Carbon fiber fabric and lightweight honeycomb materials, plus a mobile manufacturing platform, make infinite pipeline technology cheaper and greener while boosting local economies.
Mo Ehsani, professor emeritus of civil engineering at the University of Arizona, has designed a new, lightweight underground pipe he says could transform the pipeline construction industry.
Instead of conventional concrete or steel, Ehsani’s new pipe consists of a central layer of lightweight plastic honeycomb, similar to that used in the aerospace industry, sandwiched between layers of resin-saturated carbon fiber fabric. (more…)
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications.
“Among other things, this type of lithography can be used to manufacture chips for use in biological sensors that can identify target molecules, such as proteins or genetic material associated with specific medical conditions,” says Dr. Albena Ivanisevic, co-author of a paper describing the research. Ivanisevic is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and associate professor of the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nanolithography is a way of printing patterns at the nanoscale. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A smart filter with a shape-shifting surface can separate oil and water using gravity alone, an advancement that could be useful in cleaning up environmental oil spills, among other applications, say its University of Michigan developers.
The system could provide a more efficient way to remove crude oil from waterways without using additional chemical detergents, or even after detergents have been added, said Anish Tuteja, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering. Tuteja is the corresponding author of a paper on the research published in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature Communications.
The researchers created a filter coating that repels oil but attracts water, bucking conventional materials’ properties. Most natural substances soak up oil, and the few that repel it also repel water because water has a higher surface tension. (more…)
A young girl in Bridgeport, Connecticut, born with one of the most serious, life-threatening congenital heart defects known, is on her way to living a normal life thanks to Yale doctors who developed and performed the first operation of its kind in the United States.
Angela Irizarry was the first American patient to receive a tissue-engineered blood vessel made of her own natural cells. (more…)
A chemistry team at the University of Toronto has discovered environmentally-friendly iron-based nanoparticle catalysts that work as well as the expensive, toxic, metal-based catalysts that are currently in wide use by the drug, fragrance and food industry.
“It is always important to strive to make industrial syntheses more green, and using iron catalysts is not only much less toxic, but it is also much more cost effective,” said Jessica Sonnenberg, a PhD student and lead author of a paper published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)
*Technique could be used to direct growth of blood vessels or tissues in the laboratory*
Christian Santangelo, Ryan Hayward and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently employed photographic techniques and polymer science to develop a new technique for printing two-dimensional sheets of polymers that can fold into three-dimensional shapes when water is added. The technique may lead to wide ranging practical applications from medicine to robotics
The journal Science publishes the research in its March 9 issue. (more…)
*Discovery of self-corrective healing process for polymer detailed this week in the journal Nature*
Imagine you’re driving your own new car–or a rental car–and you need to park in a commercial garage. Maybe you’re going to work, visiting a mall or attending an event at a sports stadium, and you’re in a rush. Limited and small available spots and concrete pillars make parking a challenge. And it happens that day: you slightly misjudge a corner and you can hear the squeal as you scratch the side of your car–small scratches, but large anticipated repair costs.
Now imagine that that you can repair these unsightly scratches yourself–quickly, easily and inexpensively–or that you can go through a car wash that can detect these and other more minor scratches and fix them as the car goes through the washing garage. Fantasy. Not exactly. Not anymore. Not according to a new discovery detailed in the April 21 issue of the journal Nature, and depicted in a short video interview and simulation. (more…)
