An environmental research group has found that 70% of 179 garden tools and products it has tested contained chemicals of “high concern,” including phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA). The study conducted by the Ecology Center, based in Ann Arbor, MI, tested 90 garden hoses, 53 gloves, 13 kneeling pads, and 23 garden tools currently available [...]
Wireless Defibrillator Gets Closer to Approval
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel has backed a new type of implantable heart defibrillator, but before the medical device gets full approval, other concerns will need to be addressed. What is new about the device — developed by Cameron Health Inc. — is that it is implanted underneath the skin and does [...]
Bionic Eye May Become Reality
May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
First, there was the $6 Million Man (as anyone over 45 can remember). Then there’s The Terminator (just about everyone else). What is one of the things that the two fictional characters have in common? A bionic eye. And as soon as next year, such a device could become a reality, or at least tested [...]
Starch Technique Could Add to Fiber Stock
May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Starch usually is too thick of a substance to make into fibers, but food scientists at Penn State have discovered a method that converts it into strands that could be used to make less expensive and more environmentally friendly bandages and paper products. “There are many applications for starch fibers,” says Lingyan Kong, graduate student, [...]
Blood Type Identified Quickly on Paper
May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
For those who need to learn a person’s blood type quickly, there’s a new device that will literally spell it out for them on paper. The blood types are common knowledge: A+, AB-, O+, etc. As Bethany Halford writes in Chemical & Engineering News, Australian researchers have invented a method that makes these letters and [...]
Scientists Create Plastic Solar Cell
April 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Scientists have discovered a method using polymers that could allow improved solar cells to be manufactured more cheaply and with more flexibility. Manufacturers already print or roll material onto surfaces to produce an electronically functional device, writes Jennifer Hicks in Forbes. This process is used to make organic solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes that [...]
Polymers Hold Key to More Fuel-Efficient Cars
April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Certain kinds of polymers may be useful in the near future to help reduce the weight of cars and therefore improve fuel efficiency. Carbon fiber, or carbon-fiber reinforced polymer, is exceptionally strong and light, reports John Rosevear of The Motley Fool, but it also is expensive. Yet automobile manufacturers see the material as key to [...]
Binding Polymers Create New Properties for Paper
April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Italian scientists have invented a process by which nanoparticles form a polymer that binds with paper fibers to create new forms of paper that can either be waterproof, magnetic, or antibacterial. The new paper, reports Jennifer Hicks in Forbes, is still paper — one can write on it, fold it, and print with it — [...]
Study Links Phthalates to Diabetes
April 17, 2012 By 1 Comment
High blood levels of phthalates — chemicals that are commonly used to soften plastics — may double the risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults, Swedish researchers are reporting. While the research is disputed, the research could add pressure to conduct more tests to determine what are the chemicals’ comprehensive effects on human health, [...]
Flexible Displays Are Around the Corner
April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In the near future, flexible displays in pliable plastic casings could be found most anywhere — on refrigerators, wallpaper, furniture, or even sewn into shirt cuffs — thanks to recent developments in technology. Jon Swartz writes in USA TODAY that the promise of unbreakable, non-glass displays has researchers and companies hoping to cash in on [...]
