News Roundup

Take a look at what’s happening in science, health, medicine and technology all in one place!

NANOTECHNOLOGY

• Return of the vacuum tube - (American Institute of Physics) Retro technology makes a comeback in a nanoscale transistor that is lightweight, low cost, and long lasting.
• Engineers use droplet microfluidics to create glucose-sensing microbeads - (American Institute of Physics) Tiny beads may act as minimally invasive glucose sensors for a variety of applications in cell culture systems and tissue engineering.
• Using graphene, scientists develop a less toxic way to rust-proof steel - (University at Buffalo) University at Buffalo researchers are making significant progress on rust-proofing steel using a graphene-based composite that could serve as a nontoxic alternative to coatings that contain hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen.

• Production of chemicals without petroleum - (The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) In a paper published online in Nature Chemical Biology on May 17, professor Sang Yup Lee and his colleagues at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea, present new general strategies of systems metabolic engineering for developing microorganisms for the production of natural and non-natural chemicals from renewable biomass.
• Return of the vacuum tube - (American Institute of Physics) Retro technology makes a comeback in a nanoscale transistor that is lightweight, low cost, and long lasting.
• Laser scan at full speed - (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) Is a contact wire missing or is it faulty? What's the situation in front of the entrance to a railway station or a tunnel? A 3-D laser scanner can increase the train's safety and reliability.

• A North American first at the Montreal Heart Institute - (Montreal Heart Institute) The surgical team at the Montreal Heart Institute achieved a North American surgical milestone on May 1st with a sutureless aortic valve replacement through a thoracic incision just 5 centimeters long. The two patients in their seventies who underwent this innovative procedure, which was performed by cardiac surgeons Denis Bouchard and Michel Carrier, were doing well only one week after their operations.
• A cell's first steps: Building a model to explain how cells grow - (Lehigh University) A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: how do living cells figure out when and where to grow?
• A new method detects traces of veterinary drugs in baby food - (FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) The quantities are very small, but in milk powder and in meat-based baby food, residues of drugs given to livestock were found. Researchers from the University of Almeria have developed a system to analyze these substances quickly and precisely.

• Return of the vacuum tube - (American Institute of Physics) Retro technology makes a comeback in a nanoscale transistor that is lightweight, low cost, and long lasting.
• A cell's first steps: Building a model to explain how cells grow - (Lehigh University) A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: how do living cells figure out when and where to grow?
• Using graphene, scientists develop a less toxic way to rust-proof steel - (University at Buffalo) University at Buffalo researchers are making significant progress on rust-proofing steel using a graphene-based composite that could serve as a nontoxic alternative to coatings that contain hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen.

• Is the Earth a cosmic feather-duster? - (University of Leeds) Scientists at the University of Leeds are looking to discover how dust particles in the solar system interact with the Earth's atmosphere.
• Herschel Space Observatory study reveals galaxy-packed filament - (McGill University) A McGill-led research team using the Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament is the first structure of its kind spied in a critical era of cosmic buildup when colossal collections of galaxies called superclusters began to take shape. The glowing galactic bridge offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore how galaxies evolve and merge to form superclusters.
• Inauguration of the SNOLAB International Laboratory for Particle Physics - (University of Montreal) Today, the University of Montreal and its partners are launching SNOLAB, an underground particle physics laboratory that grew out of a collaboration between the university's researchers and their colleagues at Carleton, Queen's, Alberta and Laurentian.