Applied Physics

On June 30, 1908 a stunning explosion rocked the forest near the Tunguska river in Siberia. Estimates were that an asteroid exploded in the air a few kilometers above the earth's surface with a force 1,000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A new Sandia supercomputer simulations suggests that the asteroid that caused such a blast was much smaller than previously thought, bringing new concerns; there are more small asteroids than large ones. “The asteroid that caused the extensive damage was much smaller than we had thought,” says Sandia principal investigator Mark Boslough of the…

PARIS, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Altran Foundation for Innovation launches its 2008 Award to get onto the issue of reducing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Today, climate warming is accepted as a major issue by the international community and we have no choice but to try and tackle it, and tackle it quickly. As we know, global warming is due to rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and many now accept that this increase is caused by our own day-to-day activities. What if technological innovation were the solution? The Award is open to international project leaders working on…

MIT scientists have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day serve as tiny engineered blood vessels. The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. A paper on the work was posted in Advanced Materials. Engineered blood vessels could one day be transplanted into tissues such as the kidneys, liver, heart or any other organs that require large amounts of vascular tissue, which moves nutrients, gases and waste to and from cells. "We are very excited about this work,” said…

DEERFIELD, Illinois, December 17 /PRNewswire/ -- - Third-Generation TRAb Assay Delivers Unprecedented Specificity for Diagnosing Graves' Disease Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics (www.siemens.com/diagnostics) announced that it has signed an agreement with KreLo GmbH Medical Diagnostics for the rights to develop an automated stimulating TSH receptor antibody (TRAb) assay used in the differential diagnosis of Graves' disease. This agreement will make Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics the first in vitro diagnostics distributor of an automated TRAb assay featuring stimulating TRAb KreLo…

LONDON, December 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), the global application software and services company, today announces that it had been selected by UBI Banca International to help consolidate its international business. The Misys solution will enable the bank to improve efficiencies and business management across the group and ensure a consistent level of service to customers in Luxembourg, Spain and Germany. The Italian bank, which was recently formed as a result of the merger between BPU and Banca Lombarda, is re-designing its international operations to increase market…

Time-lapse videos and computer simulations provide the first concrete molecular explanation of how a cell flexes tiny muscle-like structures to pinch itself into two daughter cells at the end of each cell division, according to a report in Science Express. Cell biologists at Yale and physicists at Columbia teamed up to model and then observe the way a cell assembles the “contractile ring,” the short-lived force-producing structure that physically divides cells and is always located precisely between the two daughter cell nuclei. “This contractile ring is thought to operate like an old-…

ANTONY, GRENOBLE France, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- STALLERGENES S.A and Protein'eXpert S.A. announce they have signed a partnership agreement for developing and pharmaceutically producing mites recombinant allergens(1). The partnership is part of the STALLERGENES "Enhanced Allergens" innovation programme for a recombinant protein treatment for sublingual desensitisation of allergy to mites. This second-generation treatment is made up of the recombinant allergens Der p 1 and Der p 2 in the form of a fusion protein, combined with an adjuvant and/or a mucoadhesive formulation for facilitating…

LUSTENAU, Austria and DALLAS, Texas, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- IDENTEC SOLUTIONS recent acquisition of a Wtek, a global leader in providing active RFID solutions in the workplace, sets the stage for IDENTEC SOLUTIONS entry into the growing sector of worker safety and security. Worker safety and security has long been an ongoing and vital concern for a number of industries. Identifying the location of employees in time sensitive situations can often mean the difference between life and death. By utilizing active RFID, emergency response and deployment in time critical situations is vastly…

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a shape-memory rubber that may enable applications as diverse as biomedical implants, conformal face-masks, self-sealing sutures, and “smart” labels. The material, described in the journal Advanced Materials, forms a new class of shape-memory polymers, which are materials that can be stretched to a new shape and will stay in that form until heated, at which time they revert to their initial shape. Unlike conventional shape-memory polymers, however, the new material is transparent, rubbery, and most importantly, engineers will be able…

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, December 12 /PRNewswire/ -- InterGen announced today the financial close and funding of credit facilities for its 428 MW natural gas-fired Rijnmond II project in Rotterdam. With an estimated cost of approximately euro 480 million (US$700 million), the Rijnmond II project will complement InterGen's existing 820 MW Rijnmond Energie project which commenced operations in 2004. InterGen has appointed HSBC Bank plc as Mandated Lead Arranger and Sole Underwriter for the approximately euro 400 million (US$590 million) non-recourse financing that consists of a euro 335…