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Adaptive Materials Receives $2.9 Million Department of Defense Contract to Develop a 300-Watt Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:25:44 +0000

Adaptive Materials (Ann Arbor, MI), a solid oxide fuel cell manufacturer, reported on March 10th that it had been awarded a $2.9 million Department of Defense contract to develop a 300-watt fuel cell system for the military. This contract award also includes three option phases that, if awarded, could include delivery of more than 100 fuel [...]

Scientists in Kuwait Predict that World Conventional Crude Oil Production Will Peak in 2014

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:25:36 +0000

In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil and intensify the search for alternative fuel sources, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 — almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal. Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point [...]

Physicists Take Atoms for a Quantum Walk

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:25:24 +0000

An example for a random walk is the Galton board, which is used to demonstrate binomial distribution to students. On this board, balls are dropped from the top and they repeatedly bounce either left or right in a random way as they hit pins stuck in the board. Credit: Antoine Taveneaux (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported [...]

Delft University Make Significant Leap in Producing Biochemical and Biofuels from Waste Wood

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:25:20 +0000

Researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have succeeded in making a significant leap forward in the production of biochemicals and biofuels from waste wood. They discovered that the bacterium Cupriavidus basilensis breaks down harmful by-products which are produced when sugars are released from wood. They also managed to incorporate the degradation process in bacteria [...]

Graphene Synthesis on Cubic SiC/Si Wafers for Mass Production of Graphene Based Electronic Devices

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:25:10 +0000

Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human hair with unique electronic [...]

austriamicrosystems intros single/dual white LED flash driver

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:25:42 +0000

UNTERPREMSTAETTEN, AUSTRIA: austriamicrosystems has announced the AS3645 LED flash driver. This inductive, ultra small, high-efficiency single/dual LED flash driver offers 25 per cent higher output current than existing equivalents. The higher flash power enhances picture and video quality especially in low light environments at same system size. The AS3645 inductive flash driver drives up to 1000 [...]

Tian Shui Hua Tian Technology selects Teradyne J750Ex

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:25:09 +0000

NORTH READING, USA: Teradyne Inc. announced that Tian Shui Hua Tian Technology has purchased multiple J750Ex test systems for wafer sort and final test applications in the Consumer Audio/Video and Gigabit Ethernet application segments. The J750 platform, with its economical parallel testing and compact, zero-footprint design, is the worldwide production test standard for microcontrollers. By extending [...]

Wacker Chemie AG Patents Nanoparticle-Containing Organocopolymers for Architectural Coating Compositions

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, DE) earned U.S. Patent 7,674,868 for nanoparticle-containing organocopolymers. According to inventors Oliver Minge, Richard Weidner, Frank Sandmeyer and Hans-Peter Weitzel, the most preferred use of the nanoparticle-containing organocopolymers is in architectural coating compositions. By architectural coating compositions are meant paints intended both for application directly on the building, both inside and outside, and paints to [...]

Navy Awards $200 Million for 40 MW of Solar Power on Southwestern Bases

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:25:59 +0000

A new Navy contract will add large solar power systems to bases throughout the Southwest, similar to this one at the Coronado California Naval Base near San Diego. Credit: Ryan Valverde, U.S. Navy Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) awarded a $200 million contract on Feb. 24 to construct up to 40 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic power [...]

Birds Provide Clues to Curing Deafness, Hearing Loss Increasing in Younger People

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:25:52 +0000

The New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl in February, and the crowd roared. Quarterback Drew Brees brought his one-year-old son to the field to experience the celebration–muffled through an enormous pair of headphones. Brees protected little Baylen’s ears because he knows that repeated exposure to loud noise leads to hearing loss. But what if you’re [...]