Heather Hall

By: Rob Matheson | MIT News Office A simulation system invented at MIT to train driverless cars creates a photorealistic world with infinite steering possibilities, helping the cars learn to navigate a host of worse-case scenarios before cruising down real streets. Control systems, or “controllers,” for autonomous vehicles largely rely on real-world datasets of driving…

BTX, a division of Harvard Bioscience, has released the AgilePulse PLUS Bipolar Transfection System, an advanced electroporation system with voltage and polarity switching capabilities. The AgilePulse PLUS is ideal for automated, high performance delivery of biomolecules to mammalian cells and tissues. Maximum Efficiency. PulseAgile protocols deliver short, high-voltage pulses to porate cell membranes followed by…

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…

Bioengineering graduate students Kathryn Kundrod and Mary Natoli went online to order supplies for their Rice University lab late last week and were surprised to see a banner ad offering discounts for coronavirus testing materials. “We saw the kits were available for research use at the same time that we were seeing headlines that said…

A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured in real time how lithium ions move in lithium titanate (LTO), a fast-charging battery electrode material made of lithium, titanium and oxygen. They discovered that distorted arrangements of lithium and surrounding atoms in…

Since the first reports of a new coronavirus disease in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the globe, threatening a pandemic. Now, researchers from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society specializing in scientific information solutions, have issued a special report in ACS Central Science. In the report, they provide…

In November of 2019 Steve Hafif launched Cypris, an online patent marketplace providing inventors, patent researchers and the general public access to an innovative platform that will change the face of the IP industry. In four months, Cypris has accumulated over 600 patent opportunities, is currently hosting listings for seven leading Universities and has recently…

Scientist Heinz Frei has spent decades working toward building an artificial version of one of nature’s most elegant and effective machines: the leaf. Frei, and many other researchers around the world, seek to use photosynthesis – the sunlight-driven chemical reaction that green plants and algae use to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into cellular fuel –…

Magnetite is the oldest magnetic material known to humans, yet researchers are still mystified by certain aspects of its properties. For example, when the temperature is lowered below 125 K, magnetite changes from a metal to an insulator, its atoms shift to a new lattice structure, and its charges form a complicated ordered pattern. This…

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…

In a multiyear effort involving three national laboratories from across the United States, researchers have successfully built and tested a powerful new magnet based on an advanced superconducting material. The eight-ton device –- about as long as a semi-truck trailer — set a record for the highest field strength ever recorded for an accelerator focusing…

Scientists from the University of Oxford’s Engineering Science Department and the Oxford Suzhou Center for Advanced Research (OSCAR) have developed a rapid testing technology for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). The team, led by Prof. Zhanfeng Cui and Prof. Wei Huang, have been working to improve test capabilities as the virus spreads internationally. The new…

A recently signed New Mexico law enables Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories to assist in turning transferred technology into viable products and services, which could boost innovation and create jobs, according to Sandia business development experts. The Technology Readiness Gross Receipts Tax Credit is a three-year pilot technology maturation program that helps address a…

JEOL USA, developer of instruments used to advance scientific research and technology, highlighted its latest key strategic partnerships at Pittcon 2020:  Mass-Spectrometry: NETZSCH integrated Thermal Analysis GC/MS system  Electron Microscopy: Acquisition of Integrated Dynamic Electron Solutions, Inc.  NMR Spectroscopy: RIKEN-JEOL Collaboration Center and the Kyoto University Bob Pohorenec, JEOL USA’s President commented: “JEOL is committed…

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced today it has signed an agreement with Janssen Biotech, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to co-develop a companion diagnostic (CDx) in oncology. The CDx will support clinical trial enrollment globally. Under the agreement, Thermo Fisher Scientific will collaborate with Janssen Research & Development scientists to validate…

Modular Clean Labs feature a modular construction design that is cost effective and time efficient compared to traditional construction. An entire laboratory workspace is pre-engineered including the structure and the lab furniture/fume hoods to outfit the interior. Modular Clean Labs wall panels have a white fiberglass surface for chemical resistance and excellent light reflectivity. Because…

A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has captured in real time how lithium ions move in lithium titanate (LTO), a fast-charging battery electrode material made of lithium, titanium, and oxygen. They discovered that distorted arrangements of lithium and surrounding atoms in…

Park Systems, manufacturer of Atomic Force Microscopes, announces a $1 Million Dollar Nano Research Grant Fund to support researchers who are starting new nanoscience labs in North America. The Park Systems Nano Research Grant Fund provides up to twenty grants of $50,000 towards the purchase of any AFM system and accessories manufactured by Park Systems.…

Just over 15 years since a couple of researchers in the U.K. used adhesive tape to isolate single atomic layers of carbon, known as graphene, from a chunk of graphite, their Nobel Prize-winning discovery has fueled a revolution in ultrathin materials R&D. Graphene and other atomically thin “2D” materials exhibit exotic properties that researchers hope…

A drug discovery scientist typically screens up to 10,000 compounds in the early stages of developing one FDA approved drug. During this high-throughput screening, candidate compounds are initially tested on cell and tissue samples. Such experiments are conducted using so-called multi-well plates where each of the wells acts as a test tube. Much of the…

An international research team has pioneered and about to patent a new filtration technique that could one day slash lithium extraction times and change the way the future is powered. The world-first study, published today in the prestigious international journal Nature Materials, presents findings that demonstrate the way in which Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) channels can…

It might not start a fashion trend, but Sandia National Laboratories is designing a wearable brain imager. The National Institutes of Health has granted Sandia $6 million to build the prototype medical device that would make magnetoencephalography (MEG) — a type of noninvasive brain scan — more comfortable, more accessible and potentially more accurate. “This…

With the recent expansion of Metrohm Spectroscopy products through the acquisition of B&W Tek, Metrohm has added the B&W Tek QTRam system to its line of pharmaceutical spectroscopy tools. The QTRam is a proven alternative to time and material intensive wet-chemistry methods for content uniformity measurements. Metrohm’s full portfolio of pharmaceutical spectroscopy products includes benchtop…

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus sending panic around the globe it may well seem as if the world is on the back foot in our fight against it. However, R&D tax credit specialists, RIFT Research and Development Ltd., has looked at how R&D is helping in the fight against it, not only as…

MIT researchers have invented a way to integrate “breadboards” — flat platforms widely used for electronics prototyping — directly onto physical products. The aim is to provide a faster, easier way to test circuit functions and user interactions with products such as smart devices and flexible electronics. Breadboards are rectangular boards with arrays of pinholes…