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Components in grapes inhibit enzyme key to proliferation of cancer cells
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Components in grapes, including some newly identified ones, work together to dramatically inhibit an enzyme crucial to the proliferation of cancer cells, say scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The work – done using advanced molecular tools with grape-cell cultures and the target enzyme for new anti-cancer strategies – helps […]
Improved dielectric developed for chip-level copper circuitry
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A new dielectric material, developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, could facilitate the use of copper circuitry at the chip level. The thermally stable aromatic polymer has a low dielectric constant of 1.85, good mechanical properties and excellent adhesion. Replacing aluminum with copper as the multilayer interconnect structure […]
Theories of high-temperature superconductivity violate Pauli Principle
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Scientists seeking to explain high-temperature superconductivity have been violating the Pauli exclusion principle, a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Rutgers University report. Any theory that does not embrace the Pauli principle has a lot of explaining to do, they say. The basic organizing precept behind the […]
Point-contact spectroscopy deepens mystery of heavy-fermion superconductors
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Theoretical understanding of heavy-fermion superconductors has just slipped a notch or two, says a team of experimentalists. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Los Alamos National Laboratory recently used a sensitive technique called point-contact spectroscopy to explore Andreev reflection between a normal metal and a heavy-fermion superconductor. Conventional theories […]
Membraneless fuel cell is tiny, versatile
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A fuel cell designed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign can operate without a solid membrane separating fuel and oxidant, and functions with alkaline chemistry in addition to the more common acidic chemistry. Like a battery, a fuel cell changes chemical energy into electrical energy. While most fuel cells […]
Nanotechnologist plans to build things with bricklike corn molecules
UI nanotechnologist Graciela Wild Padua is intrigued by the bricklike shape of the corn zein molecule. She thinks it’s particularly suited as a building block for tiny structures small enough to be measured in nanometers: cages, for example, that could carry biocompounds to targeted sites in the human body or scaffolds on which to grow […]
Membraneless fuel cell is tiny, versatile
Membraneless fuel cell is tiny, versatile James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor 217-244-1073; kloeppel@illinois.edu 3/15/2005 STORY The system designed by Paul Kenis, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, uses a Y-shaped microfluidic channel in which two liquid streams containing fuel and oxidant merge and flow between catalyst-covered electrodes without mixing. E.R. Choban, L.J. Markoski, […]
Staying positive when helping a child with homework stimulates motivation
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Your child has a homework assignment, doesn’t understand it and is acting helpless. So what’s a parent to do? Help, but stay loving and make the process fun, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Reducing the negative from this commonly occurring, stress-filled evening ritual can pay off, says Eva […]
Unique weather a factor in record 2004 Midwest crop yields
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – If farmers talk big about 2004 crops as they get ready to head out into the fields this spring, let them talk. Believe them. Last year’s crop season saw record yields in every major crop amid the closest-to-perfect weather conditions of the last century, scientists say. “Never before have corn, soybeans, sorghum, […]
Rare blue poppy among highlights of event at U. of I. Plant Biology Conservatory
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Area flower lovers are invited to get a close-up look at one of the world’s rare, true blue flowers, the Meconopsis (mee-koh-NOP-sis), known more widely as the Himalayan blue poppy, Saturday and Sunday (March 19-20) at the Plant Biology Conservatory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The “Himalayan Blue Poppy Show” […]
Bill Hammack, U. of I. engineering professor, named Jefferson Science Fellow
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Bill Hammack, a professor of chemical and of biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named a Jefferson Science Fellow by the U.S. Department of State. Hammack is one of five tenured research scientists and engineers chosen to work alongside senior diplomats and policymakers for a year in […]
Carver Trust grant to advance molecular studies at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Rapidly advancing tools let researchers amass oceans of biological data – so much so that fishing out the meaning is as daunting as climbing a mountain without gear. A new $3.15 million, three-year grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, however, will make the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a national […]