International workshop will propose ways of creating a comprehensive climate databank. By Rhiannon Smith.

A surface temperature image taken from the Graphical Forecast Editing Suite (GFE) shows the influence the local terrain has on the surface temperature (Image Courtesy: NOAA).

In a recent article in Nature News by Rhiannon Smith at www.nature.com/news/2010/100905/full/news.2010.448.html discusses the upcoming workshop of meteorologists at the UK’s Met office.

The workshop, to be held in Exeter on 7-9 September, will be hosted by Britain’s Met Office. It follows years of discussion within the climate-science community, which wants to draw disparate climate data together into a single, comprehensive repository to streamline research. continue reading »

Extreme Darkness: Carbon Nanotube Forest Covers NIST’s Ultra-dark Detector

{Caption: Colorized micrograph of the world’s darkest material—a sparse “forest” of fine carbon nanotubes — coating a NIST laser power detector. Image shows a region approximately 25 micrometers across. Credit: Aric Sanders/NIST — View hi-resolution image}

Gaithersburg MD, USA — Harnessing darkness for practical use, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laser power detector coated with the world’s darkest material—a forest of carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible and part of the infrared spectrum. continue reading »

Measures both Seebeck coefficient & electric resistivity

Methuen MA, USA & Yokohama, Japan — Thermal power generation is a method of generating power based on the thermoelectric effect which was discovered by J. T. Seebeck, German physicist in 1821. In the face of recent global warming caused by carbon dioxide and depletion of fossil fuels, thermoelectric conversion devices are attracting attention because of its effective utilization of waste heat energies. It is also the property of electrically conductive materials that enables them to be used as temperature sensors, specifically “thermocouples“.

To meet these pressing requirements, ULVAC-Riko has developed a characteristic evaluating instrument for these materials and devices. continue reading »

Carnegie Mellon’s Yoed Rabin receives grants: seeks tiny wireless temp sensors

PITTSBURGH PA, USA —- Carnegie Mellon University’s Yoed Rabin has received three grants totaling $1.26 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop biothermal technology for low temperature applications ranging from cryopreservation to cryosurgery.

Cryopreservation is the preservation of tissues and organs at very low temperatures with potential benefit to transplantation and regenerative medicine, whereas cryosurgery is the controlled destruction of undesired tissues by freezing, such as cancerous tumors. continue reading »

Measurements by Raman Thermography

by Gregory S. Doerk, Carlo Carraro and Roya Maboudian*, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Journal:  ACS Nano, Article ASAP | DOI: 10.1021/nn1012429;
Publication Date (Web): July 22, 2010

_{* Address correspondence to maboudia@berkeley.edu}.
continue reading »

The photo shown here was taken by an infrared (IR) camera (Image courtesy Fraunhofer IMS).

Munich, Germany — At night on an unlit country road: the bends in the road restrict the view ahead and, to make things worse, it is foggy. The car driver is exercising all due care and yet still does not see the deer on the road ahead until it is nearly too late. An emergency stop prevents a collision with the animal just in time. In such situations infrared cameras could provide a better level of safety. continue reading »