Even if you are not a cook, you might have wondered why a pinch of flour (or any small particles) thrown into a bowl of water will disperse in a dramatic fashion, radiating outward as if it was exploding. Pushpendra Singh, PhD, a mechanical engineering professor at NJIT who has studied and written about the phenomenon, has not only thought about it, but can explain why. [More]

Twenty-five Senior Design Teams competed for prizes Thursday night at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering Elevator Pitch Contest. The purpose of the contest was to get students to think about the commercial viability of their designs before building prototypes. Teams had 60 seconds to pitch their design project to an audience of local venture capitalists and business leaders. [More]

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, is increasing its investment in understanding the potential health, safety and environmental issues related to tiny particles that are used in many everyday products such as sunscreens, cosmetics and electronics. The NIEHS will award about $13 million over a two-year period, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to bolster the NIEHS's ongoing research portfolio in the area of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). [More]

A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections. The system can be a powerful tool for screening potential drug targets for conditions like thrush, athlete's foot and vaginal yeast infections, which affect millions of people each year but are difficult to treat with existing medications. Using the new model, the researchers also identified a gene that may be a promising target for a new anti-fungal drug. [More]

Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by researchers at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor. [More]

A team led by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researchers on the cutting edge of nanotechnology has found a way to capture tumor cells in the bloodstream that could dramatically improve earlier cancer diagnosis and prevent deadly metastasis. [More]

Jin-Woo Kim, a biomedical engineering researcher at the University of Arkansas, is part of a cutting-edge nanotechnology research group that has discovered a way to capture tumor cells in the bloodstream. The work could dramatically improve early cancer diagnosis and prevent deadly metastasis. [More]

Today at SC 09, the supercomputing conference, IBM announced significant progress toward creating a computer system that simulates and emulates the brain's abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition, while rivaling the brain's low power and energy consumption and compact size. [More]

As part of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, Thompson will moderate a press conference on emerging treatments in pancreatic cancer on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, in Room 202 of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass., from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET. [More]

An encapsulation breakthrough by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology may enable doctors to deliver anti-cancer drugs directly to tumors over extended periods of time, while preventing the systemic side effects of chemotherapy and other current cancer treatments. [More]

MEMS industry execs attending the annual MEMS Executive Congress last week were rapt by presentations and panel discussions by leading innovators in automotive, bio/medical, consumer electronics, mobile communications and energy. Buoyed by optimistic forecasts for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices such as accelerometers and multi-axis gyros—increasingly used in mobile handsets and video games—they engaged with keynote speaker Dr. Mauro Ferrari, professor and director of The Division of NanoMedicine and Deputy Chairman of The University of Texas Department of Biomedical Engineering, whose proteomic NanoChips and multi-stage drug-delivery systems may one day ‘cure cancer.’ [More]

Arizona State University has been awarded nearly $3 million in federal stimulus funds from the National Institutes of Health. ASU professors Stuart Lindsay and Paul Westerhoff will lead a pair of two-year, innovative projects designed to tackle challenges in the fields of rapid DNA sequencing and the potential health risks of nanotechnology. [More]

Toray Industries, Inc. (TOKYO:3402) of Japan announces a competition award for groundbreaking research that uses DNA microarray analysis. [More]

The Virginia Tech mining and minerals engineering department has received a $1.24 million, five-year contract by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the effects of roof falls, bumps, or explosions on underground mine ventilation systems. [More]

In an advance that could help ease health and environmental concerns about the emerging nanotechnology industry, scientists are reporting development of technology for changing the behavior of nanoparticles in municipal sewage treatment plants - their main gateway into the environment. Their study will be published online November 12 in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. [More]