RF Alliance and NSWC Crane Sign Partnership Intermediary Agreement

The RF Alliance, under Crane Technology Inc. (CTI), signed a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with NSWC Crane on October 8, 2009. This PIA will facilitate the interactions between the RF Alliance and NSWC Crane by allowing the partners to share resources, including experts, equipment, facilities, and intellectual property. Read more

NASA Glenn Receives Three R&D 100 Awards

Three research teams at NASA's Glenn Research Center have been recognized by the editors of R&D Magazine for the prestigious R&D 100 Awards. The awards will be presented November 12 at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel at SeaWorld in Florida. The R&D 100 Awards are given to the top 100 most technologically significant products of the year. The awards have been helping companies provide the important initial push a new product needs to compete successfully in the marketplace. It provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year. Read more

Collaborative Opportunity - Evaluation of Source Capture Ventilation System

NIOSH researchers are soliciting partners, including developers, manufacturers, distributors and vendors, to participate in a collaborative study involving the evaluation of source capture ventilation system (SCVS) units for use in nail salons. Systems (or units) can include downdraft-vented nail tables and portable SCVS units. The deadline to submit units to NIOSH is February 28, 2010. For more information, visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-27387.htm or contact Susan Reutman, 513-533-8286, SReutman@cdc.gov.

Collaborative Opportunity - Develop and Commercialize Point-Anchoring Device

NIOSH is seeking partners to further develop and commercialize a new point-anchoring device, the Bolthead Clamp. The device provides a temporary or permanent anchoring point to assist with pulling, lifting, suspending, and material handling where there are exposed square-head bolts and where S-hooks and other suspension devices are not adequate or feasible. Numerous industries can benefit from this device, such as tunneling, mining, construction, maintenance, and renovation. For more information, contact Kathleen Goedel, 513-533-8686, Kgoedel@cdc.gov.

Argonne Tackles Six Myths about Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Whether you call them myths, urban legends, fables or old wives' tales, there's a lot of misinformation out there about plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). These vehicles hold great promise as the key to weaning America from its dependence on imported oil, which represents nearly two-thirds of all the petroleum burned in the United States today. Read more

ETV Verifies Promising Waste-to-Energy Technologies

Waste-to-energy technologies employ a variety of approaches to the goal of developing clean, sustainable energy from biomass (carbonaceous plant material or animal material). One well-known example is the use of municipal landfill gas (methane) as a source of energy for generating electricity. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) program is providing performance information for a number of commercial-ready technologies that produce or use fuels generated from biomass. Read more

NIOSH Collaborates with Industry to Protect Workers Using Hydraulic Stump Cutters

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Vermeer Corporation have collaborated to apply capacitive sensing technology to detect operators at the controls of a hydraulic stump cutter. This partnership provides an opportunity for the technology to be adapted into a commercial product. Vermeer effectively transferred NIOSH's basic research and integrated the concepts into its stump cutter product line. Collectively, these efforts produced a stump cutter that can detect an operator at the machine's controls, which will benefit equipment owners and operators. To learn more, contact John Powers at jpowers@cdc.gov. (Note: References to companies and commercial products do not constitute a NIOSH commercial endorsement.)

Argonne Scientists to Control Attractive Force for Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are developing a way to control the Casimir force, a quantum mechanical force that attracts objects when they are only a hundred nanometers apart. "The Casimir force is so small that most experimentation has dealt simply with its characteristics," said Derrick Mancini, interim director of Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials. "If we can control this force or make it repulsive, it can have dramatic effects on the development of nanoelectromechanical systems." Read more

NASA Chooses Student Teams to Drop Science Experiments

NASA has selected teams of middle and high school students to test their science experiments in microgravity competitions that simulate the microgravity in space. High school students will participate in "Dropping in a Microgravity Environment," or DIME, and students in sixth through ninth grades in "What If No Gravity?" or WING. Read more

SPECIATE 4.2—Profiling Air Pollution Species and Sources

SPECIATE is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) repository of profiles of volatile organic gas and particulate matter air pollution sources. This valuable resource has helped users characterize air emissions by species and source for more than 20 years. Read more