An Invisibility Cloak Made Of Glass

(R&D Daily, July 22, 2010) From Tolkien’s ring of power in The Lord of the Rings to Star Trek’s Romulans, who could make their warships disappear from view, from Harry Potter’s magical cloak to the garment that makes players vanish in the video game classic “Dungeons and Dragons, the power to turn someone or something invisible has fascinated mankind.  But who ever thought that a scientist at Michigan Technological University would be serious about building a working invisibility cloak?  That’s exactly what Elena Semouchkina, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech, is doing. She has found ways to use magnetic resonance to capture rays of visible light and route them around objects, rendering those objects invisible to the human eye.  Click here to read more…

Acrobatic Robots

(NSF, July 26, 2010) Dennis Hong is living his dreams … literally … in a lab filled with wacky robots.  ”When I was seven years old, I watched the film ‘Star Wars’ for the very first time. It just completely blew my mind. All the robots and spaceships,” recalls Dennis Hong. You never know where you will find inspiration! For Hong, a mechanical engineer, it was there, on the silver screen.  ”R2D2, how it moved, its locomotion, inspired me to study robot locomotion, and C3PO, the human servant robot, inspired me to study human-robot interaction,” says Hong. The force has been with him ever since.  Hong’s lab, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, is filled with robots that would fit right into a “Star Wars” sequel. “From humanoid robots to rolling, climbing, wheel-leg hybrid robots,” says Hong, as he points to the row of awards that circle the large rubber robot work out mat on the floor of the lab.  Click here to read more…

NASA Telescope Finds Elusive Buckyballs In Space For First Time

(ScienceDaily, July 23, 2010) — Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered carbon molecules, known as “buckyballs,” in space for the first time. Buckyballs are soccer-ball-shaped molecules that were first observed in a laboratory 25 years ago.  They are named for their resemblance to architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, which have interlocking circles on the surface of a partial sphere. Buckyballs were thought to float around in space, but had escaped detection until now.  “We found what are now the largest molecules known to exist in space,” said astronomer Jan Cami of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. “We are particularly excited because they have unique properties that make them important players for all sorts of physical and chemical processes going on in space.” Cami has authored a paper about the discovery that appears online in the journal Science.  Click here to read more…

Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions And Mitigate Global Warming, Study Finds

(ScienceDaily, July 20, 2010) — Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change? The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. Because white roofs reflect far more of the sun’s heat than black ones, buildings with white roofs will stay cooler. If the building is air conditioned, less air conditioning will be required, thus saving energy. Click here to read more…

Tiny Marine Microbes Exert Influence On Global Climate

(NSF, July 15, 2010) New research indicates that the interactions of microscopic organisms around a particular organic material may alter the chemical properties of the ocean–influencing global climate by affecting cloud formation in the atmosphere. Justin Seymour, a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, is the lead author of a paper reporting the results, published in this week’s issue of the journal Science. The paper describes how a relative of the chemical that seabirds and seals use to locate prey, dimethylsulfide (DMS), may serve a similar purpose at the microbial scale, helping marine microorganisms find food and cycle chemicals that are important to climate. “These scientists have used impressive technology to study interactions between organisms and their chemical environment at the scales they actually take place,” said David Garrison, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s biological oceanography program, which funded the research. Click here to read more…

GE Aviation To Build New Electric Power Research & Development Center In UK

(Market Watch, July 19, 2010) Farnborough, England – GE Aviation is pleased to announce that it is building a new Electrical Power Integration Center (EPIC) in Cheltenham, UK. The center will be directed at several markets including end-to-end power generation, distribution, load and avionic control technologies for military and civil aerospace applications. Third-party organizations will have access to the center and will engage with leading researchers from the region’s universities. The center is being built on the GE Aviation campus in Bishops Cleeve. The 30,000 sq ft facility will be open for preliminary work by the end of 2010 and fully operational by March 2011. Click here to read more…

BP Oil Debate Spills Into Academia

(USA Today, July 20, 2010) Within three days of the BP oil spill, Joe Griffit was out in the Gulf of Mexico taking water samples to begin assessing the damage. As an assistant professor of coastal sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi, Griffit says he’s been eager to assist in the restoration efforts taking shape in the region. So when lawyers representing BP came to Griffit with an offer – help us assess the damage and find a way to restore what’s been destroyed – Griffit says the option was “initially very attractive” to him and some of his colleagues. “If we were on the inside, we knew we could have some effect on BP,” says Griffit, who is stationed at the university’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss. “And after talking with some of the lawyers involved, we all saw it was a nice idea.” Click here to read more…

US Oil Spill Panel Weighs Mounting Economic Impact

By Alexandria Sage

(Reuters, July 12, 2010) Sal Sunseri’s P&J Oyster Company has worked Louisiana waters since 1876, making it the oldest operating oyster processor in the United States. But the future is grim, he told a presidential panel on Monday, due to the devastating BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N) spill that has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since late April. “Due to this unnatural catastrophe in our water, P&J may forever be extinct,” he said. Sunseri, who has laid off 11 workers, was among a group of speakers from the fishing, seafood and tourism industries sharing stories of loss with the seven-member commission investigating the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Keith Overton, chairman of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, said tourism operators across his state were already suffering even though tar balls had been found only on the Florida Panhandle in the north.superconductors.  Click here to read more…

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