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#1Beckman Researchers Work Featured on January 2008 Nature Photonics Cover
The January 2008 issue of Nature Photonics features the work of Beckman faculty member Paul Braun, Beckman Fellow Stephanie Rinne, and their colleague Florencio Garcia-Santamaria. Their paper is entitled "Embedded cavities and waveguides in three-dimensional silicon photonic crystals." It describes how photonic crystals enable the manipulation of light on a scale not previously possible and that controlled fabrication of three-dimensional crystals is proving to be quite a challenge. Their research, using artificial opals and two-photon absorption, shows how it is now possible to create near-infrared waveguides of arbitrary shape. The Nature Photonics cover image was produced in the Beckman Institute's Visualization, Media, and Imaging Lab by ITG 3D Artist Steve Eisenmann. - External Link
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#2Beckman Researchers Earn Scientific American Award
The Beckman Institute researchers who pioneered self-healing plastics have earned a coveted 2007 SciAm 50 award from Scientific American, announced online in December and in the January 2008 issue of the popular science magazine.
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#3Genetic Chips
Chicago Tribune –Beckman faculty member Oleksii Aksimentiev and colleagues at Illinois are exploring the workings of a human-gene-sequencing chip. Rather than just build chips and doing experiments to see if they work, the researchers use computer simulations to see if their ideas are feasible.
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#4
Scientists Seek Cheaper DNA Method
UPI –A DNA sequencing technique being developed by Beckman researchers Aleksei Aksimentiev and Gregory Timp, involves pushing DNA molecules through tiny pores built into a silicon chip.
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#5Researchers Bend Light Through Waveguides in Colloidal Crystals
U of I News Bureau -- Researchers at the University of Illinois including Beckman faculty member Paul Braun and Beckman Fellow Stephanie Rinne are the first to achieve optical waveguiding of near-infrared light through features embedded in self-assembled, three-dimensional photonic crystals. Applications for the optically active crystals include low-loss waveguides, low-threshold lasers and on-chip optical circuitry. - External Link
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#6Cell Phones and Driving
Time magazine – "The requirements to both listen carefully and respond while on a cell phone creates 'interference' with the task at hand, driving in this case, and our research shows that we have limited cognitive resources to multitask," says Arthur Kramer, Beckman faculty member and director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at Illinois. When demand for our "neural resources" exceeds supply, the result is decreased performance - scanning less attentively for pedestrians, for example, or failing to maintain a lane or speed. - External Link
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#7
New York Times Spotlights Conference at Beckman
The New York Times – New York Times science reporter Kenneth Chang, who attended a conference held at the Beckman Institute in October commemorating the publication of the first paper explaining the theory of superconductivity, explores the origins of the theory and cites the many U. of I. scientists who have worked in this area of research. - External Link
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#8ISL Takes Art and Technology Project on the Road
The Beckman Institute's Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL) had a hit with its CalculArt exhibit at the Krannert Art Museum in 2006. Now ISL is ready to enlighten others around the country about the possibilities of marrying art and technology with a traveling version of the exhibit that features mathematically visualized art.
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#9Cool Solution for Sensitive Biomolecules
Chemistry World – Beckman researcher and U. of I. chemistry professor Yi Lu and colleagues have designed the first buffer system that maintains the pH independently of temperature. Buffers are used to keep a sample at a particular pH, important for studying sensitive molecules, such as enzymes, that would decompose under acidic or alkaline conditions. But buffered solutions usually change pH at low temperatures, potentially damaging the sample as it is cooled to be studied. - External Link
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#10How to Make a Submarine Disappear
Science Magazine – Using computer simulations, a group of researchers has determined that it's possible to build objects that will allow sound waves to slip past undisturbed. If the concept is proved experimentally, it could pave the way not just for military applications such as stealthier submarines but also for auditoriums with less reverberation and perhaps even smoother flights for airplanes. Beckman researcher and U. of I. mechanical engineering professor Nicholas Fang says the research "clearly indicates" that achieving anisotropy is critical to building an acoustic cloaking shell. Although that technology remains challenging, he says, "I am glad to see we now have more tricks to play with sound." - External Link
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