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Benchtop XRD Analyzer Easily Copes with Limestone and Silica Analysis

Recent advances in the field of X-ray diffraction (XRD) now make it possible to easily perform quantitative analysis of the common minerals associated with limestone, where previously X-ray diffraction has been considered too complex and costly for use by most limestone production facilities.

From Evident Corporation (XRF / XRD) 13 Aug 2009

Semiconductor Equipment Market Turns for the Better

Applied Materials’ results clearly confirmed that the downturn in the semiconductor equipment market is over, although the overall market will drop 46% in 2008, according to the report “The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing,” recently published by The Information Network.

13 Aug 2009

Turning Insulating Graphite Oxide into a Conductor

An insulator can now be transformed to conduct electricity by an ordinary camera flash. A Northwestern University professor and his students have found a new way of turning graphite oxide -- a low-cost insulator made ...

13 Aug 2009

Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Hold Promise for High-Frequency MEMS Resonators

Because of a high Young's modulus and high sound propagation velocity, UNCD materials hold potential for fabricating high-frequency microelectromechanical (MEMS) resonators.

13 Aug 2009

Particle Packing Solution May Improve Data Storage

Two Princeton University researchers have made a major advance in addressing a twist in the packing problem, jamming more tetrahedra -- solid figures with four triangular faces -- and other polyhedral solid objects than ever before into a space. The work could result in better ways to store data on compact discs as well as a better understanding of matter itself.

13 Aug 2009

Solarmer Win Contract to Develop High Efficiency Polymers for Organic Photovoltaics

The FlexTech Alliance, focused on developing the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics industry supply chain, today announced the award of a $450,000 contract to Solarmer Energy, Inc. to design and syn...

13 Aug 2009

GM Names DuPont Supplier of the Year for Automotive Finishes

DuPont Automotive OEM Coatings has been named a General Motors Supplier of the Year for 2008 in recognition of its performance as a global provider of finishes. This is the second year in a row that DuPont Automotive OEM Coatings has earned this distinction.

12 Aug 2009

Hot Rolled Steel Coils Produced Directly from Liquid Steel for the First Time

For the first time ever, hot-rolled coils can now be commercially produced in a thin-slab casting/rolling plant directly from liquid steel in a continuous and uninterrupted manufacturing process. This plant, based on Arvedi technology and implemented by Siemens VAI Metals Technologies, allows the thermal energy of liquid steel to be fully exploited.

From Primetals Technologies Limited 12 Aug 2009

LED Street Lights Put to the Test in Nuremburg

A total of six lamps with the latest LED technology from OSRAM demonstrate street lighting of the future in Fürth near Nuremberg, Germany. The city's traffic and energy supply company infra fürth GmbH, lumi...

12 Aug 2009

Archaeologists Unearth London's Oldest Timber Structure

London's oldest timber structure has been unearthed by archaeologists from Archaeology South-East (part of the Institute of Archaeology at UCL). It was found during the excavation of a prehistoric peat bog adjacent to Belmarsh Prison in Plumstead, Greenwich, in advance of the construction of a new prison building.

12 Aug 2009

Metamaterials Make Fictional Hidden Portals Seem Possible

While the researchers can't promise delivery to a parallel universe or a school for wizards, books like Pullman's Dark Materials and JK Rowling's Harry Potter are steps closer to reality now that researchers ...

12 Aug 2009

Thirteen Companies Shortlisted for 2009 ICIS Chemical Business Innovation Awards

Thirteen companies have been shortlisted for the 2009 ICIS Chemical Business Innovation Awards, lead sponsored by Dow Corning. Winners in each category and an overall winner will be announced in the October 19 issue ...

12 Aug 2009

New Insights into the Strange Properties of Water

Recent work at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and several universities in Sweden and Japan, however, is shedding new light on water's molecular idiosyncrasies, offering insight into its strange bulk properties.

11 Aug 2009

Secrets of How Bacteria Create Cellular Magnets Could Impact Bio and Nanotechnology

The smallest organisms to use a biological compass are magnetotactic bacteria, however mysteries remain about exactly how these bacteria create their cellular magnets. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have used genome sequencing to unlock new secrets about these magnetic microbes that could accelerate biotechnology and nanotechnology research.

11 Aug 2009

First Images of What Happens at the Crystal-Liquid Interface

Imagine you're a water molecule in a glass of ice water, and you're floating right on the boundary of the ice and the water," proposes Emory University physicist Eric Weeks. "So how do you know if you're a solid or a liquid?

11 Aug 2009