Research & Development World

by Jim McMahon Professor Holger Müller’s Group at UC Berkeley is focused on advancing experimental quantum technology to push the sensitivity of experiments to new levels, and to perform precision measurements of fundamental constants. The group’s work uses methods from atomic, molecular and optical physics. One project is the development of a transportable, multi-axis atom…

Access the Springer Nature virtual issue Over the years the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine has become increasingly important. A growing number of disciplines and branches of medicine are using AI in some capacity or other, they include radiology, genomics, oncology and cardiology, to name a few. AI assists researchers to solve complex…

To help pharmaceutical companies obtain faster results in their drug discovery process and reduce the cost of bringing new drugs to market, Thermo Fisher Scientific has released the Thermo Scientific iSPA Workflow, the first commercially available single particle analysis (SPA) workflow solution. As pharmaceutical labs turn to cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to uncover the structures of difficult-to-crystalize molecules…

By  Jules Bernstein A new film made of gold nanoparticles changes color in response to any type of movement. Its unprecedented qualities could allow robots to mimic chameleons and octopi — among other futuristic applications. Unlike other materials that try to emulate nature’s color changers, this one can respond to any type of movement, like…

By Jennifer Burke ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads new research fellows include Renee Carder, Danielle Castley, Joe Fortenbaugh, Thomas Foulkes, Garret Meyer and Erica Grant. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory welcomed six technology innovators to join the fourth cohort of Innovation Crossroads, the Southeast’s only entrepreneurial research and development…

By  Jules Bernstein A new film made of gold nanoparticles changes color in response to any type of movement. Its unprecedented qualities could allow robots to mimic chameleons and octopi — among other futuristic applications. Unlike other materials that try to emulate nature’s color changers, this one can respond to any type of movement, like…

By about 2025, China will likely surpass the U.S. for the first time ever in the amount of dollars spent on R&D. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a first-term congresswoman from southeastern Pennsylvania (and an industrial engineer), who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’…

By Matt Ferraro, Product Manager, Semiconductor The semiconductor market is not an easy one to navigate. Semiconductor wafer fabricators are under constant pressure to maintain maximum precision in highly complex processes that involve expensive materials, corrosive gases, and extreme temperatures. There is little room for error, especially given the added strain of keeping up with…

NASA has awarded Southwest Research Institute $3 million to develop a lunar version of its Laser Absorption Spectrometer for Volatiles and Evolved Gas (LASVEGAS) instrument. This spectrometer can precisely measure the volatile compounds present in planetary atmospheres and surfaces — critical information for space science and exploration. “LASVEGAS is about half the size of a…