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New Process Promises More Efficient Solar Cells

Growing - and precisely aligning - microscopic, spear-shaped zinc oxide crystals on a surface of single-crystal silicon, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology may have developed a method to make more efficient solar cells.

11 Aug 2009

Nanoscale Imaging Tool Works Differently in Watery Environments

Researchers in the United States and Spain have discovered that a tool widely used in nanoscale imaging works differently in watery environments, a step toward better using the instrument to study biological molecules and structures.

11 Aug 2009

Innovative Temperature Calibration Improves NIST Microhotplate Technology

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of one of NIST’s most versatile technologies, the microhotplate. The novel NIST device is being developed as the foundation for miniature yet highly accurate gas sensors that can detect chemical and biological agents, industrial leaks and even signs of extraterrestrial life from aboard a planetary probe.

From NIST Standard Reference Materials 11 Aug 2009

NIST Overcome Hurdles on the Way to Quantum Computing

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated sustained, reliable information processing operations on electrically charged atoms (ions). The new work, described in the Aug. 6,...

From NIST Standard Reference Materials 11 Aug 2009

Updated Guidelines for Measuring the Size of Nanoparticles in Solutions

As a result of a major inter-laboratory study, the standards body ASTM International has been able to update its guidelines for a commonly used technique for measuring the size of nanoparticles in solutions. The study, w...

11 Aug 2009

Ytterbium Atomic Clocks Amongst the Most Accurate

An experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms is about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the nation’s civilian time standard, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report in Physical Review Letters.

11 Aug 2009

DuPont Fluorochemicals Exeriencing Rapid Growth in India

Even in a rapidly growing market like India, growth is not always a given. Near the end of 2006, the DuPont Fluorochemicals business was impacted when the only Fluorochemicals distributor in India decided to leave DuPont to join a competitor.

11 Aug 2009

DuPont's Tyvek Films Used to Protect FIAT Cars

FIAT, the Italian carmaker, is the first Western European car manufacturer to introduce Tyvek® Transcovers® automotive surface protection system at their Tychy site in Poland.

11 Aug 2009

Curious SAMFET Behaviour Could See them Used as Sensitive Chemical Sensors

An international team of researchers from the Netherlands, Russia and Austria discovered that monolayer coverage and channel length set the mobility in self-assembled monolayer field-effect transistors (SAMFETs). This opens the door to extremely sensitive chemical sensors that can be produced in a cost-effective way.

11 Aug 2009

Design and Developments in Interior Textiles

Technological advances have a significant effect on design, allowing multifaceted applications and the incorporation of new features. Technology can widen the scope of design, a significant change that can be identified ...

11 Aug 2009

Elasticized Liquid Crystals that Behave Like Muscles

To move your arm or leg, certain muscles need to change shape, to either lengthen or contract. Now scientists have made liquid-crystalline particles that can change shape in a similar way, but which are only micrometers across. Professor Rudolf Zentel and his colleagues at the Universities of Mainz and Strasbourg have prepared these tiny shape-changing materials out of elasticized liquid crystals, taking advantage of a continuous fluidic device for fabrication.

From John Wiley and Sons - Scientific Publishers 11 Aug 2009