The Engineer
December 2004 Online
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When I'm 64
23 Dec 2004
Dave Wilson describes some new software that that reproduces the natural effects of ageing, taking into account changes in skin texture, hairline and hair colour.
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Multi-faceted hydrated electrons
22 Dec 2004
Scientists have identified two distinct forms of negatively charged water clusters, thereby providing new insight into the fundamentally important interaction between electrons and water.
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Temperature data logging system
21 Dec 2004
Land Instruments International has introduced a data logging system that allows users of its Cyclops portable infrared thermometers to download and analyse temperature measurements.
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Trains for Vienna
21 Dec 2004
Bombardier Transportation today received a 69 million Euro order from Vienna's local operator Wiener Linien for the construction of 38 low-floor light rail vehicles.
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Chelton buys Remec for $260 million
21 Dec 2004
Remec has sold its Defense & Space subsidiary, which specialises in battlefield communications equipment, to Chelton Microwave for approximately $260 million in cash.
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Building nanoscale structures from RNA
21 Dec 2004
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara are using assembly and folding principles of natural RNA to build potentially useful artificial structures at the nanoscale.
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Cisco acquires Protego Networks
21 Dec 2004
Cisco Systems has expanded its Self-Defending Network initiative by entering into an agreement to acquire Protego Networks of Sunnyvale, California for $65 million.
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Hewitt welcomes new Ford jobs
20 Dec 2004
A £4.5 million grant to create up to 460 jobs at a manufacturing facility in Dagenham, Essex, was announced recently by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
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Hot optocouplers
20 Dec 2004
Vishay Intertechnology recently announced a new series of 10 MBd optocouplers in an SOIC-8 packaged rated for operating temperatures up to +100 degrees C.
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Merger creates USA's biggest utility
20 Dec 2004
Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to create Exelon Electric & Gas, the USA's largest utility.
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UK increases funding for solar projects
20 Dec 2004
UK Energy Minister Mike O'Brien today announced that 15 new solar photovoltaic (PV) energy projects across the UK will receive almost £1 million in funding.
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Wyle buys General Dynamics unit
20 Dec 2004
Wyle Laboratories has signed an agreement to acquire the Aeronautics Services business of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a subsidiary of General Dynamics.
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BP to close Pasadena plant
20 Dec 2004
BP announced recently that it would close its Linear Alpha Olefin (LAO) production facility in Pasadena, Texas, by the end of 2005. The company will continue the manufacture of linear alpha olefins at its other two facilities in Alberta, Canada and Feluy, Belgium.
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DNA may solve data storage snags
20 Dec 2004
The DNA molecule may hold the key for the information technology industry as it faces demands for more compact data processing and storage circuitry.
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$13.5 billion software merger
17 Dec 2004
Software providers Symantec and Veritas have entered into an agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $13.5 billion.
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Microsoft buys Giant
17 Dec 2004
Microsoft Corp announced yesterday that it has acquired Giant Company Software, a provider of anti-spyware and Internet security products, for an undisclosed fee.
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Rolls-Royce extends its reach
17 Dec 2004
Rolls-Royce is expanding its global network for technology research with the establishment of the new collaborative Rolls-Royce Singapore Advanced Technology Centre.
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Real results from artificial soil
17 Dec 2004
University of Missouri-Columbia and Continental Cement Company have initiated an in-depth monitoring program to assess the long-term effectiveness of 'artificial soil' as a waste containment system.
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Water from waste heat
17 Dec 2004
University of Florida researchers have developed a way to significantly reduce the cost of desalination in some parts of the world.
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Big future for molecular electronics
17 Dec 2004
Scientists in the US say the emerging field of molecular electronics - using nanoscale molecules as key components in electronic devices - is in excellent health and has a bright future.
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Ultra awarded £200 million 7E7 contract
16 Dec 2004
UK-based Ultra Electronics has been awarded £200 million to supply key elements of the Wing Ice Protection System for Boeing's new 7E7 Dreamliner.
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PAD promotes penurious production
16 Dec 2004
Scientists in the US have developed a novel method for creating high performance, inorganic metal-oxide films using polymer-assisted deposition, or PAD.
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World's smallest non-volatile flash memory cell
16 Dec 2004
Scientists at Infineon have built the world's smallest non-volatile flash memory cell. The new development would make non-volatile memory chips with a capacity of 32 Gbit possible within a few years.
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Bridgestone to build in Brazil
16 Dec 2004
Bridgestone Firestone do Brasil Industria e Comercio, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Holding, has announced plans to build a new $160 million tyre plant.
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Improving HexSight
16 Dec 2004
Adept Technology has released HexSight 3.3, an improved version of its PC-based machine vision library used in robot guidance and inspection applications.
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Johnson & Johnson to buy Guidant
16 Dec 2004
Health care giant Johnson & Johnson is to acquire Guidant, a developer of cardiovascular medical products, for $25.4 billion.
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Real-Time digital screen recorder
16 Dec 2004
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing's Sentric is a commercial-off-the-shelf real-time digital high-resolution screen recorder.
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Streaming video processing
16 Dec 2004
Celoxica, the UK provider of C-based design and synthesis solutions, has added an algorithm IP and a block-based graphical design entry platform called Pixelstreams to its portfolio of electronic system level design tools.
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Billion dollar sprinklers
16 Dec 2004
Hartford, CT-based United Technologies is to acquire UK fire and safety products vendor Kidde in a $2.8 billion cash takeover.
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A scarecrow with brains
16 Dec 2004
Two University of South Australia researchers have developed software that has the potential to save the fruit industry millions of dollars each year by limiting the damage birds cause to fruit crops.
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Take the strain
16 Dec 2004
AMD and IBM have perfected a new strained silicon transistor technology aimed at improving microprocessor performance and power efficiency.
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Tuneable windows
16 Dec 2004
Researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a method of producing tuneable surfaces that can selectively block signals from wireless networks from spilling out of the office.
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Phones on planes?
16 Dec 2004
The US-based Federal Communications Commission has proposed to relax its current ban on the use of cellular telephones on airborne aircraft.
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Technologies for the blind
16 Dec 2004
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are developing new assistive technologies for the blind based on advances in computer vision that have emerged from research in robotics.
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Friendly coatings
16 Dec 2004
The Dutch company DSM is to acquire NeoResins, the environmentally friendly coating technologies business of Manchester, England-based Avecia for 515 million Euros in cash.
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Perpendicular recording
16 Dec 2004
Toshiba Corporation has unvieled what it claims are the world's first hard disk drives based on perpendicular recording, a technology that boosts the capacity of a single 1.8-inch hard-disk platter to 40 gigabytes.
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TACA orders Airbus aircraft
15 Dec 2004
Latin American carrier Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano has signed a firm contract for the purchase of 14 additional single aisle Airbus aircraft.
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Connecting driverless trains
15 Dec 2004
Alcatel has been awarded a multi-million Euro contract to design and deploy a communication system for the new driverless metro in Brescia, Italy.
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What's cooking?
15 Dec 2004
A new method of measuring emissions from cooking stoves could help improve human health and enhance the accuracy of global climate models.
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A first for resistors
15 Dec 2004
Vishay has released the VSMP1206 surface-mount, Bulk Metal Z-foil resistor, the first device to combine a power rating of 300 mW and load life stability of 0.01%.
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Shooting up
15 Dec 2004
E-commerce presents a host of benefits to businesses and customers alike. For one brave but foolhardy entrepreneur it led to nothing but an early demise. Dave Wilson explains.
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Cargo conversion
14 Dec 2004
Emirates SkyCargo and EADS EFW have signed a contract for the conversion of three A310-300 freighter aircraft, formerly operated by Aeroflot.
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$15 million for Goalkeeper
14 Dec 2004
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has been awarded a $15 million contract from Thales Nederland for the production of Goalkeeper weapon systems. Deliveries will commence in February 2006 and extend through to May 2006.
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Malaysia Airlines picks Rolls-Royce Trent 900
14 Dec 2004
Rolls-Royce confirmed yesterday that Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad, the parent company of Malaysia Airlines, had chosen the Trent 900 engine to power its fleet of Airbus A380 airliners.
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Efficiency boost for organic solar cells
14 Dec 2004
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new approach to creating lightweight organic solar cells that could potentially power RFID tags, iPods and laptop computers.
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Flying high with Boeing
14 Dec 2004
Goodrich has been selected by Boeing to supply the cargo handling system for the new 7E7 Dreamliner. The contract is expected to generate over $450 million through to 2028.
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Repairing torn cartilage
13 Dec 2004
Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School say they are developing an injectable gel that could speed repair of torn cartilage, a common sports injury.
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Restoring amputee limb function
13 Dec 2004
An MIT professor and colleagues from Brown University and the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center have begun a multidisciplinary project to restore arm and leg function to amputees.
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Little festive cheer for manufacturers
13 Dec 2004
The Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) latest monthly Industrial Trends survey shows that manufacturers' output expectations are now at their weakest for 18 months.
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Cells welcome nanotubes
13 Dec 2004
In some of the first work documenting the uptake of carbon nanotubes by living cells, researchers in the USA have selectively detected low concentrations of nanotubes in laboratory cell cultures.
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Magnesium opportunities
13 Dec 2004
The drive to make vehicles lighter has been a particular factor stimulating the increased use of magnesium in countries such as the US and, in Europe, Germany, Austria and Italy.
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BlueMoon for Infineon
13 Dec 2004
Infineon Technologies today announced availability of the BlueMoon UniCellular chip, its newest integrated circuit for Bluetooth wireless applications.
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Honeywell to acquire Novar
13 Dec 2004
Honeywell has made an offer of $1.2 billion to acquire UK-based Novar, a month after the company had rejected an offer from Melrose.
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Power over Ethernet
13 Dec 2004
Texas Instruments' power management integrated circuit (IC) simplifies the design of IEEE Power over Ethernet 802.3af-compliant power source equipment (PSE).
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Biological sensors from carbon nanotubes
13 Dec 2004
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.
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Research and development
13 Dec 2004
The top 500 companies in the EU invested a total of 100 billion Euros in Research and Development during 2003. But investment in 2003 was lower than in 2002, and non-EU companies are investing more.
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Major order for Land Systems Hägglunds
10 Dec 2004
BAE Systems Land Systems Hägglunds has won an order worth 749 million Euros from the Netherlands for its CV90 armoured vehicle.
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Dream topping
9 Dec 2004
Kraft Foods is to sell its UK desserts business to Premier Foods, the UK-based grocery product supplier, for $135 million.
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Poisoned water
9 Dec 2004
Sevalco, the American owned chemical company at Avonmouth, is to pay £310,000 in fines and costs after it released up to seventeen times its authorised levels of cyanide into the Severn Estuary.
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FALC doubles density
9 Dec 2004
Infineon Technologies has introduced OctalFALC, which the company claims is the industry's smallest FALC (Framer and Line Interface Unit Component) offering eight ports per chip.
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Atomic clues to tougher ceramics
9 Dec 2004
Scientists in the US have uncovered clues at the atomic level that could lead to a new generation of much tougher advanced ceramics.
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New phase for storage
9 Dec 2004
University of Arkansas physicists have discovered a new phase in tiny nanodisks and nanorods that may enable researchers to significantly increase memory storage.
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BAE Systems awarded Trident contract
8 Dec 2004
BAE Systems has been awarded a $62 million contract from the US Navy to provide system engineering and integration support for the Trident missile program.
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Sunflowers in Shandong
8 Dec 2004
Dave Wilson discovers that electrical waste is being shipped to China for recycling. UK researchers might have an answer to the problem, but it's only half the answer.
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Don't blame business for climate change
8 Dec 2004
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will today urge the government to acknowledge the contribution business is making to resolve the climate change problem.
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IBM sells business for $1.25 billion
8 Dec 2004
China's Lenovo Group and IBM have announced an agreement under which Lenovo will acquire IBM's Personal Computing Division for $1.25 billion in cash and equity.
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New conditions for manipulation
8 Dec 2004
Penn State University researchers have observed a new chemical state that could be used to control the growth and assembly of molecules or to manipulate nanostructured materials.
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Infineon invests $1bn
8 Dec 2004
Infineon has announced plans to invest approximately Infineon invests $1bn in the construction of a new front-end power and logic chip production plant in Malaysia.
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Toronto places $22 million train order
8 Dec 2004
Bombardier Transportation has received a firm order worth $22 million from the Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GO Transit) for 10 BiLevel commuter rail vehicles.
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Chemicals tagged and tracked
7 Dec 2004
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, is implementing an extensive wireless, sensor-based system aimed at improving the management of hazardous materials.
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Saving silicon
7 Dec 2004
Evergreen Solar, a Marlboro, MA-based manufacturer of solar power products, has announced what it describes as a major advance in the development of its String Ribbon manufacturing process.
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Big money in smaller sensors
7 Dec 2004
According to a new report, sensors designed and built using nanotechnology will generate global revenues of $2.7 billion in 2008 and reach $17.2 billion in 2012.
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Steep challenge for Purdue researchers
7 Dec 2004
Purdue University researchers have created a method that will enable engineers to design more efficient systems for heating, cooling and other applications in spacecraft.
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Siemens lands rail orders
7 Dec 2004
Siemens Transportation Systems and its partner CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotives Works have landed an order to deliver 180 double locomotives to the Chinese Ministry of Railways.
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Computerised take-off
6 Dec 2004
A new approach to aircraft scheduling that uses computer models could allow a safe increase in airport throughput and reduce pollution.
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Digital mining
6 Dec 2004
Emerson Process Management has won a $3.1 million contract for the digital automation and control of minerals processing at the BHP Billiton nickel/cobalt mine and treatment facility in Ravensthorpe, Australia.
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Raytheon receives Sidewinder order
6 Dec 2004
Raytheon has received a $158 million contract for continued production of AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles and support materials. The contract includes 443 all-up-round AIM-9X tactical missiles, 153 AIM-9X training missiles and support equipment. The award was made by the US Naval Air Systems Command.
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Flexible displays
6 Dec 2004
Cambridge, UK-based Plastic Logic and Cambridge, MA-based E Ink have signed a non-exclusive agreement to co-operate on the design and fabrication of flexible all-plastic electronic displays.
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Switches ensure safety and security
6 Dec 2004
Alcatel today announced the availability of the new OmniSwitch 6800 family of 1U-high Gigabit switches designed to help businesses make the transition to Gigabit Ethernet at the desktop.
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Boeing awarded $25 million space contracts
6 Dec 2004
NASA recently selected Boeing to work on seven technology development projects worth almost $25 million as part of NASA's Human and Robotic Technology program.
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On route to an alliance
6 Dec 2004
Fujitsu and Cisco Systems are entering into a strategic alliance focusing on routers and switches that will enable service providers and enterprises to build advanced Internet Protocol networks.
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Moving into the big league
6 Dec 2004
Smiths Group announced today that it has agreed to acquire the privately held US medical device company, Medex in a transaction valued at $925 million.
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Video compression
6 Dec 2004
Broadcom today announced a video decoder/audio processor chip that supports H.264 advanced video compression technology.
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Power direct
3 Dec 2004
Parvus Corporation announced recently that it will soon release its USB104+, a four-port high-speed USB 2.0 host controller with two high current USB ports for directly powering attached devices.
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Streamlining tyre design
3 Dec 2004
Bridgestone Corporation announced today that it has begun using computer technology for simulating tyre performance on nearly any kind of road surface.
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Acrobat 7.0 debuts
3 Dec 2004
Adobe's new Acrobat 7.0 software provides capabilities far beyond converting documents into the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
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Fibre link handles record optical transmission
3 Dec 2004
Alcatel and partners today announced the successful completion of a field trial achieving a Terabit per second transmission over a fibre link in France Telecom's network.
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Memory for cars
3 Dec 2004
Integrated Silicon Solution has announced a complete line of serial EEPROM devices for the automotive market.
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Fatal attraction
3 Dec 2004
Celltech Antibody Centre of Excellence, the University of Durham and Oxford Instruments Molecular Biotools are to develop the first UK antibody-targeted magnetotherapy technology, a potentially new approach for cancer therapy.
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Bankruptcy setback for ABB
3 Dec 2004
A court in the US has ruled that engineering giant ABB's bankruptcy plan of reorganisation for its US subsidiary Combustion Engineering is to be reviewed again.
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PEG palliates paralysed pooches
3 Dec 2004
A successful method for healing spinal injuries in dogs has been developed by Purdue University researchers, offering hope for preventing human paralysis.
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Prototypes from powder
3 Dec 2004
Two University of Queensland researchers have designed a new aluminium alloy and treatment process to turn aluminium powder into a specialised part in two days.
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Eel aids paralysis research
2 Dec 2004
Researchers are unravelling the circuitry in an eel's spinal cord to help develop a microchip implant that may help paralysed people walk again.
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Nuclear bombshell
2 Dec 2004
The European Commission is to check whether the establishment of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority by the UK Government complies with EC Treaty competition rules.
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BOC leads hydrogen challenge
2 Dec 2004
BOC has been awarded a US Department of Energy (DOE) grant for a three-year, $3.8 million project to develop an advanced hydrogen generation and delivery system. BOC, as the project leader, is partnering with Canada-based Membrane Reactor Technologies (MRT) and HERA Hydrogen Storage Systems (HERA) to develop and demonstrate advanced hydrogen generation and delivery systems that integrate MRT's membrane reactor and HERA's thermal hydride compression into a single package.
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Thermoplastic fuel cell
2 Dec 2004
Ticona has introduced the first fuel cell prototype made solely of engineering thermoplastics, an advance it claims lowers fuel cell cost at least 50% versus those fabricated with other materials.
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Job losses hit Hull
2 Dec 2004
BP this week announced plans to exit from its DF2 and DF3 acids and acetone manufacturing operations at Saltend, Hull resulting in 190 job losses.
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Flames in chaos
2 Dec 2004
A system that monitors individual burners and allows operators of coal-fired power plants to make instantaneous adjustments to each burner can mean cleaner air and lower costs for utilities.
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Brits breathe easy
2 Dec 2004
Scott Health & Safety has recently been awarded a contract that could exceed $200 million to supply the UK's Ministry of Defence with a new military respiratory protection kit.
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Plastic fantastic
2 Dec 2004
Plastic Logic has entered into a Joint Development Agreement with Siemens Communications to develop flexible displays for Siemens mobile devices. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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Universal solution
2 Dec 2004
ABB is now able to offer control equipment in one standard version with a neutral fieldbus-independent interface called the FieldBusPlug (FBP).
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Custom I/O modules
2 Dec 2004
Engineers now can extend the National Instruments CompactRIO reconfigurable embedded system platform by creating their own custom I/O modules for applications requiring unique and specialized I/O signal types.
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Kentucky leads clean coal project
1 Dec 2004
A University of Kentucky-led team recently signed an agreement to begin work on a $9 million project under the first round of the USA's Clean Coal Power Initiative.
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The Boys from Beijing
1 Dec 2004
When outsourcing, it's important not to rely on an outside supplier if it is developing a safety critical part of your system. Dave Wilson tells the tale of a company that made that mistake.
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Parker acquires seal manufacturer
1 Dec 2004
Parker Hannifin today announced that it has acquired Advanced Products Company, a privately held manufacturer of metallic and polymer spring energised seals.
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Siemens to modernise power supply
1 Dec 2004
Siemens has secured $40 million from the Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company to modernise and extend power supplies and distribution equipment of a gas liquefaction plant on Das Island.
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Rolls signs-up with Chilean Navy
1 Dec 2004
Rolls-Royce has signed orders with the Chilean Navy worth an initial £5 million to service gas turbines on five new ships in its fleet for the next 20 years.
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Testing times for transistors
1 Dec 2004
Researchers have created a "unified model" for predicting the reliability of new designs for silicon transistors, a tool that could save tens of millions of dollars annually in testing costs.
