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High-fidelity patterns form spontaneously when solvent evaporates
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Resembling neatly stacked rows of driftwood abandoned by receding tides, particles left by a confined, evaporating droplet can create beautiful and complex patterns. The natural, pattern-forming process could find use in fields such as nanotechnology and optoelectronics. “A lot of work in nanotechnology has been directed toward the bottom-up imposition of patterns […]
High-intensity ultrasound creates hollow nanospheres and nanocrystals
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Using high-intensity ultrasound, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created hollow nanospheres and the first hollow nanocrystals. The nanospheres could be used in microelectronics, drug delivery and as catalysts for making environmentally friendly fuels. “We use high-intensity ultrasound to generate nanoparticles of molybdenum disulfide or molybdenum oxide, which bind […]
Illinois student programmers to compete in ‘Battle of the Brains’
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three computer science students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will travel to Shanghai, China, April 3-7 to participate in the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest. The students, John Carrino, Stephen Downing and Jeffrey Tamer, defeated teams from Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Tennessee to earn […]
National Science Olympiad to take place May 20-21 at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – About 2,400 students in middle school and high school are expected to compete in the 21st annual National Science Olympiad May 20-21 at the University of Illinois. The students, representing more than 120 teams of champions from across the country, will compete in more than three dozen events, such as bridge building, […]
Engineering Open House at Illinois highlights creativity
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, robots launching mini basketballs, and more than 130 entertaining and educational exhibits are among the attractions awaiting visitors to the 85th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The event, organized by students in the Engineering Council at Illinois, will take place […]
Satellite data reveal immense pollution pool over Bihar, India
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Scientists studying satellite data have discovered an immense wintertime pool of pollution over the northern Indian state of Bihar. Blanketing around 100 million people, primarily in the Ganges Valley, the pollution levels are about five times larger than those typically found over Los Angeles. The discovery was made by researchers analyzing four […]
Molecular scale resolution achieved in polymer nanoimprinting technique
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Scientists using molds derived from carbon nanotubes have approached the ultimate resolution – defined by molecular scale dimensions – in a widely used polymer nanoimprinting technique. By accurately replicating features with nanometer dimensions, the technique could play future roles in fabricating structures in fields as diverse as microelectronics, nanofluidics and biotechnology. Polymer […]
Super-star clusters may be born small and grow by coalescing
Super-star clusters may be born small and grow by coalescing James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor 217-244-1073; kloeppel@illinois.edu 1/7/2005 Story. Lower right: a blue image of the spiral galaxy M101 from the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. The box marks the location of NGC 5461.Lower left: A false color image of NGC 5461 made from […]
Selective coatings create biological sensors from carbon nanotubes
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Protein-encapsulated single-walled carbon nanotubes that alter their fluorescence in the presence of specific biomolecules could generate many new types of implantable biological sensors, say researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who developed the encapsulation technique. In a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature Materials, and posted on its […]
Portable sampling cart monitors emissions from wood-burning cookstoves
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A new method of measuring emissions from cookstoves could help improve human health and enhance the accuracy of global climate models. Wood-fueled cooking stoves are commonly used in Central America and other Third World nations. Producing copious amounts of noxious smoke, the stoves can be detrimental to human health. Lack of knowledge […]
Shutdown of circulation pattern could be disastrous, researchers say
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – If global warming shuts down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, the result could be catastrophic climate change. The environmental effects, models indicate, depend upon whether the shutdown is reversible or irreversible. “If the thermohaline shutdown is irreversible, we would have to work much harder to get it to restart,” […]
Goal of project is development of petroleum-free fuel
Developing a petroleum-free fuel from corn byproducts is one of the goals of a newly funded research project at the UI. Eight research laboratories will pool their expertise, attacking the problems from different directions in order to work to improve the efficiency of bioconversion of plant fibers into fuels and other value-added products. This is […]