Credit: DARPA.   It’s not often that the latest issue of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society to hit the newsstands…

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Improving MgO-containing castable refractories without excessive expansion

By Eileen De Guire / August 5, 2011

Refractory castables paddle mixer. Credit: Refractory and Applications Blog. Much of the research we report on can be compared to thoroughbred racehorses: it’s elegant, confident, stunning and promising. Now and…

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NSF to leverage Materials Genome to reduce lab-to-product timeline; announces AIR awards

By Eileen De Guire / August 1, 2011

NSF programs supporting translational research represented along the linear innovation continuum, prior to the introduction of the AIR and new I-Corps programs (circa August 2010). Credit: NSF. Serving as midwife…

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“Science to Start-ups”—Innovation Corps launched by NSF

By Eileen De Guire / August 1, 2011

The National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va. Credit: NSF. Our nation’s capitol was an interesting place to be last week, but not because of the impossible-to-escape budget politics that dominated the…

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The energy race: Increasing energy density in lithium-air batteries

By Eileen De Guire / July 28, 2011

Depiction of the essential functioning of the lithium-air battery. Ions of Li combine with oxygen from the air to form particles of Li oxides, which attach themselves to carbon fibers…

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NIST opens comment phase on advanced manufacturing consortium

By Eileen De Guire / July 27, 2011

Government agencies are starting to drive the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership announced in June by President Obama (see our earlier post about his announcement at Carnegie Mellon). NIST is seeking comments…

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Metallic conductivity in high-temperature cement

By Eileen De Guire / July 26, 2011

Crystal structure of Mayenite (12CaO-7Al2O3). Credit: Paul Myers, CERAM Research Ltd. on AZoM With the Cements Division meeting wrapping up in Nashville, Tenn. this week, an article in the July…

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Customizing medical prostheses with mathematics and additive manufacturing

By Eileen De Guire / July 25, 2011

Topological optimization can be used to custom design prosthetic implants. Credit: Image created by Janet Sinn-Hanlon, Beckman ITG, University of Illinois Mathematics—the common language of science and engineering—often proves to be…

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