Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper

Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper
Researchers turn everyday paper into resilient, rechargeable energy storage deviceTroy, N.Y. - Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.

The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow's gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Details of the project are outlined in the paper "Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper" published Aug. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The semblance to paper is no accident: more than 90 percent of the device is made up of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every other type of paper.

researchers infused this paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor's quick burst of high energy.

A sample of the new nanocomposite paper developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Infused with carbon nanotubes, the paper can be used to create ultra-thin, flexible batteries and energy...

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The device can be rolled, twisted, folded, or cut into any number of shapes with no loss of mechanical integrity or efficiency. The paper batteries can also be stacked, like a ream of printer paper, to boost the total power output.

"It's essentially a regular piece of paper, but it's made in a very intelligent way," said paper co-author Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at

.
"We're not putting pieces together - it's a single, integrated device," he said. "The components are molecularly attached to each other: the carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper. The end result is a device that looks, feels, and weighs the same as paper."

The creation of this unique nanocomposite paper drew from a diverse pool of disciplines, requiring expertise in materials science, energy storage, and chemistry. Along with Linhardt, authors of the paper include Pulickel M. Ajayan, professor of materials science and engineering, and Omkaram Nalamasu, professor of chemistry with a joint appointment in materials science and engineering. Senior research specialist Victor Pushparaj, along with postdoctoral research associates Shaijumon M. Manikoth, Ashavani Kumar, and Saravanababu Murugesan, were co-authors and lead researchers of the project. Other co-authors include research associate Lijie Ci and Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center Laboratory Manager Robert Vajtai.

The researchers used ionic liquid, essentially a liquid salt, as the battery's electrolyte. It's important to note that ionic liquid contains no water, which means there's nothing in the batteries to freeze or evaporate. "This lack of water allows the paper energy storage devices to withstand extreme temperatures," Kumar said.

Along with use in small handheld electronics, the paper batteries' light weight could make them ideal for use in automobiles, aircraft, and even boats. The paper also could be molded into different shapes, such as a car door, which would enable important new engineering innovations.

"Plus, because of the high paper content and lack of toxic chemicals, it's environmentally safe," Shaijumon said.

Paper is also extremely biocompatible and these new hybrid battery/supercapcitors have potential as power supplies for devices implanted in the body. The team printed paper batteries without adding any electrolytes, and demonstrated that naturally occurring electrolytes in human sweat, blood, and urine can be used to activate the battery device.

"It's a way to power a small device such as a pacemaker without introducing any harsh chemicals - such as the kind that are typically found in batteries - into the body," Pushparaj said.

The materials required to create the paper batteries are inexpensive, Murugesan said, but the team has not yet developed a way to inexpensively mass produce the devices. The end goal is to print the paper using a roll-to-roll system similar to how newspapers are printed.

"When we get this technology down, we'll basically have the ability to print batteries and print supercapacitors," Ajayan said. "We see this as a technology that's just right for the current energy market, as well as the electronics industry, which is always looking for smaller, lighter power sources. Our device could make its way into any number of different applications."

The team of researchers has already filed a patent protecting the invention. They are now working on ways to boost the efficiency of the batteries and supercapacitors, and investigating different manufacturing techniques.

"Energy storage is an area that can be addressed by nanomanufacturing technologies and our truly inter-disciplinary collaborative activity that brings together advances and expertise in nanotechnology, room-temperature ionic liquids, and energy storage devices in a creative way to devise novel battery and supercapacitor devices," Nalamasu said.

The paper energy storage device project was supported by the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Nanoscale Science and

at. About

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

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A sample of the new nanocomposite paper developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Infused with carbon nanotubes, the paper can be used to create ultra-thin, flexible batteries and energy storage devices for next-generation electronics and implantable medical equipment. Credit: Rensselaer/Victor Pushparaj

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.
The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow's gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Details of the project are outlined in the paper "Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper" published Aug. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The semblance to paper is no accident: more than 90 percent of the device is made up of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every other type of paper.

Rensselaer researchers infused this paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor's quick burst of high energy.

The device can be rolled, twisted, folded, or cut into any number of shapes with no loss of mechanical integrity or efficiency. The paper batteries can also be stacked, like a ream of printer paper, to boost the total power output.

"It's essentially a regular piece of paper, but it's made in a very intelligent way," said paper co-author Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer.

"We're not putting pieces together - it's a single, integrated device," he said. "The components are molecularly attached to each other: the carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper. The end result is a device that looks, feels, and weighs the same as paper."

The creation of this unique nanocomposite paper drew from a diverse pool of disciplines, requiring expertise in materials science, energy storage, and chemistry. Along with Linhardt, authors of the paper include Pulickel M. Ajayan, professor of materials science and engineering, and Omkaram Nalamasu, professor of chemistry with a joint appointment in materials science and engineering. Senior research specialist Victor Pushparaj, along with postdoctoral research associates Shaijumon M. Manikoth, Ashavani Kumar, and Saravanababu Murugesan, were co-authors and lead researchers of the project. Other co-authors include research associate Lijie Ci and Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center Laboratory Manager Robert Vajtai.

The researchers used ionic liquid, essentially a liquid salt, as the battery's electrolyte. It's important to note that ionic liquid contains no water, which means there's nothing in the batteries to freeze or evaporate. "This lack of water allows the paper energy storage devices to withstand extreme temperatures," Kumar said.

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Along with use in small handheld electronics, the paper batteries' light weight could make them ideal for use in automobiles, aircraft, and even boats. The paper also could be molded into different shapes, such as a car door, which would enable important new engineering innovations.

"Plus, because of the high paper content and lack of toxic chemicals, it's environmentally safe," Shaijumon said.

Paper is also extremely biocompatible and these new hybrid battery/supercapcitors have potential as power supplies for devices implanted in the body. The team printed paper batteries without adding any electrolytes, and demonstrated that naturally occurring electrolytes in human sweat, blood, and urine can be used to activate the battery device.

"It's a way to power a small device such as a pacemaker without introducing any harsh chemicals - such as the kind that are typically found in batteries - into the body," Pushparaj said.

The materials required to create the paper batteries are inexpensive, Murugesan said, but the team has not yet developed a way to inexpensively mass produce the devices. The end goal is to print the paper using a roll-to-roll system similar to how newspapers are printed.

"When we get this technology down, we'll basically have the ability to print batteries and print supercapacitors," Ajayan said. "We see this as a technology that's just right for the current energy market, as well as the electronics industry, which is always looking for smaller, lighter power sources. Our device could make its way into any number of different applications."

The team of researchers has already filed a patent protecting the invention. They are now working on ways to boost the efficiency of the batteries and supercapacitors, and investigating different manufacturing techniques.

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The best is the enemy of the good

Beneficial mutations in the bacterium Escherichia coli occur 1,000 times more frequently than previously predicted, according to research from a group in Portugal.

In a study of E. coli populations of various different sizes, Isabel Gordo and her collaborators at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, found that thousands of mutations that could lead to modest increases in fitness were going unseen because good mutations were outperformed by better ones1. The authors say that the work could explain why bacteria are so quick to develop resistance to antibiotics.

"It's changed the way I think about things," says Frederick Cohan, a biology professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He adds that although the principles involved were understood, no one expected to find such a high rate of adaptive mutation.

In very large populations of an asexual organism like E. coli, adaptive evolution is a game of winner takes all. When one organism develops a mutation that gives it an advantage over its brethren, its genome quickly becomes dominant in the population, taking control in what's known as a selective sweep. When this happens, other mutations that might offer a slightly less adaptive response are generally lost.

It's changed the way I think about things.

Frederick Cohan




Evolutionary biologists know this masking of weakly adaptive mutations as clonal interference, and some suspected that a slice of beneficial mutations were being missed because of it. The work by Gordo and her colleagues differs from that in previous studies in the size-range of the populations looked at. The larger populations contained 10 million cells; the smaller had 20,000. The number of mutations was 1,000 times higher in the smaller populations than in the larger populations.

Success in numbers

Cohan says that he's amazed at the idea, implicit in the paper, that a mutation has many more ways to confer fitness than are normally seen. "That there are so many possible mutations is telling us [that] many different genes can be involved in an adaptive response. I think this is saying that hundreds to thousands of genes are probably involved."

What is less clear is how the minimally beneficial mutations normally masked by interference might contribute to the speed with which bacteria develop antibiotic resistance, says Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary theorist at the University of Washington in Seattle. "I don't see that that's been tested directly," he says. More often than not, antibiotic resistance is acquired not through mutation but through transfer of a small genetic element outside of the genome, called a plasmid.

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But transcribing the genes that confer resistance is costly for bacteria, Gordo says, and beneficial mutations might help with that. "Because the bacteria adapt really quickly, resistant bacteria might be able to compensate for the cost of antibiotic resistance." Future studies, she says, could look at responses to antibiotics and other environmental stresses. "A possible next step is to try to understand whether the distribution of effects will be changed much in a different environment, and to try to investigate which types of mutations in which genes are adaptive."

news inside news

About The good is the enemy of the best
"

The good is the enemy of the best." - anonymous quote I ran across this morning.
"The best is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire.

So which is it? It's probably both. In light of the first quote, we can never become so complacent that our way is "good enough." People and organizations must always strive to become better at whom they are and what they do. This is the center of continuous improvement and other process-centric improvement efforts. This idea is also the center of 3M and Google's efforts to set aside time for their employees to work on new (and different) ideas for products to help those organizations jump the boundaries of "we've always done it this way."

On the other hand, we don't want to spend so much time looking for the best that nothing happens. This is where I've heard the Voltaire quote used, particularly when railing against the idea of "best practices." The concern is that people and organizations spend so much time either trying to become the best or trying to find the best way to do something that they never actually get it done. As Hiebeler discussed at KMPro, there really are no true best practices, simply examples of best practices.

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Nokia warns on battery overheating risks

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) said 46 million batteries used in its phones could overheat and it would replace them free to consumers while negotiating with battery maker Matsushita (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) over who would bear the costs.

"Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries...could potentially experience overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The world's top cellphone maker said about 100 such incidents had been reported globally but no serious injuries or property damage had been reported.

It said it was working closely with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., who made the batteries in question between December 2005 and November 2006, to investigate the problem.

Nokia said replacing millions of batteries would have some financial impact, but Matsushita would pay part of the costs.

Analyst Richard Windsor of Nomura estimated the cost to Nokia at a maximum of 100 million euros ($137 million).

"Historically, when there's been a problem of this nature the supplier has had to pay," he said.

Research firm Gartner said one such battery would cost around $4.

Shares in Nokia were 0.9 percent lower at 22.42 euros by 6:46 a.m. EDT, helping nudge the DJ European technology index (.SX8P: Quote, Profile, Research) down 0.5 percent.
Jyske Bank downgraded its rating on Nokia shares to "reduce" from "buy", saying every third Nokia user would now have to check their phone's batteries.

"I think this will hurt Nokia's brand a lot and that's the most precious asset Nokia has," Jyske analyst Soren Linde Nielsen said.

Nokia's brand is valued at $33.7 billion, according to Interbrand, making it the world's fifth most valued brand after Coca-Cola (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research), IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and GE (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

The "BL-5C" is Nokia's most widely used battery, powering among others low-end 1100 series phones and multimedia handsets N70 and N91. Several suppliers have made a total of more than 300 million of them for Nokia.

SPLITTING THE COSTS

Nokia said it had issued a product advisory (http://www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement) to consumers based on preliminary findings of an ongoing investigation.

"By reacting swiftly and responsibly, and by being fully transparent, we believe that consumers will continue to view Nokia as a responsible and trustworthy brand," Robert Andersson, head of customer and market operations at Nokia told Reuters.

Matsushita said there had been a rare problem in the manufacturing process rather than in the design of the batteries. It said the effect on its earnings was uncertain.

"We are still in discussion with Nokia about how to divide the replacement cost," said Matsushita spokesman Akira Kadota.

Marianne Holmlund, spokeswoman for Nokia, said in similar cases in the car industry less than half of consumers eligible for replacement had used the option.

In 2003, a Belgian consumer organization said some Nokia batteries had a short circuit risk, but the Finnish firm denied those claims and said media reports of exploding phone batteries were all related to counterfeits.

Last year, Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) was hit by hefty costs to recall 9.6 million laptop PC batteries which could catch fire from overheating.

(Additional reporting by Mayumi Negishi in Tokyo and Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt)

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Yahoo edges Google in user satisfaction survey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc may be struggling to convince Wall Street of its future prospects, but for the first time its users gave its services overall a better rating than what Google Inc received, according to a study released on Tuesday.

Data from the University of Michigan American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed Yahoo had seen its customer satisfaction score rise 3.9 percent from a year ago to 79 out of 100 points, while Google's rating fell about 3.7 percent to 78 points.

While Google remains the dominant Web search engine, Yahoo's Internet presence is gaining user approval for its network of Web sites, e-mail, social networks and other features, according to the survey.

The positive perception of Yahoo stems from a relaunch of the main site and its various offshoots which are now gaining ground, said Larry Freed, chief executive of ForeSee Results, which sponsored the ACSI report.

"People have gotten comfortable with the (Yahoo) interface," he said. "They've also done a good job in continuing to be dominant in communities and sub-functions of the portal. That's always been Yahoo's strength."

While Google's search functions remain strong, when it comes to the Web, customers look for marked improvements from year to year to say they are more satisfied, he said.

"For the average consumer, what you see with Google is what you saw three years ago," Freed told Reuters.

While Google has developed its own e-mail, desktop office and chat applications, among other features, they have not drawn enough attention to them among regular users, he said.

"Google needs to figure out a way to take advantage of those great applications they've developed," Freed said. "Not necessarily through advertising, but better marketing." Continued...

Smaller rivals vary in their appeal to Web users.

IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s Ask.com search engine rose markedly in customer satisfaction ratings, up 5.6 percent to 75 points as it improved its search technology and embarked on an ambitious advertising campaign rare for the sector.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, which has moved its focus from Internet access services to become an ad-supported source of e-mail and entertainment, slipped more than 9 percent to a score of 67 points.

ForeSee said AOL's score was only slightly higher than the customer satisfaction levels earned by some U.S. government agencies also measured by ACSI, most notably the Internal Revenue Service tax authority.

The ACSI method uses data from interviews of nearly 70,000 customers to measure satisfaction with more than 200 companies in 45 industries. The Internet business data was compiled in the second quarter with at least 250 respondents for each company studied.

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Orange County Sheriff's Department Turns to NetMotion Wireless for Mobile Communications

Net Motion Wireless, a leading provider of mobile productivity and management software, today announced that the Orange County Sheriff's Department Investigations Division (OCSD) has deployed NetMotion's Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution to support its police officers and investigators in the field. NetMotion's software, Mobility XE, boosts mobile productivity by maintaining and optimizing connections to applications as users move in and out of wireless coverage areas and across various networks.

"Our Sheriff's Department covers an extremely large area, and we need to ensure that our officers and investigators can access our dispatching system, state and federal criminal databases, and other key applications wherever they might be," said Ed Lee, project manager for OCSD's Information Systems. "Most of the applications we use require a connection to the server, so they become useless when an officer loses their wireless connection. We turned to NetMotion to solve this problem, so our officers can focus on their jobs, not on the technology."

Orange County Sheriff's Department Investigations Division is responsible for solving some of the most serious crimes in Orange County, California, an area that includes Anaheim, Buena Park, Orange, Santa Ana, The Canyons, Tustin, and Yorba Linda. OCSD joins a number of law enforcement and government agencies across the country that rely on Mobility XE to mitigate some of the most common challenges in mobile deployments today, including end-to-end security, application stability, and seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and wide-area cellular networks. Additionally, NetMotion optimizes wireless performance and automatically connects users to the fastest available network.

"In OCSD's high-demand environment, it's essential that their wireless data transmissions are secure, and that officers have access to critical information from anywhere in the field," said Tom Johnston, senior vice president of products and marketing, NetMotion Wireless. "Our Mobile VPN increases productivity, giving OCSD more reliable data and application connections, even between networks and outside wireless coverage areas."

NetMotion's Mobility XE integrates end-to-end AES encryption to secure all data transmitted across the wireless networks. Its encryption libraries are FIPS 140-2 validated, meeting the industry's highest security standards for protecting data transmitted to and from mobile devices. Mobility XE also empowers IT administrators with a system-wide view of device activity, including application use, device connections and battery life. With Mobility XE, administrators can customize policies to better manage application and network access, quarantine lost or stolen devices, and prioritize bandwidth for critical transmissions and applications.

In addition to OCSD, other state and local law enforcement and public safety offices that use NetMotion Wireless include the Los Angeles Police Department, Santa Barbara County, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the State of Washington, the City of Las Vegas, the State of Illinois, the Florida Highway Patrol, Fairfax Country Police Department, the State of Connecticut, and hundreds of others worldwide. For more information, visit www.netmotionwireless.com/.

About NetMotion Wireless

Based in Seattle, NetMotion Wireless' software enables businesses and government agencies to maintain and optimize connections to applications as their mobile workers move in and out of wireless coverage areas and across various networks. Designed to complement existing IT systems and reduce the complexity of mobile deployments, NetMotion's award winning Mobile VPN, Mobility XE, enhances worker productivity while providing highly-centralized control and management. More than 1,000 of the world's most respected companies and agencies including major public utilities, health care organizations, communications providers, public safety and local government agencies, transportation companies, and many others rely on NetMotion every day. For more information about NetMotion Wireless or its products, please visit www.netmotionwireless.com/ or call (206) 691-5500.

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Invitrogen Launches Breakthrough Media for Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Invitrogen, a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, and Novocell Inc., a stem cell engineering company, today announced the launch of a new fully-defined, serum- and feeder-free media specifically formulated for the growth and expansion of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The product, known as STEMPRO hESC SFM, will be sold by Invitrogen under a licensing agreement with Novocell.

STEMPRO hESC SFM is the first serum- and feeder-free media for hESCs that has been shown to maintain these cells in a genetically normal state. Unlike other defined media, which have been tested only in one or two hESC lines, STEMPRO hESC SFM has been extensively tested and proven to keep the cells pluripotent in a number of lines, including BG01, BG02, BG03, HUES9, H1 and H9. Pluripotency, the ability of hESCs to develop into cells of all three major lineages in the body, is a key characteristic of embryonic stem cells, and one reason they hold such promise for therapeutic uses.

Currently, researchers working with hESCs grow them in serum-containing undefined media using mouse or human embryonic fibroblast feeder cells. These culture methods not only make it difficult to keep cells pluripotent, they are also labor-intensive and lead to challenges in scaling up cell production. Also, the undefined nature of these cultures means scientists have a harder time controlling culture conditions and comparing results from experiment to experiment.

"STEMPRO hESC SFM represents a major breakthrough in the field of embryonic stem cell research," said Joydeep Goswami, Vice President, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. "Researchers today face major challenges when culturing hESCs, including difficulties in maintaining pluripotency, lack of definition in current culture systems and consistency in their experiments. This revolutionary product addresses these challenges and allows for more ideal cell culture conditions to keep hESCs genetically normal and in an undifferentiated state."

"We are pleased to collaborate with Invitrogen in bringing our defined media for hESCs to market," said Alan Lewis, Ph.D., President and CEO of Novocell. "We anticipate this product will accelerate the important work of stem cell research. The commercialization of our defined media is especially motivating for Novocell as we continue to advance and develop our cell therapy for diabetes."

Invitrogen is the premier supplier of tools and reagents for stem cell research. The company offers more than 1,200 products tailored to various parts of the stem cell research workflow for embryonic and adult stem cell populations, including Dynabeads for cell separation; pre-conjugated stem cell antibodies from Molecular Probes; and gold standard media from GIBCO such as KNOCKOUT Serum Replacement and MesenPRO RS reduced serum medium for mesenchymal stem cells. The company recently announced the launch of the BG01v/hOG engineered stem cell line, which allows scientists to monitor the pluripotency of hESCs without sacrificing those cells, and the STEMPRO EZPassage tool for stem cell passaging.

About Invitrogen

Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN) provides products and services that support academic and government research institutions and pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide in their efforts to improve the human condition. The company provides essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction. Invitrogen's own research and development efforts are focused on breakthrough innovation in all major areas of biological discovery including functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and cell biology -- placing Invitrogen's products in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and conducts business in more than 70 countries around the world. The company is celebrating 20 years of accelerating scientific discovery. Invitrogen globally employs approximately 4,300 scientists and other professionals and had revenues of more than $1.15 billion in 2006. For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com.

About Novocell

Novocell Inc. is a stem cell engineering company with research operations in San Diego, CA, and Athens, GA, dedicated to creating, delivering, and commercializing cell and drug therapies for diabetes and other chronic diseases. Novocell is the first company to efficiently engineer human embryonic stem cells into definitive endoderm, the gatekeeper cells that differentiate into many other cells and tissues of the endoderm lineage. Novocell has three primary technologies: stem cell engineering, cell encapsulation, and drug discovery. The company was founded in 1999, merged with CyThera and BresaGen in 2004 and completed a $25M Series C financing in July 2007. For more information, visit www.novocell.com.

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Ethanol Production and the Price of Food

As a replacement for gasoline in automobiles, ethanol is touted by the President and Congress as a solution to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But as ethanol production has risen this year, so has the price of corn, the primary grain used today to produce ethanol. That has many people blaming ethanol for the rise in food prices.

A box of corn flakes only has a nickel's worth of corn. What impacts consumer food prices far more than the price of corn is the energy, the marketing, the packaging, everything else that goes into bringing a box of corn flakes into grocery stores. In fact, studies show that the price of gasoline has more than twice the impact on consumer food prices than does the price of grain.

All automobiles are capable of running on fuel that is 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Flex Fuel vehicles can run on up to 85% ethanol. Today, there are around 6 million Flex Fuel vehicles on the road that reduce dependence on petroleum, reduce CO2 emissions and reduce the amount imported oil.

According to the National Corn Growers Association, farmers in the U.S. planted nearly 93 million acres of corn this spring-the most since World War II. The record acreage was in anticipation of greater demand for ethanol, and the Corn Growers predict there will be plenty of corn for food and fuel.

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World's Largest Wind Farm to be Built in Texas

Shell WindEnergy Inc. and Luminant announced last week that they plan to build a 3,000-megawatt wind power plant in the Texas Panhandle. That's more than four times the size of the largest wind farm currently in operation. The proposed wind facility would be located in Briscoe County to take advantage of excellent wind resources and a relatively low cost of transmitting the wind power to wholesale markets. The two companies will also explore using compressed air energy storage, which uses electric fans to force air into underground caverns, compressing it, and usually involves employing the compressed air as an oxygen source for a gas turbine. The companies did not announce a timeline for either project. Luminant was formerly called TXU Power and is a subsidiary of TXU Corporation.

Texas already holds the record for the world's largest wind farm, the 735-megawatt Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, which was completed by FPL Energy, Inc. in late 2006. It also is the site for the nation's second-largest wind farm, the 504.8-megawatt Sweetwater wind project, the fourth phase of which attained commercial operation in May. Catamount Energy Corp. and Babcock & Brown developed and constructed Sweetwater 4, and are currently funding the development and construction of the project's fifth phase, which will add another 80.5 megawatts. And Colorado will soon host the nation's third-largest wind farm (erroneously announced as the second largest) with the construction of the 400-megawatt Peetz Table Wind Energy Center in northeast Colorado. FPL Energy broke ground on the project in May and expects to complete its construction this year.

FPL Energy is a leading U.S. developer and operator of wind farms, and it plans to maintain its leadership over the next five years. The company announced on Monday that it intends to add another 2,000 megawatts of wind power to its portfolio by the end of 2008, followed by 1,500 to 2,000 megawatts of new wind power capacity each year through 2012, for a total of up to 10,000 megawatts of new wind power. The company currently has 1,000 megawatts of wind power under construction, including the Peetz wind plant, and claims to have more than 14,000 megawatts of wind power projects in various stages of development. See the FPL Energy press release.

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Solar Powered Mouse

Minister Cramer of the Ministry for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment is taking part in a user trial of the world's first exclusively photovoltaic-powered (PV) computer mouse. The trial should demonstrate whether the mouse, named 'Sole Mio', can be fully charged during busy daily activities. The computer mouse was developed within the Syn-Energy programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO in Dutch), in which the Universities of Twente and Utrecht, ECN and TU Delft cooperate closely.

Minister Cramer's Sole Mio is one of the first test series of 15. The minister has been asked to take part as a tester in the user trials to see whether the unit can reach its full charge during busy daily activities. For TU Delft and its partners the Sole Mio is primarily a demonstration design, which should show whether renewable energy products, with higher functionality and given an attractive form, would also encourage users to adopt modern and consistently sustainable conduct.

The point of departure for the Sole Mio's design is use by an office worker with access to outside light, augmented by artificial light. Being able to operate the PV computer mouse independently of the usual USB computer power source is dependent on a number of factors. These include the willingness of the user to adapt his behaviour to favourable light conditions by regularly charging the unit with daylight from the window, and the computer usage pattern. With solar energy, under ideal circumstances charging can occur a factor of five times quicker than in the current situation. Over time it is estimated that several hundred million batteries could be saved annually on a global scale. The net environmental benefit is still restricted by the high energy content of current PV cells. However the introduction of new types of cheap and energy-extensive PV cells, on which TU Delft and partners are working, would eventually yield an even higher environmental gain.

The computer mouse is the result of more than four years of research and design activities by the Syn-Energy programme of NWO, in which the Universities of Twente and Utrecht, ECN and TU Delft cooperate closely. Coordination of the programme is the responsibility of the Design for Sustainability programme (DfS) and the Delft Design Institute (DDI) of the TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering Faculty.

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Hallow, hi

MicroRNA 'sponges' could aid cancer studies

MIT researchers have developed a new way to study the function of microRNA, tiny strands of genetic material that help regulate at least 25 percent of a cell's genes.

The new technique could shed light on microRNA's hypothesized role in tumor development. Malfunctions in microRNA have been linked with cancer, but very few direct relationships have been established between specific microRNAs and the genes they regulate.

That could change, however, now that MIT Institute Professor Phillip Sharp and his colleagues have found a way to inhibit the activity of microRNA by genetically altering cells.

The technique, described in the August 12 online issue of Nature Methods, could "provide a tool to identify specific genes that are being regulated by microRNAs," said Sharp.

MicroRNA consists of short strings of about 22 nucleotides, the building blocks that make up RNA and DNA. MicroRNA binds to messenger RNA (mRNA), preventing it from delivering protein assembly instructions, thereby inhibiting gene expression.

Sharp, who is affiliated with MIT's Biology Department and Center for Cancer Research, said microRNA exists in every cell and controls a wide range of cell regulatory activities.

The MIT team has found a way to block microRNA activity by tricking cells into producing a microRNA "sponge," which soaks up microRNA and renders it ineffective. By de-activating microRNA, researchers can observe the resulting effects and determine which genes the microRNA is targeting.

The new technique could shed more light on microRNA's role in tumor development: Earlier studies have shown that a type of microRNA known as let-7 inhibits a cancer-inducing gene called RAS. Abnormally low levels of let-7 have been found in some types of tumor, said Sharp.

Sharp and MIT biology graduate student Margaret Ebert, lead author of the paper, decided to block microRNA activity by creating a gene that produces microRNA sponges and inserting it into their target cells. Each sponge can bind up to six microRNA molecules, but they could be engineered to bind more.

The sponge gene also includes a "reporter" gene that causes the cell to become fluorescent if it has taken up the gene, so the researchers can know for sure whether the microRNA sponge is being produced in a particular cell.

Ebert said the new sponge technique is an improvement over an older method that involves blocking microRNA activity with artificially synthesized strands of RNA, known as oligos. One advantage is the inclusion of the reporter gene; another is that the sponge genes can be expressed continuously, while oligos do not remain in the cell forever.

More importantly, the sponge technique could be used to create transgenic animals that express the sponge in all of their cells, allowing researchers to study microRNA function at the organismal level. With such animals, sponge genes could be designed so that the researchers can control when and where they are expressed.

Joel Neilson, a postdoctoral associate in the Center for Cancer Research, is also an author on the paper. The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship, a Paul and Cleo Schimmel Scholarship, and the Cancer Research Institute.

The MIT Center for Cancer Research was founded in 1974, and is one of eight National Cancer Institute-designated basic research centers. Its mission is to apply the tools of basic science and technology to determine how cancer is caused, progresses and responds to treatment.

About Rasearcher

Phillip A. Sharp

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993

A sense of place was and remains an important part of my life. I was born in a rural community in the northern hill country of Kentucky. My earliest memories are those of a child playing around the house on our family farm, located in a bend of the Licking River near McKinneysburg. My mother, Kathrin Colvin Sharp, had grown up in that same house and her family had been part of this community for many generations. My father, Joseph Walter Sharp, grew up nearby within walking distance of the nearest town and county-seat, Falmouth. Both parents came from large families and I was surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins.

My formal education was entirely in the public schools of Pendleton County: McKinneysburg Elementary, Butler Elementary and High School and Pendleton County High School. Even though my studies never interfered with sports or fun, I managed to gain an appreciation of math and science.

All through my childhood, my parents strongly encouraged me to attend college. With that in mind, they taught me to save my money for college tuition, and, even more important, they allowed me to earn it by raising cattle for the market and growing tobacco. The rural background of my childhood made me feel more comfortable attending a small institution in a familiar environment. Therefore, I entered a small liberal arts school, Union College, in the foothills of eastern Kentucky. Union is in Barbourville, the county-seat of Knox County, and in those days it was one of the gateways for the youth from the mountains in the eastern part of the state to emerge into a larger world. While at Union, I majored in chemistry and mathematics and decided that I wanted to continue to study and learn about science, particularly chemistry. I also met and married a lovely girl from New Jersey, Ann Holcombe (Sharp).

A young professor at Union, Dr. Dan Foote, became a good friend and encouraged me to apply to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois. This old and distinguished department must have recognized some hidden promise as I was offered a fellowship and soon began graduate studies under Victor Bloomfield in physical chemistry. Victor was an excellent mentor as he encouraged both my scientific as well as cultural growth. He provided funds for my participation in national scientific meetings and broadened my perspective on society and culture by being a long-haired liberal, well-read and artistic friend. Fortunately, I was deferred from the Vietnam draft for a number of years and was able to finish graduate school. My thesis dealt primarily with the description of DNA as a polymer using statistical and physical theories. My attempts at experimental science at this stage were juvenile. In spite of my youth on the farm, I was never very skilled in manual tasks; in fact, I soon lost interest in any complex "hands on" manipulations.

The 1966 volume of the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on The Genetic Code stimulated my interest in molecular biology and genetics. A subsequent letter to Norman Davidson at the California Institute of Technology resulted in an offer of a postdoctoral position in 1969 and my immersion into a vibrant research program in molecular biology. Ron Davis, a graduate student in Norman's lab at the time, had previously developed the heteroduplex method for visualizing deletions in phage genomes with the electron microscope. Jerome Vinograd in an adjacent laboratory had discovered the superhelical structure of animal virus genomes. In this environment, I began the transition to experimental molecular biology by using the heteroduplex method and electron microscopy to study the structure of plasmids of the sex factors and drug resistant factors of bacteria. I was particularly interested in how sex factor plasmids acquired genomic sequences from the bacterial chromosome. We found that both sex and drug resistance factors contained transposable elements. This experience taught me many things, including the power of novel methodology and how a simple experiment can transform the understanding of an important problem.

At the end of my stay at Caltech, I opted to extend my postdoctoral period and begin to study the structure and pathway of expression of genes in human cells. The expression of genes of animal viruses with DNA genomes was the only experimentally approachable system at that time, and this led me to a further postdoctoral year at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under the mentorship of Jim Watson. Here, I entered a close-knit scientific commune of extremely talented people who lived and worked together in an isolated environment for nine months, and then were immersed in a continuous scientific meeting for the remaining three summer months.

At the Lab Joe Sambrook, a staff member, I, and others used hybridization techniques to map sequences in the simian virus 40 genome that were expressed as stable RNAs in both infected cells and oncogenic cells transformed by this virus. These were important results for understanding the biology of this papovavirus and helped move the laboratory into a very rapidly advancing field of research - the molecular and cell biology of tumor viruses. Luckily, or perhaps by design at a higher level, Ulf Pettersson, an expert in the growth of human adenovirus who had done graduate studies with Lennart Philipson in Uppsala, Sweden, was a fellow postdoctoral associate and my office mate at Cold Spring Harbor. Adenoviruses are common causes of respiratory and other types of infections in man; however, when infected into newborn rodents, they can cause tumors. The high levels of both replication and viral protein expression made the growth cycle of this virus ideal for the study of gene structure and regulation. Furthermore, the then recent discovery of restriction endonucleases offered the prospect of fragmenting the viral genome of 35,000 base pairs into tractable units. Ulf, I, and others generated the first restriction endonuclease maps of this virus, and Dr. S. Jane Flint and I began to analyze the regions of the genome expressed as mRNAs in both productively infected cells and in adenovirus transformed cells. This was an exciting period in the molecular biology of adenovirus with the discoveries (a) that only one specific fragment of the genome, the E1 region, was responsible for oncogenic transformation; (b) that restriction endonuclease length polymorphism could be utilized to generate genetic maps; (c) the mapping of specific genes on the viral genome; and (d) generation of a viral map of sequences expressed as stable RNAs.

Salvador Luria, the Director of the then recently established Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called in 1974 to inquire if I would be interested in a position at the Center. After a brief visit to MIT I accepted. Fortunately, I was assigned laboratory space on the 5th floor, which was shared with David Baltimore, Nancy Hopkins, Robert Weinberg and David Housman. Salva was a visionary who protected his young faculty from unnecessary interruptions, thus allowing their research programs to flourish in an ideal scientific environment. He was also a role model for how a scientist could shape and lead a community. That summer, Jane Flint moved with me to MIT and we continued our analysis of adenovirus transcription, focusing on quantitating the levels of RNA from all parts of the genome in the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments of the cell. We found that the nuclei of cells productively infected by adenovirus contained abundant sets of viral RNAs which were not transported to the cytoplasm. We speculated that these long nuclear RNAs were processed to generate the cytoplasmic mRNAs. This stimulated our interest in comparing the relative structures of nuclear precursor RNA and cytoplasmic mRNA from the adenovirus genome. We were joined in the latter part of these studies by a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Susan Berget. For Sue, these studies were the beginning of a much more interesting series of experiments which form the first part of the lecture.

As mentioned above, Ann and I were married in 1964 while still undergraduates at Union College. Our three daughters arrived on a schedule which approximated a seven year itch: Christine Alynn was born in 1968, while I was still in graduate school, Sarah Katherin was born in 1974, just before we moved to New England, and Helena Holcombe was born in 1981. Ann teaches a preschool class in Newton, Massachusetts, the town we have made our home since moving from Cold Spring Harbor. My family and are deeply enamored with New England. We enjoy its rural towns, coastal beauty, and the changes of seasons.

Through the years at MIT my environment has remained relatively constant, though changes have occurred. David Baltimore and Robert Weinberg left the Center in 1983 to found the Whitehead Institute, which is associated with MIT. Salva retired from MIT in 1985 and I assumed his position as Director of the Center for Cancer Research. In 1991, I relinquished the Directorship to Richard Hynes and became the Head of the Department of Biology. The development of biotechnology has both enriched and complicated my work. Walter Gilbert of Harvard and I, along with a number of European colleagues, founded the biotechnology company Biogen in 1978 in Geneva, Switzerland. This organization and the friends who have worked for it have remained an important part of my life since.

My collaborators over the years have been: (listed in alphabetical order) A. S. Baldwin, S. M. Berget, A. J. Berk, K. Berkner, B. Blencowe, M. A. Brown, S. Buratowski, C. Carr, R. W. Carthew, C. Cepko, D. Chang, D. Chasman, L. A. Chodosh, G. Chu, R. G. Clerc, J. D. Crispino, D. J. Donoghue, A. Z. Fire, D. E. Fisher, S. J. Flint, M. Garcia-Blanco, A. Gil, S. Gilbert, P. J. Grabowski, H. Handa, U. Hansen, S. Hardy, S. Harper, T. Harrison, M. Horowitz, P. S. Jat, R. Kaufman, J. Kim, R. Kingston, J. Kjems, T. Kobayashi, M. M. Konarska, T. Kristie, A. I. Lamond, F. Laski, J. LeBowitz, K. LeClair, F. Lee, I. Lemischka, A. M. MacMillan, R. Marciniak, P. McCaw, R. Meyers, C. Moore, M. Moore, M. Morton, M. Murata, R. Padgett, J. Parvin, J. L. Pomerantz, C. Query, M. E. Samuels, J. Sedivy, S. Seiler, B. Shykind, H. Singh, H. Skolnik-David, M. Timmers, A. Virtanen, J. Weinberger, and Q. Zhou.

In 1980, Dr. Sharp received both the Eli Lilly Award in molecular biology and the U.S. Steel Award from the National Academy of Sciences. His awards are too numerous to list but some include MIT's James R. Killian, Jr., Faculty Achievement Award (1993), the John D. MacArthur Professorship (1987-1992), the first Salvador E. Luria Professorship (1992-), the New York Academy of Sciences Award in Biological and Medical Sciences, the General Motors Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Prize for Cancer Research, the 1988 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the 1988 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 1986 Gairdner Foundation International Award, Canada, and the 1980 Dickson Prize from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1985, he was the Harvey Society Lecturer and on May 4, 1991, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Union College, his Alma Mater. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial board of the journal Cell. He is co-founder and Chairman of the Scientific Board of Biogen, Inc., and member of its Board of Directors.

Dr. Sharp has a distinguished record of public service, which partially includes having served as a member of the President's Advisory Council on Science and Technology, as co-chairman of the Director of NIH's Strategic Plan, as a member of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP), as a member of the Search Committee of Director, National Center for Human Genome Research, and more recently, as a member of the Search Committee for the Director, Office of AIDS Research, NIH. His career publications in peer reviewed and other journals are over 255.

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1993, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1994

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Autobiography

Technorati : MicroRNA, cancer studies, sponges

3D images of living cell

A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body.

The technique, described in a paper published in the Aug. 12 online edition of Nature Methods, could be used to produce the most detailed images yet of what goes on inside a living cell without the help of fluorescent markers or other externally added contrast agents, said Michael Feld, director of MIT's George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory and a professor of physics.

"Accomplishing this has been my dream, and a goal of our laboratory, for several years," said Feld, senior author of the paper. "For the first time the functional activities of living cells can be studied in their native state."

Using the new technique, his team has created three-dimensional images of cervical cancer cells, showing internal cell structures. They've also imaged C. elegans, a small worm, as well as several other cell types.

The researchers based their technique on the same concept used to create three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) images of the human body, which allow doctors to diagnose and treat medical conditions. CT images are generated by combining a series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken as the X-ray source rotates around the object.

"You can reconstruct a 3D representation of an object from multiple images taken from multiple directions," said Wonshik Choi, lead author of the paper and a Spectroscopy Laboratory postdoctoral associate.

Cells don't absorb much visible light, so the researchers instead created their images by taking advantage of a property known as refractive index. Every material has a well-defined refractive index, which is a measure of how much the speed of light is reduced as it passes through the material. The higher the index, the slower the light travels.

The researchers made their measurements using a technique known as interferometry, in which a light wave passing through a cell is compared with a reference wave that doesn't pass through it. A 2D image containing information about refractive index is thus obtained.

To create a 3D image, the researchers combined 100 two-dimensional images taken from different angles. The resulting images are essentially 3D maps of the refractive index of the cell's organelles. The entire process took about 10 seconds, but the researchers recently reduced this time to 0.1 seconds.

The team's image of a cervical cancer cell reveals the cell nucleus, the nucleolus and a number of smaller organelles in the cytoplasm. The researchers are currently in the process of better characterizing these organelles by combining the technique with fluorescence microscopy and other techniques.

"One key advantage of the new technique is that it can be used to study live cells without any preparation," said Kamran Badizadegan, principal research scientist in the Spectroscopy Laboratory and assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and one of the authors of the paper. With essentially all other 3D imaging techniques, the samples must be fixed with chemicals, frozen, stained with dyes, metallized or otherwise processed to provide detailed structural information.

"When you fix the cells, you can't look at their movements, and when you add external contrast agents you can never be sure that you haven't somehow interfered with normal cellular function," said Badizadegan.

The current resolution of the new technique is about 500 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, but the team is working on improving the resolution. "We are confident that we can attain 150 nanometers, and perhaps higher resolution is possible," Feld said. "We expect this new technique to serve as a complement to electron microscopy, which has a resolution of approximately 10 nanometers."

Other authors on the paper are Christopher Fang-Yen, a former postdoctoral associate; graduate students Seungeun Oh and Niyom Lue; and Ramachandra Dasari, principal research scientist at the Spectroscopy Laboratory.

The research was conducted at MIT's Laser Biomedical Research Center and funded by the National Institutes of Health and Hamamatsu Corporation.

About Researcher George Russell Harrison

George Russell Harrison was born on July 14, 1898 in San Diego, California. His early years and schooling were spent in California. Young George's interest in physics may have been fostered by friends of his father the Varian brothers, who were later to invent the Klystron and to head the electronics firm in Palo Alto bearing their name. Harrison entered Stanford University in 1915, and chose physics as his major field of study. Despite a brief interruption in his studies, associated with World War I, he received the bachelor's degree on schedule in June 1919.

That autumn he enrolled in the Stanford graduate school as a candidate for the master's degree in physics. During this period he was chosen to tutor Herbert Hoover, Jr., and for several years he lived on the Stanford campus with the Hoover family, thereby beginning a long and close friendship. He received the master's degree in 1920 and continued on for the doctorate. A new Physics Department chairman, David L. Webster, had recently arrived from Harvard University and influenced his decision to enter the field of spectroscopy. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Webster, was completed in the spring of 1922, and was the basis of a paper, "The Absorption of Light by Sodium and Potassium Vapors," published later that year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

His promise as a research physicist led to the award of a National Research Council Fellowship for work with the renowned spectroscopist of the vacuum ultraviolet, Professor Theodore Lyman of Harvard. The two years he spent in Lyman's laboratory (1923-25) deepened and broadened his knowledge of the world of physics. He then returned to Stanford where, as an assistant professor, he began building up a laboratory, which soon included a 21-foot vacuum spectrograph, the largest of its day. He was promoted to associate professor in 1927.

In 1930 Dr. Harrison accepted the offer of a professorship of experimental physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by its new president, Karl T. Compton. Compton was a specialist in vacuum spectroscopy and perhaps had been attracted by Dr. Harrison's early work. In any case, the two men had this common interest, which resulted in the founding of the MIT Spectroscopy Laboratory, the first building designed and constructed for the particular needs of spectroscopy.

Dr. Harrison's activities in the Spectroscopy Laboratory are described in his own words in the accompanying history. The most noteworthy of his many achievements there were the development of a high-speed automatic comparator for the recording of intensities and wavelengths of spectral lines (1938), the compilation of the MIT Wavelength Tables (1939), and the invention of the echelle spectrograph (1949). He was the first to devise a practical ruling engine, servo-mechanically controlled by means of optical interferometric techniques, which he used to produce diffraction gratings of unprecedented optical quality and size (1948-72). He was the author or coauthor of more than 100 scientific papers. In 1948 he published the well-known text, Practical Spectroscopy, with Richard C. Lord and John R. Loofbourow. He also wrote books for the layman on scientific and engineering subjects, the best known of which, Atoms in Action (1939), was translated from English into more than a dozen other languages.

During World War II Dr. Harrison was chief of the Optics Division of the National Defense Research Committee (1942-43), and later head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development's Office of Field Service in the Pacific Theater (1944-45). He was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom and the Presidential Medal of Merit for his contributions.

Dr. Harrison became Dean of Science at MIT in 1942 and oversaw the postwar development of the School of Science until his retirement in 1964. He had a clear sense of the structure and purpose of MIT, and he provided the conceptual leadership during this 22-year period that brought the School of Science to its eminent position among the world's foremost academic institutions. His encouragement and support of science, not only for its own sake, but also as the indispensable partner of engineering, were basic to fundamental changes in the character of the Institute.

Dean Harrison received many medals, awards, and honorary degrees for his scientific accomplishments, including the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Ives and Mees Medals and the Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America, and the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award. He was one of six honorary members of the Optical Society, and was a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Australian Academy of Science, and he held many high offices in these and other scholarly organizations.

Dean Harrison's devotion to his research until his death in 1979 was characteristic of his disciplined mind and strong work ethic. In the years of his retirement, it was a common sight for workers in the Spectroscopy Laboratory to see him bounding down the basement corridor with the vigor and sense of purpose, which were his trademark. Throughout his career he was admired and respected for his candor and fairness. His dominant thought seemed always to be, "If it is worth doing, how can it best be done?" Ingrained in his nature was the desire to experiment, to work with his hands, to invent new devices for the solution of seemingly insoluble problems. For George Harrison, inventing, as he used that term, was a challenge and a source of pleasure. Naming the Spectroscopy Laboratory in his honor is a fitting tribute, and will serve as an example of excellence to which students of science can aspire.

Technorati : 3D images, living cell