Futurity.org » Rice University

‘Faulty’ computer chip is 15x more efficient

Jade Boyd-Rice — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:34:03 +0000

RICE (US) — Researchers have created an “inexact” computer chip that’s super efficient, challenging the industry’s 50-year pursuit of accuracy.

The design improves power and resource efficiency by allowing for occasional errors. Scientists unveiled prototypes this week at the ACMInternational Conference on Computing Frontiers in Cagliari, Italy.

Belly lift device helps obese patients breathe

Mike Williams-Rice — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:10:40 +0000

RICE (US) — A new prototype device lifts weight from the abdomens of obese patients who might otherwise have trouble breathing during surgery.

The respiratory assist device built by engineering students at Rice University uses suction cups attached to a horizontal beam and tied into a vacuum pump to gently lift the abdomens of patients who are on their backs and under light sedation.

Under-skin device powers tiny heart pump

Mike Williams-Rice — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:45:59 +0000

RICE (US) — A wireless device that sits a centimeter under the skin may one day give heart patients a life-saving charge.

A team of seniors at Rice University designed and built a transcutaneous energy-transfer (TET) unit to power a minimally invasive ventricular assist device (VAD) being created by a Houston company.

To make boron sheets, focus on the holes

Mike Williams-Rice — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:06:18 +0000

RICE (US) — Thinking of boron as Swiss cheese—in which the holes are as defining as the cheese itself—helped scientists figure out what atom-thin sheets of it might look like.

Those sheets, when rolled into a hollow tube, or nanotube, could have a distinct advantage over carbon nanotubes; boron nanotubes are always metallic, while the carbon atoms in a nanotubes can be arranged to form either metallic or semiconducting nanotubes.

This variation in atomic arrangement—known as chirality—is one of the major hurdles to carbon nanotube processing and development.

At charter schools, more black teens drop out

Kay Randall-U. Texas — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:12:38 +0000

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — Despite being promoted as a viable alternative, charter schools in Texas have a higher attrition rate for black students than comparable urban public schools.

New research shows that, although many privately operated charter schools claim that 90 percent or more of their students go on to college and many, such as the Houston-based KIPP chain of schools, spend 30-60 percent more per pupil than comparable urban school districts, more black students drop out and leave charter schools.

Low-cost solar cells from nanotube ‘forests’

Mike Williams-Rice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:01:27 +0000

RICE (US) — By replacing platinum with carbon nanotubes, researchers hope to make efficient solar cells at a fraction of the current cost for silicon-based solar cells.

Single-wall nanotube arrays, grown in a process invented at Rice University, are both much more electroactive and potentially cheaper than platinum, a common catalyst in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC), says Jun Lou, a materials scientist at Rice.

Monitor keeps tabs on preemie’s breathing

David Ruth-Rice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:15:56 +0000

RICE (US) — An inexpensive, battery-powered neonatal monitor may save the lives of infants in the developing world.

Bioengineering students at Rice University created the Babalung Apnea Monitor—a small electronic microcontroller connected to an adjustable strap with a stretch sensor.

Carbon nanotube sponge devours oil

Mike Williams-Rice — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:08:21 +0000

RICE (US) — By adding boron to carbon nanotubes, scientists have created spongy, reusable blocks that absorb oil spilled in water.

Oil absorbance is one of a range of potential innovations for the material created in a single step by researchers at Rice University and Penn State.

New cervical collar keeps necks safe

Mike Williams-Rice — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:00:00 +0000

RICE (US) — A new version of the cervical collar used on trauma victims is expected to stabilize the heads and necks of accident victims more safely.

The Rice University seniors, known as Team CivSAFE, took on the challenge of a Houston researcher, an expert in spine mechanics, to develop safe and effective cervical spine protection for trauma victims.

Nanobubbles-chemo mix targets cancer

Jade Boyd-Rice — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:16:52 +0000

RICE (US) — Delivering chemotherapy drugs with nanobubbles is up to 30 times more deadly to cancer cells than traditional drug treatment, a new study shows.

Researchers are developing new methods to inject drugs and genetic payloads directly into cancer cells and say the method that uses light-harvesting nanoparticles to convert laser energy into “plasmonic nanobubbles” also requires less than one-tenth the clinical dose of traditional drug therapy.