For a while now, some scientists have thought that conditions necessary for superconductivity at higher temperatures exist. Now, a paper published in Science adds some fuel to their argument. It concerns the work of a group of U.S. and Japanese researchers – sponsored by a set of U.S. and Japanese government agencies – doing observations…
Read MoreThe good folks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology say they have a new method for measuring light in the near-infrared range that is highly sensitive (in the single photon range) and relatively inexpensive. NIST researchers Lijun Ma, Oliver Slattery and Xiao Tang figured out a way to “up convert” photons at one…
Read MoreTwo recent stories illustrate how having a visual understanding of systems and processes can help researchers to explain and clarify the underlying science. The first story comes from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where researchers are using advanced microscopy techniques to observe real-time growth of single nanocrystals. Led by Interim Lab Director Paul Alivisatos and…
Read MoreLast week, I had a post on the DOE’s awarding of $327 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies going to various federal labs. Now, thanks to a press release posted Friday by the DOE, we now know a little more about the funding that’s going to the agency’s SLAC National Accelerator Lab and…
Read MoreIn its final round of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-based awards, the DOE says it is going to provide money for science research projects at 10 federal labs and schools. For the record, this latest announcement brings the total amount of ARRA funding coming out of the DOE to $1.6 billion, all that Congress set…
Read MoreIf you’ve ever had a pregnancy in the family, you know that the first two trimesters go by relatively quickly, but the last trimester seems to take forever. Days crawl by. Now, I see a similar phenomenon being played out in the science community, where the rest of this summer and much of the fall…
Read MoreArchaeologists from Geneva University have discovered what they claim is Africa’s oldest ceramic, dated at around 9400 BCE, in eastern Mali. “It’s a tiny, ornate fragment that was made with great skill and the use of fire,” says ethno-archaeologist Anne Mayor. Mayor is part of an eight-person Swiss team in the country, comprising five scientists…
Read MoreCarbo Ceramics relocates its headquarters The company’s new offices are located at Energy Center II, 575 N. Dairy Ashford, Suite 300, Houston, Texas 77079. The company’s new phone number is (281) 921-6400. Sales and technical staff will remain in Irving, Texas to address the needs of locally based clients. Heason wins order for French synchrotron nanoscale manipulator,…
Read MoreR&D Magazine hosts the R&D 100 Awards, which are presented annually to researchers who have developed the year’s 100 most outstanding advances in applied technologies. ACerS just learned that 49 out of the 100 awards were presented to U.S. national labs. The labs competed in an international pool that included universities, start-ups and large corporations.…
Read MoreSomeone must have declared this nano investments week (see other recent posts). The latest news is that Hitachi is lending its support to a new research and product development center for nanotechnology in Alberta, a joint project to which Hitachi brings its expertise and next-generation electron microscopes. The $14 million center, called the Hitachi Electron…
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