Clemson University spin-off uses corn to make plastics, provide cleaner air
CLEMSON -- Tetramer Technologies, LLC is adding corn to plastic containers -- and cars, airplanes and golf clubs -- while creating jobs along the way.... ...The Pendleton-based Clemson University spin-off company received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovative Research award (SBIR) from the National Science Foundation to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of plastics partially derived f...Hope available for patients with anemia and myelodysplastic syndrome
(San Diego, Calif., December 8, 2003) Several studies presented during the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) provide hope for patients with red blood cell diseases in the form of potential new treatments, as well as guidance for health care providers in caring for patients. ... ... Anemia is a disease in which the blood lacks adequate healthy red b..."Everyone told us this was a crazy idea," says Tony Mulligan of Advanced Ceramics Research (ACR), Inc., Tucson, AZ. "Only the Office of Naval Research said they'd take the chance." ...... When an arm or a leg bone is severely crushed, physicians usually cannot set it and bone grafts, or amputation until now has remained a primary option. The same is true for bones damaged by disease, such as...Consumer education and development of bio-sensitive alternatives can revive the plastics industry
San Jose, Calif.--May 30, 2003-- With country after country creating legislative and environmental laws to curb the use of plastics, stronger emphasis on recycling and public education on the use and disposal of plastics is vital to the survival of the plastics packaging industry.... ..."The annual worldwide production of plastics stands at 100 million tons, and even developed countries such as t...Component in plastic bottles found to cause abnormal pregnancies in mice
CLEVELAND Researchers have found disturbing new evidence suggesting that environmental exposure to a ubiquitous substance may cause chromosomally abnormal pregnancies. They have learned that low levels of a compound used in the manufacture of common plastic food and beverage containers and baby bottles interfere with cell division in the eggs of female mice. The disruption of cell division can...Biodegradable plastics go to compost heaps, not landfills
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Instead of landfills clogged with computer and car parts, packaging and a myriad of other plastic parts, a Cornell University fiber scientist has a better idea. In coming years, he says, many of these discarded items will be composted. ... The key to this "green" solution, says researcher Anil Netravali, is fully biodegradable composites made from soybean protein and other biodegr...NIST chemists define and refine properties of plastic microsystems
There may well be a plastic biochip in your future, thanks in part to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).... ...Microfluidics devices, also known as "lab-on-a-chip" systems, are miniaturized chemical and biochemical analyzers that one day may be used for quick, inexpensive tests in physicians' offices. Most microfluidics devices today are made of glass materials. Cheaper, d...Efficient plastic nuggets key to agricultural plastic waste disposal
A process that would be a plastics recycler's nightmare may help farmers deal with the disposal of agricultural and domestic plastics by creating burnable, energy-efficient plastic nuggets, according to a Penn State agricultural engineer.......... "In plastics recycling there are two unbreakable rules," says James W. Garthe, instructor in agricultural engineering and cooperative extension special...Dearborn, Mich., researchers receive award for improving automobile plastics
Chemical engineers Ellen Lee, Ph.D., and Deborah Mielewski, Ph.D., of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich., will be honored June 28 by the world's largest scientific society for developing a new process for making stronger, lighter plastics for automobiles. They will receive one of two 2002 Industrial Innovation Awards at the American Chemical Society's Central regional meeting in Ypsilanti, Mic...Monitoring epithelial plasticity, one cell at a time
The kidneys maintain plasma volume and composition by adapting to shifts in the concentration of ions and other solutes. Some years ago, Schwartz and colleagues identified one such homeostatic mechanism, in which acidosis alters the cellular population within the cortical collecting duct (CCD) of the kidney. Over a period of days, acidosis induces one epithelial cell type in the CCD, the so calle...T cell responses in aplastic anemia
Immunosuppressive drugs generally lead to substantially improved blood cell counts in individuals with aplastic anemia (AA), a severe decline of all blood cell lineages in which the marrow is deficient in hematopoietic cells. For this reason, although AAs pathogenesis is obscure, it seems likely that autoimmune responses block hematopoiesis at an early stage but do not entirely eliminate early pl...Plastic tube may help treat paralysis
CHICAGO, August 28 Canadian researchers have created a plastic tube that fits around the spinal cord and restores some movement in paralyzed rats, according to research presented at the 222nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the worlds largest scientific society. The researchers say the work could lead to a new treatment for paralysis in humans. ... ...Rats whose spinal cords h...Plants as plants: gene could convert crops to plastics factories
.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Scientists have found a gene that allows plants to package and store materials in their cells a discovery that may open the door to producing new types of plastics from plant materials. .Clint Chapple, professor of biochemistry at Purdue University, and Knut Meyer of DuPont and Co., have cloned a gene from the common laboratory plant Arabadopsis that will allow materials...Tiny channels carved in plastic enable medical tests on a CD
. . .COLUMBUS, Ohio - Research at Ohio State University is paving the way for doctors to .conduct blood tests and other diagnostics using a compact disc (CD) and a CD player.. One day, patients may be able to own a CD that contains sensors and other devices that .can analyze drops of their blood, said Marc Madou, professor of materials science and .engineering at Ohio State. The same CD could pr...In public session: panel to evaluate plasticizers for possible reproductive, developmental risks
. The press and public may attend a review of seven widely used.plasticizers (chemicals that give plastic its elasticity) that will be evaluated.for their potential reproductive and developmental effects by the newly.established Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, which is.within the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of.Environmental Health Sciences. Th...Lab on a chip? Cheap, disposable UD biosensor uses gold-on-plastic design
.Coated with gold and sandwiched between tiny electrodes, specially designed.polymer beads provide a cheap, disposable device for detecting disease,.University of Delaware scientists say.. .A prototype, "gold-on-plastic" biosensor, protected by a provisional patent and.described in the May 25 issue of , also may prove useful for.analyzing food and environmental samples.. .With a detection regio.... The federal government's new reproductive risk evaluation center today.announced its first review -- a look at the possible reproductive risks to.plastics workers and consumers from seven phthalates found widely in consumer.products and the environment. Phthalates are chemical plasticizers used in.making flexible vinyl products such as shower curtains, medical devices such as.tubing a...Plastics - Easier To Recycle Than Commonly Thought
.Recycling waste domestic plastics may be much easier than is commonly thought,.according to research at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Researchers.have found that adding large amounts of particular sorts of "contamination" into.a granulated plastic has very little effect upon the physical properties of the.product once it is re-moulded back into another product. This could mean that....Degrading Plastics To Reduce Waste
.Plastic bags that degrade in as little as 55 days after use can now be made.using the first 100% degradable polyethene. The material, called SPI-TEK, could.help to increase the capacity of landfill sites by as much as 20-30% by.degrading rapidly and allowing other organic materials to decompose. The.material has exactly the same mechanical properties as traditional polyethene.but decomposes i...Growing Up On Their Own: Smart Plastics Organize Themselves Into Useful Optical Devices
. In one of the first examples of molecules building themselves into.useful synthetic microstructures with little human intervention, chemical.engineers have created plastic materials that assemble themselves into.sophisticated optical devices known as photonic crystals. Samson Jenekhe and.Linda Chen of the University of Rochester describe their work on a process known.as "hierarchical se...Turning "Unrecyclable" Waste Into Plastic Products
Even the most advanced recycling techniques fail to recycle every element of the rubbish we .generate. Often recyclers are left with an unpleasant pile of dark rank smelling scrap yard shredder .waste or "fluff" that refuses to transform into anything intrinsically useful. But now researchers .at the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick have found a way of using this .unplea...Timber Supplement From Paper And Plastic
A supplement for timber could come from old telephone books and plastic. milk containers, according to CSIRO researchers. . . CSIRO project leader Dr Bob Coutts says that industrial-scale trials have. begun with a paper/plastic product and it shows promise of being suitable. for some applications that currently use timber. . . "Basically the ingredients are any waste thermoplastic mate...Erodible plastic microspheres could be effective oral drug delivery system
, a...team of Brown University scientists reports the production of drug-filled...microscopic polymer spheres that when taken orally enter the bloodstream by...crossing the intestinal lining, travel body-wide and degrade, releasing their...therapeutic load. The process dramatically increases the oral effectiveness of...several drugs. It suggests a new oral delivery system for compounds, such as....