An innovation using “chemical microscopy” from researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will allow us to peer into the structure of blended polymers, a development that may help improve and repair aging waterlines. The aging water infrastructure — underground pipes that carry drinking water — in the United States is a [...]
3-D Printer Recycles Plastic
November 29, 2012 By 1 Comment
A team from the University of Washington has won $100,000 in a contest in which it used a large 3-D printer to transform plastic waste into composting toilets and rainwater harvesting systems. The winnings from the international contest, 3D4D Challenge, will be used to form a company that will work with partners in Oaxaca, Mexico, [...]
Polymer Sieve Filters Out Tiny Particles
November 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Scientists in Germany have discovered a way to use polymer filters and proteins that can filter out wastewater more effectively than previous methods. In fact, the sieve can even filter out viruses. The particles in colloidal suspensions, often metal nanoparticles, generally pass easily through commonly used macroporous polymeric membranes because they are smaller than the [...]
Trial Tests Medical Device That Lessens Heart Failure
November 27, 2012 By 1 Comment
A clinical trial underway in Cleveland that is testing a medical device implant could ease the suffering of the five million people in the United States who suffer from heart failure. The trial being conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and the MetroHealth Medical Center is testing a device called CardioFit that is implanted under the [...]
Radioactive Polymer Kills Tumors
November 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
A specially formulated radioactive polymer has shown to be more effective at controlling tumors than traditional methods of implanting radioactive devices next to the cancer site, a team of scientists at Duke University have found. Wenge Liu and his colleagues tested a thermally responsive radioactive peptide polymer solution by putting it next to tumor cells [...]
One Polymer System, Many Functions
November 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Polymer scientists at the University of Akron have discovered a one-size-fits-all polymer system that can be modified to perform various functions, from fighting infection to filtering water. The researchers found a way to attach bioactive molecules to an electrospun polymer without compromising how the former molecules function biologically. Medical device manufacturers and clinicians should be [...]
How to Make Polymers Stronger
November 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We know what polymers are: long chains of repeating molecules. But we didn’t know how to measure how weak or strong they are. Until now. Whether polymers are strong depends on how many structural flaws they have. They are stronger if each polymer chain binds to another chain. They are weaker if a significant portion [...]
Medical Device Powered by Inner Ear
November 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Scientists in Massachusetts have developed a medical device that is powered by the chemistry of the inner ear and monitors activities of people with hearing or balance impairments. Some day, the device could deliver drug therapies. Two scientists — Konstantina Stankovic, an otologic surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), and Andrew Lysaght, [...]
Artificial Lungs Eliminate Need for Animal Testing
November 19, 2012 By 1 Comment
Instead of testing a drug’s effectiveness — or its potential side effects — on animals or humans, we may soon have the ability to create an artificial organ and test it on that, thanks to work from U.S. scientists. The so-called lung-on-a-chip, developed at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is a flexible piece [...]
Polymers Increase Hard Drive Space
November 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you were trying to figure out how to increase data storage space on a hard drive, you’d naturally think of polymers as a solution, right? No? You mean, you’d think of pushing together magnetic dots on a metal surface so that more printed zeros and ones are pressed together and more data could be [...]
