DNA sequencing with a handheld device

In February, when snowfall closed campus and kept her away from the lab, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who was stuck at home did the kind of work typically reserved for scientists with ample lab space, large machines and a lot of funding. Bonnie Brown, Ph.D., associate chair of the Department of Biology in the College of Humanities and...

read more "DNA sequencing with a handheld device"

EU project applies nanotechnology to food packaging

The SVARNISH project develops a varnish with antimicrobial, oxygen and water vapour barrier properties and improved physic-mechanical properties to be used in the food industry. Eight entities from several EU countries have come together to constitute the project consortium which consists of research centers and companies that have significant expertise...

read more "EU project applies nanotechnology to food packaging"

Variable surfaces get smooth or bumpy on demand

An MIT team has developed a way of making soft materials, using a 3-D printer, with surface textures that can then be modified at will to be perfectly smooth, or ridged or bumpy, or even to have complex patterns that could be used to guide fluids. The process, developed using detailed computer simulations, involves a material that is composed of two...

read more "Variable surfaces get smooth or bumpy on demand"