Applied Physics

Deferoxamine (DF), originally used to treat iron poisoning, can significantly boost the body’s own ability to heal and re-grow injured bones, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The researchers injected deferoxamine into injured mouse bones. They found DF triggered the growth of new blood vessels, which in turn kicked off bone re-growth and healing. In the study, bone density surrounding the injury more than doubled to 2.6 cubic millimeters in treated bones compared to 1.2 cubic millimeters in untreated bones, the researchers said. The new blood vessel…

One of the roadblocks for electric motor technology is that as operating temperatures go up, the magnets in the motors get weaker, resulting in a drop in power. Ames Laboratory Researcher Iver Anderson and his team have developed a new magnetic alloy that maintains its strong magnetic properties even at high operating temperatures approaching 400 degrees F. The Ames Lab senior metallurgist and Iowa State University adjunct professor of materials science and engineering is playing a major role in advancing electric drive motor technology to meet the enormous swell in consumer demand expected…

LONDON, January 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell International Trading and Shipping Co Ltd (Shell) is upgrading the navigation systems on several liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with new- generation bridge electronics from Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC). The new navigation systems are being installed on four LNG carriers managed by Shell for Bonny Gas Transport, a fully owned shipping subsidiary of Nigeria LNG Ltd. (NLNG); Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit is supplying the systems and performing the installations. The ships being upgraded are LNG Finima, LNG Lagos, LNG…

You've read plenty of articles recently about visual invisibility but acoustic invisibility was considered beyond the reach of science. Now Duke University engineers say a three-dimensional sound cloak is possible, at least in theory, by making sound waves travel distortion-free around an acousic veil the way microwaves do for a visual one. "We've devised a recipe for an acoustic material that would essentially open up a hole in space and make something inside that hole disappear from sound waves," said Steven Cummer, Jeffrey N. Vinik Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer…

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have developed a new “nanobiotechnology” that enables magnetic control of events at the cellular level. They describe the technology, which could lead to finely-tuned but noninvasive treatments for disease, in the January issue of Nature Nanotechnology. Don Ingber, MD, PhD, and Robert Mannix, PhD, of Children’s program in Vascular Biology, in collaboration with Mara Prentiss, PhD, a physicist at Harvard University, devised a way to get tiny beads – 30 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in diameter – to bind to receptor molecules on the cell surface.…

The molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA -- isn't stationed in special "transcription factories" within a cell nucleus, according to Cornell researchers. Instead, the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and other key molecules can assemble at the site of an activated gene, regardless of the gene's position. The findings, published in the Dec. 28, 2007, issue of the journal Molecular Cell, are the result of an ongoing collaboration between the laboratories of John T. Lis, the…

MANCHESTER, Connecticut, January 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Vgo Software, Inc., a leading provider of software modernization solutions, today announces Futech, a professional software services firm, as a certified Vgo implementation partner and reseller of its Oracle Forms to Java/ADF conversion tool in the Middle East. Futech will utilize Vgo's conversion tool, Evo(TM), to perform these conversions for the Middle Eastern Forms-user community in what will be called the MAGEC (Modernization and Automated Generation of Enhanced Code) model. "MAGEC (Modernization and Automated Generation of Enhanced…

PITTSBURGH, January 8 /PRNewswire/ -- - Investors Siemens Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund Perseus to Join Board of Directors BPL Global(TM), Ltd., a smart grid technology company dedicated to leading the transformation of energy and information delivery, today announced the acquisition of Serveron. A transformer monitor technology provider, Serveron offers on-line transformer monitoring products as well as diagnostic services that are critical to utilities in improving grid reliability while optimizing the management and economics of their asset base. Terms of the deal were not…

LAS VEGAS, CES 2008, January 7 /PRNewswire/ -- OKI Electric Industry, Co., Ltd., the leading Japanese electronic equipment manufacturer and Alpine Electronics Inc, Japan's leading manufacturer of in-car audio equipment, mobile multimedia components and in-car navigation systems joined forces with Runcom Technologies Ltd, the pioneer in ODFMA(R) enabling technologies for Mobile WiMAX. The three companies will demonstrate the world's first car navigation system with streaming content based on Mobile WiMAX technology at Runcom's booth (Sands 72702) at International CES 2008 in Las Vegas from…

A group of scientists in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has uncovered a new biological mechanism that could provide a clearer window into a cell's inner workings. What's more, this mechanism could represent an "epigenetic" pathway -- a route that bypasses an organism's normal DNA genetic program -- for so-called Lamarckian evolution, enabling an organism to pass on to its offspring characteristics acquired during its lifetime to improve their chances for survival. Lamarckian evolution is the notion, for example, that the giraffe's long neck evolved by its…