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A group of New York investors will award $1 million a year to the person with the best idea in cancer research, and will share the idea worldwide. The Gotham Prize encourages novel thinking in cancer research and will be selected by a panel of scientists from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Cancer...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the June issue focus on Test & Measurement. Multi-Antenna Radar System for Doppler Rain Measurements A team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is using...

Square leaflet mechanical heart valves allow efficient blood flow with low shear stress because there are no obstructions in the path of blood flow. This patented innovation in mechanical heart valve design is simple, cost-effective, and substantially improves existing mechanical heart valve designs. Rectangular leaflets...

Wind engineers at the University of Florida (UF) have developed the world's largest portable hurricane wind and rain simulator. UF engineers plan to use the machine to blast vacant homes with Category 3 hurricane winds of up to 130 mph, and high-pressure water jets that mimic wind-driven torrential rain. The goal is to learn...

Medical imaging technology has led to quicker diagnoses of conditions that, when caught early, can be treated. Because such devices are large, however, they are impractical in the limited area of a space vehicle. An on-going NASA project to address the issue involves image fusion, where in-orbit ultrasounds would be combined...

Methodology for Providing Secure Time Stamps or Signals for Documents and Other Computer Files The secure time stamps include an externally generated time signal. More information here.

Amnesty International USA is using powerful satellite cameras to monitor highly vulnerable villages in war-torn Darfur -- the first-ever technological capability by human rights defenders to track possible targets of attack, prevent new atrocities, and save lives. Unlike other online projects which only document previous...

A new Web-enhanced version of the most commonly used climate modeling system, TeraGrid, will allow many more scientists to test theories about the Earth's climate. Called the Community Climate System Model (CCSM), the new version is actually a collection of interconnected modeling systems. CCSM contains separate climate models...

ALGOR V20 from ALGOR, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) has been named NTB's Product of the Month for June. An integrated CAD/finite element analysis (FEA) modeling environment for working with imported CAD models or building original models, the new release features design scenarios that let a single FEA model contain numerous analyses; a...

A cost-efficient anti-graffiti coating solution is needed for application to flexible PVC film. The coating should add a flexible transparent layer with specific properties: scratch & UV resistant, stable physical behavior between -30 degrees and 90 degrees Celsius, and resistant to solvents and alcohols used for graffiti...

On June 5, NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft flew past Venus just 338 km above the planet's surface and shot a laser into the clouds. Although MESSENGER is on a mission to Mercury, the spacecraft must pass by Venus for a gravity assist en route. In passing, researchers hope to...

A partnership between NASA and the U.S. Naval Academy is offering students the chance to build a satellite called "MidSTAR-2" through a U.S. Department of Defense program that will carry four experiments into space in 2011 to look at different parts of Earth's atmosphere, gamma rays, and solar winds. Scientists at NASA's Goddard...

Beneath the waves near Key Largo, FL, an underwater lab called Aquarius provides a safe harbor for scientists to live and work for weeks at a time. For NASA, Aquarius provides an environment that is analogous to the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle. To maintain Aquarius, NASA recruited Invocon of Conroe, TX, to...

The Magtorque sensor provides a simple, low-cost means to monitor torque on rotating elements. It uses a small and magnetoelastic sensor attached to the shaft that is monitored remotely via an inductive pickup. It provides sensitive and repeatable measurements of applied torque without direct physical contact. More...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is researching the use of cell phones equipped with sensors that could detect biological agents such as anthrax, as well as radioactive isotopes and toxic chemicals. Since fixed sensors can't be placed everywhere, the solution could soon be in everyone's hands. Gentag, a Washington,...

This monthly review lets you "meet" the new advertisers appearing in Defense Tech Briefs (DTB). Here's a sneak peek at the products, services, and offers available from June's first-time advertisers. Alpha Security Group is a publicly traded company that seeks to acquire a homeland security or defense business. Contact Steve...

This modulator was developed to provide circuitry and apparatus that create specialized optical signals suitable for use as a digital photonic clock, a pulse amplitude modulator, and a bi-stable optical memory cell. More information here.

Researchers from Freight Pipeline Company (FPC) taking part in a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored project have found that bricks made from fly ash -- fine ash particles captured as waste by coal-fired power plants -- may be even safer than predicted. Instead of leaching minute amounts of mercury as earlier predicted, the...

Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Georgia have proposed using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy.

This monthly review lets you "meet" the new advertisers appearing in NTB and its supplements. Here's a sneak peek at the products, services, and offers available from May's first-time advertisers. 3Dconnexion (San Jose, CA) is a provider of 3D navigation devices for 3D design and visualization applications.

A global specialty chemical company is seeking innovative "green" renewable raw materials, products, and processes for replacement of existing non- environmentally friendly solvents, while not compromising the performance or significantly increasing the cost. To respond to this Tech Need click here.

NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) now enables scientists to forecast solar radiation storms, giving future astronauts time to seek shelter and ground controllers time to safeguard satellites. The new method offers as much as one-hour advance notice when a storm is approaching.

As part of NASA's Partnership Seed Fund program, Goddard Space Flight Center is integrating the ILIADS software, a geospatial information system (GIS) it developed for lunar applications, with Questus(TM), a management and planning software tool developed by United Space Alliance (USA) for space shuttle operations. The...

This invention provides low-molecular-weight polyesters and polyamides useful for flushing wet pigments and manufacturing color concentrates. More specifically, the compositions of the invention are effective for flushing wet pigments, producing pigment dispersions, and then producing colored polymers with the pigment...

First responders will be able to better prepare individuals with special needs thanks to new open-source software developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab. The Special Population Planner software is an extension to commercial ArcView Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and provides a...

A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has uncovered certain properties of shish-kebabs -- tiny structures that can form when polymers crystallize during flow -- that should lead to improved materials in the most widely used plastics. Shish-kebabs are made of polymers known as polyolefins. In...

Researchers at Purdue University are developing a system that uses mathematical models and sensors to locate passengers releasing hazardous materials or pathogens inside airline cabins. The research has shown that the technique can track a substance to an area the size of a single seat. The technique, called "inverse...

A method is needed to visually detect the presence of pathogenic bacteria or microbes on human hands regardless of the presence of beneficent micro- organisms and without killing the latter. The solution must be safe for humans and easily applicable by a common user. To respond to this Tech Need click here.

A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. The processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water.