Office of Naval Research awards $8.4M to young investigators
...he performance capability of autonomous underwater vehicles at low speed without degrading the performance at higher speeds. Dr. Yuwen Zhang, Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University will investigate the effects of laser processing on metal powders with particular focus on selective laser sintering......in the atmosphere from pollutants released by both vehicles and industrial sources. A number of recent studies conducted by Ritz and other researchers have suggested that air pollution can have harmful effects on pregnancy, including causing premature delivery and low birth-weight. But researchers had not bee...Lobster sniffing: how lobsters' hairy noses capture smells from the sea
...reate odor sensors. "If you want to build unmanned vehicles or robots to go into toxic sites where you do not want to send a scuba diver, and if you want those robots to locate something by smell, you need to design noses or olfactory antennae for them," said lead author Mimi A. R. Koehl, professor of integra...Studying plant adaptation to arctic helps understand the 'steps of wisdom of life'
...ger. The scientists walk or travel by all-terrain vehicles 10 or more miles from camp daily to hammer out and bring back ancient fossils that sometimes resemble parsley or dill or fern, but look odd because the leaves are small and dissected. The researchers look mainly along rivers that have eroded the per...INEEL uses ethanol to reduce petroleum consumption, cut exhaust emissions
... blend of gasoline is being pumped into government vehicles at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National ...any changes in performance or maintenance needs of vehicles with the change. What officials have seen by using E10 is a reduction of between 4,200 and 6,400 gal...NIST 'microhotplate' may help search for extraterrestrial life
Astronauts or unmanned space vehicles may one day detect and quantitate the gases found on other planets using tiny chemical sensors each measuring about 100 microns, approaching the width of a human hairbased on a design developed at NIST. NIST researchers under chemist Steve Semancik ...Autumn foliage may affect air quality, climate
...rts have focusedon reducing VOCs produced by motor vehicles and other human sources.But that may be of little value, said Guenther, since the bulk ofthose compounds actually comes from vegetation. A more effective wayto fight smog would be to curtail human-generated nitrogen oxideemissions. Ozone has attracte......ree generations." Retroviruses are the most common vehicles for introducing genes in human somatic cell gene therapy, and some scientists had expressed concern that this approach might result in genetic alterations to germ-line cells. Brinsters paper indicates that the germ cells are indeed susceptible to in...Molecular motor packs DNA into viruses at greater than champagne pressures, researchers report
...denoviruses, popular today with gene therapists as vehicles for ferrying genes into cells, also are suspected to pack their genes this way. Bustamante and his colleagues report their findings in the Oct. 18 issue of Nature. His coauthors are Douglas E. Smith and Sander J. Tans, both former postdoctoral fellow...Scientists discover how some viruses take strong hold of cells
...ctions, and may help scientists design virus-based vehicles for gene therapy. The study reveals that the receptor protein for coxsackievirus (known as coxsackievirus-adenovirus receptor, or CAR) forms pairs on the surface of human cells, with two adjacent CAR receptors attached to one another below the surfac...Future army could run on alternative fuels, photosynthesis
...for the soldier's electronics. Other equipment and vehicles could also be covered with these protein-based solar converters. A side benefit of such technology, the report notes, is that the protein coatings would make whatever they coat more difficult to detect by electronic means since they would mimic th......ly infections because those fluids are the primary vehicles of sexual transmission of HIV, he said. The new findings, which involved 17 patient volunteers, show that conclusively. "Our results are not surprising since they are basically what those of us who study primary infection would have expected, bu...New technology reduces noxious emissions
...in 1993 to develop technologies for a new class of vehicles that will travel up to 80 miles on a gallon of gas...ons and enable the use of high fuel economy diesel vehicles that will help relieve our dependence on foreign oil, said Kathi Epping, program manager for Combust...Agent Orange might boost the risk of leukemia, UNC researcher says
...of herbicides were dispersed from boats and ground vehicles and by soldiers wearing back-mounted equipment. A 1969 scientific report concluded that one of the primary chemicals used in Agent Orange could cause birth defects in laboratory animals. As a result, the U.S. military suspended use of Agent Orange in......n of robotic, self-propelled autonomous underwater vehicles that mimic biological design. The results have prompted Shadwick to move to other species. With new support from the National Science Foundation, he and Scripps researcher Jeffrey Graham have launched a new study to search for the same results in l...Scientists launch the worlds first marine life census
...hese animals as oceanographic samplers autonomous vehicles to sample the physical environment as well as gather biological information on their behavior, physiology and ecology," says Block. She also points out that the tagging project will give researchers their first opportunity to observe the relationship...Innovative method for gene therapy of heart disease shows promise in animal studies
...ike other approaches that uses viruses as delivery vehicles to carry genes into the body, Dr. Levys group uses DNA within a biodegradable film that coats the metal stents. The technique allows a controlled release of the DNA into cells in the arterial wall, with only minimal spread of the DNA beyond the arter......MSCs might also be used in gene therapy, acting as vehicles to deliver beneficial genes to targeted tissues. Although many institutions are currently investigating various types of stem cells, this is the first study examining transplantation of human MSCs in the fetal sheep model. In this current study, hu...UC Davis research helps state air board set auto-emission rules
... is the battery electric vehicle, or EV. Fuel-cell vehicles also will meet it but are not expected to be avail...riginally set the required number of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) at 10 percent of new autos sold; in 1998, the board reduced the number to 4 percent and said ...Catalytic converters fix one pollution problem, cause another
... ammonia and other emissions from more than 60,000 vehicles passing through a California highway tunnel over a...ote, however, that the current study included more vehicles with state-of-the-art pollution controls - catalytic converters used with low-sulfur reformulated ga...