Terahertz radiation reveals ‘lost’ works of art
04 May, 2010Research scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS are revealing the secrets of 'lost' paintings non-destructively using terahertz beams.
Diamond to become the blind’s best friend
04 May, 2010A Melbourne Materials Institute team is developing a diamond electrode array that will be part of a chip embedded in the retina for use in the bionic eye. This device is designed to have sufficient resolution to allow the blind to recognise faces and read large print.
Element 117 - the latest of the superheavies
12 April, 2010The last hole in row seven of the periodic table has been filled with the latest superheavy element to be discovered - element 117.
Gold nanoparticles used to detect melamine in milk
07 April, 2010The interaction between gold nanoparticles and melamine has been found to cause a dramatic colour change indicating the presence of melamine in milk.
Thieves need to beware as bacterial ‘signatures’ linger
17 March, 2010Skin bacteria left behind on keyboards and computer mice can be used to identify who was using the object. Human microbiome researchers are testing if such leftovers can be used forensically or by law enforcement agencies.
New quantum cascade lasers emit more light than heat
12 January, 2010Mid-infrared laser diodes that generate more light than heat, developed by researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, are an important step towards the use of quantum cascade lasers in a variety of applications.
Water in orbit
01 December, 2009 by University of UtahSpace is not a fun place to get a stomach bug. To ensure drinking water is adequately disinfected, University of Utah chemists have developed a two-minute water quality monitoring method that just started six months of tests aboard the International Space Station.
Freeze-drying for foam fabrication
01 December, 2009Chemists and engineers at the University of Warwick have found that exposing particular mixtures of polymer particles and other materials to sudden freeze-drying can create a high-tech armoured foam that could be used for a number of purposes, including a new range of room-temperature, low-power gas sensors.
Science and the global food crime fight
01 December, 2009Australian Earth Scientists have joined forces with food scientists and chemists in an international effort to fight global food crime using new tamper-proof technology that pinpoints exactly where in the world particular foods have been produced.
Pilot-scale tablet press
10 August, 2009 byGEA Pharma Systems has introduced the Courtoy ModuL P Tablet Press (P for pilot scale) to meet the demand for increased flexibility and product containment when working with potent compounds, especially with regards to small-scale tablet presses.
Bottling light
10 August, 2009Light can be 'bottled' or confined to a very small space by controllably inserting light into a microscopic container surrounded by reflective walls.
'Copernicium' proposed as name for element 112
16 July, 2009Element 112's existence has been officially confirmed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and now the name 'copernicium' (Cp) has been proposed as its name.
A quicker, cheaper way to sort isotopes
01 July, 2009Stanford chemists have developed a new method of isotopic analysis that does not use mass spectroscopy so it is much less expensive.
Carbon nanotube can detect the entire visible spectrum
05 May, 2009Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.
Alloys between incompatible elements
27 February, 2009Pressure has been used to make what was previously impossible possible — an alloy between two incompatible elements.
