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Simple Solar Water System Devised to Kill Pathogens

(Greg Riegler/Flickr)

Engineering and food science faculty at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana designed a solar device to kill waterborne bacteria that the inventors say can help provide clean drinking water to millions of people in developing countries. Civil and environmental engineering professor Ernest “Chip” Blatchley and food science biologist Bruce Applegate, . . . → Read More: Simple Solar Water System Devised to Kill Pathogens

Protocols Linking Underwater Devices to Internet Proposed

Tommaso Melodia (University at Buffalo)

Engineers from University at Buffalo in New York are proposing a common set of wireless protocols for connecting underwater sensors, like those detecting tsunamis, to the land-based Internet. Electrical engineering professor Tommaso Melodia and graduate student Yifan Sun will present their proposal next month at ACM’s International Conference . . . → Read More: Protocols Linking Underwater Devices to Internet Proposed

Safer, Cheaper Ultraviolet PCB Disposal Process Developed

Gopal Achari, left, and Cooper Langford in front of their mobile PCB clean-up unit (Riley Brandt, University of Calgary)

A team of engineers and chemists at University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada devised a new process for cleaning soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, cancer-causing chemicals banned in the U.S. since 1979, . . . → Read More: Safer, Cheaper Ultraviolet PCB Disposal Process Developed

National Lab Develops Solar Photosynthesis Testing Device

L to R: Miguel Modestino, Joel Ager, and Rachel Segalman (Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California developed a device to test on a small scale electrochemical solar-energy conversion methods for future fuel cell and artificial photosynthesis technologies. The team led by Joel Ager and Rachel . . . → Read More: National Lab Develops Solar Photosynthesis Testing Device

Solar Nanoscale Protein Filter Cleans Antibiotics from Water

David Wendell (University of Cincinnati)

Engineers at University of Cincinnati in Ohio developed a nanoscale filter powered by sunlight that can clean biochemical compounds, such as antibiotics, from lakes and rivers. Environmental engineering professor David Wendell and Ph.D. candidate Vikram Kapoor published their findings online last week in the journal Nano Letters (paid . . . → Read More: Solar Nanoscale Protein Filter Cleans Antibiotics from Water

Non-Battery Power Supply for Aircraft Sensors Flight Tested

Alexandros Elefsiniotis, left, and Ulrich Schmid (Vienna University of Technology)

Engineers from Vienna University of Technology in Austria and the commercial aircraft manufacturer EADS are collaborating on a new type of power supply for sensors to monitor a fuselage’s structural integrity. The team reports the first successful flight tests of the devices on . . . → Read More: Non-Battery Power Supply for Aircraft Sensors Flight Tested

Synthetic Tissue Created with Water, Lipids, 3-D Printing

Synthetic tissue programmed to fold into sphere (Gabriel Villar, University of Oxford)

Biochemical researchers at University of Oxford in the U.K. developed materials from networks of water droplets inside lipid films to perform functions similar to human tissue. The team led by Oxford chemistry professor Hagan Bayley published its findings as . . . → Read More: Synthetic Tissue Created with Water, Lipids, 3-D Printing

Enzyme Cocktail Generates High Volume Hydrogen from Biomass

(Energy.gov)

Bioengineers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, with colleagues from elsewhere in the U.S. and Mexico, developed a process to inexpensively extract large volumes of hydrogen fuel from any type of plant matter. The team led by biological systems engineering professor Y.H. Percival Zhang, published its findings online in a recent issue of . . . → Read More: Enzyme Cocktail Generates High Volume Hydrogen from Biomass

Bacterial Biofilms Found to Quickly Clog Medical Devices

Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria (NIH)

Molecular biologists and engineers at Princeton University in New Jersey discovered that bacterial formations called biofilms can quickly tangle and trap other bacteria, disabling medical devices. The study by postdoctoral researcher Knut Drescher and colleagues appears online in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . . . → Read More: Bacterial Biofilms Found to Quickly Clog Medical Devices

USDA Funding Research on Sustainable Organic Rice Farming

(Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

Texas AgriLife Research, a division of Texas A&M University in College Station, is conducting research on sustainable techniques to improve yields of high-quality organic rice. The work led by Fugen Dou, a soil and crop science professor at AgriLife’s lab in Beaumont, is funded by two U.S. Department of . . . → Read More: USDA Funding Research on Sustainable Organic Rice Farming