Rob Matheson | MIT News Office To combat supply chain counterfeiting, which can cost companies billions of dollars annually, MIT researchers have invented a cryptographic ID tag that’s small enough to fit on virtually any product and verify its authenticity. A 2018 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates about $2 trillion…
Rice, Tennessee labs shrink laser-induced graphene for flexible electronics
You don’t need a big laser to make laser-induced graphene (LIG). Scientists at Rice University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT Knoxville) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using a very small visible beam to burn the foamy form of carbon into microscopic patterns. The labs of Rice chemist James Tour, which discovered the…
Low-cost “smart” diaper can notify caregiver when it’s wet
By Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office For some infants, a wet diaper is cause for an instant, vociferous demand to be changed, while other babies may be unfazed and happy to haul around the damp cargo for lengthy periods without complaint. But if worn too long, a wet diaper can cause painful rashes, and…
MKS Unveils New Spectra-Physics Broadly-Tunable Ultrafast Laser for Multiphoton Imaging
MKS Instruments introduces its Spectra-Physics® InSight® X3+, the fourth generation of its broadly tunable, ultrafast laser platform, delivering industry-leading power, a 50% increase over the previous generation, at bioimaging wavelengths for brighter and deeper imaging. The new laser is built on the proven InSight laser platform with hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, the largest installed base…
Lightning protection for laboratories prevents lost research and equipment
By Jennifer Morgan and Michael Chusid “What about the mice?” That was the first response of a postdoctoral fellow when asked what a lightning strike could do to her lab at a major biomedical research institute. In addition to electrocution, fire, and other animal welfare concerns, she is worried about the thousands of hours…
Sensing technology could improve machine learning precision for manufacturing, electric vehicles, smart homes
The same small piece of technology that one day may help train welding robots and monitor electric vehicles could enable energy companies to better power smart homes and factories. Purdue University innovators have developed a sensing module that works with machine learning for applications ranging from electric cars to manufacturing and home design. The technology…
Study finds doctor-pharmacist partnership significantly reduces patient harm
Medication errors are among the most common incidents reported in hospitals, often occurring at hospital admission, with a new study led by Monash University and Alfred Health researchers evaluating a collaborative model to reduce medication errors and length of hospital stay. The study of 8648 patients found that having a partnered pharmacist medication charting* (PPMC)…
Enclosures for Lab Automation and Robotics
Enclosures are designed to isolate liquid handling workstations, HPLC equipment, sample weighing, high throughput screening, powders handling and other lab automated processes by providing exhaust air systems or HEPA filtered clean workstations. Enclosures are built to protect personnel from hazardous fumes, and processes from Lab contamination. Utilizing a flexible, modular design, HEMCO Enclosures are engineered…
Organic Laser Diodes Move From Dream to Reality
Researchers from Japan have demonstrated that a long-elusive kind of laser diode based on organic semiconductors is indeed possible, paving the way for the further expansion of lasers in applications such as biosensing, displays, healthcare, and optical communications. Long considered a holy grail in the area of light-emitting devices, organic laser diodes use carbon-based organic…
Mathematically Designed Graphene Possesses Superior Electrocatalytic Activity
An international research group has improved graphene’s ability to catalyze the “hydrogen evolution reaction,” which releases hydrogen as a result of passing an electronic current through water. They designed a mathematically predicted graphene electrocatalyst, and confirmed its performance using high resolution electrochemical microscopy and computational modelling. The findings were published in the journal Advanced Science.…
Proton Beam Energy Doubled with Colliding Lasers
Researchers from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg present a new method, which can double the energy of a proton beam produced by laser-based particle accelerators. The breakthrough could lead to more compact, cheaper equipment that could be useful for many applications, including proton therapy. Proton therapy involves firing a beam…
Plumbene, Cousin of Graphene, Created by Researchers
Two-dimensional materials made of Group 14 elements, graphene’s cousins, have attracted enormous interest in recent years because of their unique potential as useful topological insulators. In particular, the up-to-now purely theoretical possibility of a lead-based 2-D honeycomb material, called plumbene, has generated much attention because it has the largest spin-orbit interaction, due to lead’s orbital…
NASA’s Mars 2020 Undergoes Tests in Cleanroom
NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft has completed acoustic and thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The acoustic test of the spacecraft that will carry the Mars 2020 rover to a soft touchdown in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, is the best Earthly approximation for what the spacecraft will endure…
Researchers Develop Wearable Sensor Inspired by Octopus Suckers
Wearable electronics that adhere to skin are an emerging trend in health sensor technology for their ability to monitor a variety of human activities, from heart rate to step count. But finding the best way to stick a device to the body has been a challenge. Now, a team of researchers reports the development of…
Bacterial Sensors Hacked by Synthetic Biologists
Rice University synthetic biologists have hacked bacterial sensing with a plug-and-play system that could be used to mix-and-match tens of thousands of sensory inputs and genetic outputs. The technology has wide-ranging implications for medical diagnostics, the study of deadly pathogens, environmental monitoring and more. In a project spanning almost six years, Rice bioengineer Jeff Tabor…
New Applications of 2D Materials Enabled by Strain
Superconductors’ never-ending flow of electrical current could provide new options for energy storage and superefficient electrical transmission and generation, to name just a few benefits. But the signature zero electrical resistance of superconductors is reached only below a certain critical temperature, hundreds of degrees Celsius below freezing, and is very expensive to achieve. Physicists from…
Ultra-thin Superlattices for Nanophotonics Formed from Gold Nanoparticles
Researchers, led by Professor Dr. Matthias Karg at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, report a simple technique for developing highly ordered particle layers. The group worked with tiny, deformable spherical polymer beads with a hydrogel-like structure. Hydrogels are water-swollen, three-dimensional networks. Such structures are used as super-absorbers in such products as…
‘Spidey Senses’ Assist Autonomous Machines with Sight
What if drones and self-driving cars had the tingling “spidey senses” of Spider-Man? They might actually detect and avoid objects better, says Andres Arrieta, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, because they would process sensory information faster. Better sensing capabilities would make it possible for drones to navigate in dangerous environments and…
Smart Device Finds Food Contaminants in Real Time
Fast, accurate and affordable food safety testing is now possible. Thanks to a portable scanner, farmers, food manufacturers and retailers can now do their own tests in the field, eliminating costly and time-consuming lab tests. Consumers place importance on different things in the foods they consume. Some insist on locally grown or organic food. Others…
Cleanroom Tip: Choosing Cleanroom Doors
High-speed doors play a key role in maintaining clean operations in pharmaceutical plants. They are designed to address facility needs for environmental control, productivity and safety (as well as cleanliness). In cleanroom applications, they are used to maintain correct room pressures, air circulation rates and optimal operating efficiency and to prevent cross-contamination. High operating speeds are critical to minimize air infiltration when staff members…
Controlled Environments’ Trends and Salary Survey
For the fifth year, Controlled Environments surveyed its readership on cleanroom facility-related purchasing decisions, as well as the salary and benefits of cleanroom industry professionals. We have used these results to analyze the latest trends, which will enable you to compare your cleanroom and overall compensation package with those of your peers. We also asked questions about industry salaries, workloads, benefits and job…
Creating a Fully Fitted Out Cleanroom
The installation of a 460 sq. m. ISO Class 7 cleanroom, fully fitted with custom stainless steel furniture, has increased Parker Bioscience Filtration’s capacity for the production of single-use manifolds used in biopharmaceutical processing. The cleanroom facility at Parker Bioscience’s site in Birtley, U.K., houses a main production area and includes change and transfer areas, plus an unclassified office area. Integrated cleanroom solutions…
Lasers could save Notre-Dame Cathedral
The world watched in horror on April 15 as a massive fire raged at Notre-Dame de Paris, a medieval Catholic cathedral considered one of the world’s most magnificent examples of French Gothic architecture. The fast-moving inferno raged for 15 hours, destroying most of the church’s wooden roof and sending its 19th century spire crashing to the ground. Hundreds…
Electron Beam Manipulates Atoms One at a Time
The ultimate degree of control for engineering would be the ability to create and manipulate materials at the most basic level, fabricating devices atom by atom with precise control. Now, scientists at MIT, the University of Vienna, and several other institutions have taken a step in that direction, developing a method that can reposition atoms…
Displacement Sensor Developed to Measure Gravity of Smallest Source Mass Ever
One of the most unknown phenomena in modern physics is gravity. Its measurement and laws remain somewhat of an enigma. Researchers at Tohoku University have revealed important information about a new aspect of the nature of gravity by probing the smallest mass-scale. Professor Nobuyuki Matsumoto has led a team of researchers to develop a gravity…