Corporate Laboratories Research Articles

BeerDeCoded: the open beer metagenome project.

Next generation sequencing has radically changed research in the life sciences, in both academic and corporate laboratories. The potential impact is tremendous, yet a majority of citizens have little or no understanding of the technological and ethical aspects of this widespread adoption. We designed BeerDeCoded as a pretext to discuss the societal issues related to genomic and metagenomic data with fellow citizens, while advancing scientific knowledge of the most popular beverage of all. In the spirit of citizen science, sample collection and DNA extraction were carried out with the participation of non-scientists in the community laboratory of Hackuarium, a not-for-profit organisation that supports unconventional research and promotes the public understanding of science. The dataset presented herein contains the targeted metagenomic profile of 39 bottled beers from 5 countries, based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing of fungal species. A preliminary analysis reveals the presence of a large diversity of wild yeast species in commercial brews. With this project, we demonstrate that coupling simple laboratory procedures that can be carried out in a non-professional environment, with state-of-the-art sequencing technologies and targeted metagenomic analyses, can lead to the detection and identification of the microbial content in bottled beer.

The rise of OLED displays

Periodic visitors to the TV section of large electronics stores are usually impressed by how display technology constantly improves. At each new visit, the screens are larger, thinner, brighter, and often cheaper than they were during the previous trip to the shop a year or two earlier. Visitors to a store today will see that more than two-thirds of TV screens on the market are now larger than 40 inches. They’ll notice that Samsung and a few other firms are pushing a technology called quantum dots that seems to enhance colors and brightness. At some point, a TV model promoted by LG might attract attention, but perhaps more for its higher price than the performance improvement it offers. Alone among its competitors, LG manufactures a line of TVs making use of organic light-emitting diode technology. Long the focus of research at academic and corporate labs worldwide, OLED displays are starting

Optics research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) was established in Washington, DC in 1923 and is the corporate laboratory for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Today NRL is a world-class research institution conducting a broad program of research and development (R&D), including many areas of optical science and technology. NRL is conducting cutting-edge R&D programs to explore new scientific areas to enable unprecedented Navy capabilities as well as improving current technologies to increase the effectiveness of Navy and other Department of Defense systems. This paper provides a broad overview of many of NRL's achievements in optics. Some of the remaining articles in this feature issue will discuss NRL's most recent research in individual areas, while other articles will present more detailed historical perspectives of NRL's research concerning particular scientific topics.

Should Firms Outsource their Basic Research? The Impact of Firm Size on In‐House versus Outsourced R&D Productivity

It has been long known that firms can benefit substantially from basic research. Recently, however, the open innovation literature has questioned whether firms should conduct these basic research activities in‐house and has suggested that outsourcing is more appropriate both for small and large firms. However, existing empirical work investigates the performance implications of R&D outsourcing in general, but does not take into account the differences between basic research on the one hand and more applied R&D on the other. This paper therefore studies whether outsourced basic research indeed contributes equally to firm productivity as in‐house basic research, while explicitly incorporating the moderating effect of firm size. A production function approach is applied to firm‐level data stemming from three waves of the Flemish R&D survey, combined with data from firms' annual accounts. The results show that small firms benefit from outsourcing their basic research activities. For medium‐sized and large firms, however, in‐house basic research is more productive than outsourced basic research. These results contradict the general belief that small firms benefit little from basic research and cast doubts on the recent trend to close medium‐sized and large firms' corporate labs.

A science career story.

I was valedictorian of a large public high school in Florida, attended a top liberal arts college—Swarthmore—and majored in physics. After a short, post-college stint as a small-town journalist, I entered the physics Ph.D. program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I connected early with a research project that allowed me to publish often and well, although I did not love the work. I finished my Ph.D. fairly quickly—faster than I needed to really because my wife, a chemist, was still in graduate school. So I stayed in the same lab for a postdoc, doing the same work, funding the position with a grant proposal written by me and submitted in my adviser's name. From graduate school on, I do not remember receiving a single piece of career advice. A year or so into my postdoc, my adviser retired. I took over his lab, earning a very long title: visiting research assistant professor. I inherited some '80s-vintage electronics and a '60s-era lab with a desk in the corner. ![Figure][1] I appeared successful. I was running my own funded lab and publishing in good journals. ILLUSTRATION: MARC ROSENTHAL As my wife approached the end of her Ph.D., we began to consider our “two-body problem.” We agreed that we would accept the first good offer either of us received. My job-market timing could not have been worse. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc sent many physicists and other scientists streaming west. Big corporate labs were downsizing and moving away from basic research, sending veteran physicists onto the academic job market. The early '90s employment crisis among young Ph.D. physicists made news. (You can read about it in Science at .) I appeared successful. I was running my own funded lab and publishing in good journals. But it wasn't long before I realized that I wasn't competitive for tenure-track positions at the institutions where I wanted to work, including the one where I was already working. One rejection letter among the many I received thanked me for being part of a “remarkable cohort” of more than a thousand applicants for a single faculty post. I believe the number actually exceeded 1300. My wife applied for just one job and got the offer. I became the trailing spouse, following her to Maine, where she took up a faculty post. I took pride in defying science's gender stereotypes. It was surprisingly easy to walk away from the career that I had worked so long and hard to attain. The hard part came later as I lost my knowledge of science and saw my mathematical facility dwindle, and as I struggled to fashion an identity that wasn't linked to professional attainment. I turned to writing, and when I wasn't writing, I was repairing and maintaining a passive-solar house in the country: shoveling snow, hauling tons of firewood up a steep hill, planting a vegetable garden that didn't get enough sun, and fulfilling various back-to-nature cliches. For a while, I taught writing part-time to undergraduates; it was ideal training for the work that would come later. We soon had a son, and (except for the breastfeeding part) I was the primary parent. In 1999 I founded an Internet publication, The Post-Careerist, which was focused on living a rich post-professional life. Through connections I made online, I became science editor at a pioneering Internet publication, BlueEar. Then, via an acquaintance in Pakistan—this was early online networking, before LinkedIn and Facebook—I heard about a writer/editor position at Science 's Next Wave, Science Careers' predecessor. I sent an e-mail and within weeks found myself with a full-time job for the first time in years. A few years later, I became the editor of Science Careers. My science career story is hardly unusual. Indeed, what's remarkable is how much it shares with so many other nontraditional career stories: uncertainty, exploration, a difficult transition, self-invention, and (eventually) satisfaction. So what's your story? Send stories, perspectives, opinions, and observations on careers in the sciences to me at SciCareerEditor{at}aaas.org. [1]: pending:yes

Mesoporous Silica Nanomaterials Applications in Catalysis

Mesoporous silica materials benefit from unique features that have attracted substantial interest for their use as catalyst-immobilization matrices. These features include high surface area, chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability, highly uniform pore distribution and tunable pore size, high adsorption capacity, and an ordered porous network for free diffusion of substrates and reaction products. Solid supported catalysts are of great interests in both academic and industrial arenas due to their recyclability, enhanced catalytic reactivity, and selectivity. Inorganic, organic end enzymatic catalysis fields have been revolutionized by introduction of mesoporous silica nanomaterials as support due to dramatic increase of contact area and thus contributing to overall reaction yield [1-4]. Furthermore, mesoporous silica offers the opportunity of multifunctionalization and therefore, multiple catalyst immobilizations. The ability to sequester selectively molecules buy their functionality makes mesoporous silica catalyst championing high selectivities. This editorial will highlight the most important achievements in the field of mesoporous silica-supported catalysis. The first mesoporous silica material was first reported as early as 1971, where a material described as low-bulk density silica was obtained from hydrolyzing and condensing tetraethoxysilicate (TEOS) in the presence of cationic surfactants [5]. This result did not gain much attention at the time it was published because the porosity and structural properties were not reported. It was not until 1992 that the chemistry society started to realize the potential of this field, when scientists in oil giant Mobil Corporation laboratories published a series of ordered mesoporous materials (M41S) with pore sizes ranging from 1.5-10 nm. The variant called MCM-41 with 1000 m 2 g -1 and pore volumes up to 1 cm 3 g -1 , has been comprehensively studied and widely applied in many fields such as drug delivery, biosensors and catalysis [6-12]. The morphological transformations that lead to converting bulk MCM-41 mesoporous silica to functionalized mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) by Lin’s group represented a step forward toward increasing control of kinetics in catalytic reactions occurring in functionalized MSN [10]. The first report of utilizing mesoporous silica in polymer synthesis catalysts initiated by Aida’s group in Japan, has opened new avenues toward modern solid-supported catalysis. The authors reported crystalline nanofibers of linear polyethylene with an ultrahigh molecular weight (6,200,000) and a diameter of 30 to 50 nanometers, formed by the polymerization of ethylene with mesoporous silica fiber–supported titanocene, with methylalumoxane as a cocatalyst. Small-angle x-ray scattering analysis indicated that the polyethylene fibers consist predominantly of extended-chain crystals. The Science article highlighted the potential utility of the honeycomb-like porous framework as an extruder for nanofabrication of polymeric materials [13].

Research on Identification of Cement Laboratory Samples Management

In allusion to the management characteristics of the cement laboratory samples, this paper conducts introduction and comparative analysis on such four kinds of identification as inspection organization, traditional cement sample identification of corporate laboratory, paper-electronic tags and wireless monitoring devices. It shows that wireless monitoring devices are superior to the traditional sample identification and paper-electronic tags, and can achieve intelligent management of cement samples ensuring objective and fair inspection data.

De l’atelier au laboratoire: Recherche et innovation dans l’industrie électrique, XIX e –XX e siècles (review)

Reviewed by: De l’atelier au laboratoire: Recherche et innovation dans l’industrie électrique, XIXe–XXe siècles Andrew Butrica (bio) De l’atelier au laboratoire: Recherche et innovation dans l’industrie électrique, XIXe–XXe siècles. Edited by Yves Bouvier et al. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011. Pp. 141. $38.95. The goal of this slim installment in Peter Lang’s History of Energy series is to explore the nature and loci of electrical industry invention, innovation, research, and development and to challenge the accepted view of nineteenth-century lone inventor-geniuses and twentieth-century richly endowed corporate laboratories. It substantively broadens and deepens the work of Robert Fox and Anna Guagnini’s Laboratories, Workshops, and Sites: Concepts and Practices of Research in Industrial Europe, 1800–1914 (1999). The contributions represent revisions of half the papers read at a [End Page 933] December 2005 conference in Mulhouse, France, the other half appearing in a 2007 issue of Annales historiques de l’électricité. The authors of the six articles succeed superbly in relocating and redefining industrial research. W. Bernard Carlson, in a study of Nikola Tesla’s AC motor and wireless transmission of high-frequency power, argues the case for the inventor’s advantages over big firms, advantages that arise from being unhampered by the constraints of production and marketing. Tesla exemplified Joseph Schumpeter’s separation of invention and development by allying himself with promoters and selling or licensing his patents rather than establishing manufacturing plants. Alain Cortat analyzes Swiss cable-making firms in the context of a national (eventually international) cartel. Research and quality control evolved side-by-side until their separation during the 1930s. The firms overcame their small size and limited finances to innovate by purchasing patents from industrial groups (Bell, Siemens, Philips), collaborating with universities and technical schools, and contracting research with the Battelle Institute (1960s). Serge Paquier reminds the reader in a study of long-distance electrical power transmission that not all research took place indoors. Building up to the Frankfurt electrical exposition of 1891 (and so accenting the importance of these expositions for technological advance), Paquier focuses on hydroelectric installations as laboratories “hors les murs.” In an inquiry on the Toulouse electrical engineering laboratory (LGET), Marie-Pierre Bès calls attention to the critical role played by government policy and sponsorship in France between 1955 and 1985. The research carried out legitimated a nascent discipline in applied science and served the needs of industry (chiefly the electric monopoly EDF) with public underwriting largely from the Ministry of Industry and Research, the CNRS, and research agencies in the critical space, telecommunications, and nuclear sectors. The research never led to patents or the conception of new products or processes, but did fulfill the electrical industry’s strategic needs. Graeme Gooday revisits Marie Sklodowska Curie’s original contribution to the science and fabrication of permanent steel magnets (which too often proved to lack permanence), underwritten by the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale in the 1890s and carried out in the Sorbonne and École de physique et de chimie. His main attention is on the received notion in “narrow folklore” (p. 107) that Sydney Evershed in 1920 and 1925 solved the permanent magnet problem and established their manufacture on a scientific basis through decades of designing and redesigning electrical instruments. Here British trade secrecy collided with (and obscured) the results of Curie’s science-based open and systematic approach that relied on an assortment of samples donated by industry. Gabriel Galvez-Behar tackles Clément Ader, a telegraph, telephone, and automobile innovator too often associated solely with aeronautics. He [End Page 934] focuses on Ader’s changing contractual relationships with the Société générale des téléphones and the Société industrielle des téléphones to provide patentable inventions on demand. Ader successfully and simultaneously performed aeronautical research for the army because he operated as an “inventor entrepreneur” (like Edison) acting as both inventor (and insisting that his name be on all patents) and an entrepreneur who managed multiple research teams working on different problems (telephony, air transport, automobiles) at separate locations. A firm’s lack...

Detection of Early Infection with Flu Viruses in Patients with Bronchial Asthma and COPD in Winter Season in the State of Qatar

Flu infections are viral infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract which are an important cause of morbidity in patients with bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), old age and other chronic medical conditions, usually occur in outbreaks mainly during the winter season, and require inpatient and outpatient care. Objectives: 1) understanding the viral etiologies of respiratory tract infection among patients who presented to chest clinic during the winter season from first October 2008-31 March 2009 with the diagnosis of asthma and/or COPD. 2) While Hamad Medical Corporation laboratory uses Immune Fluorescent Assay (IFA) to test for five viruses: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza A & B virus, Para-influenza virus and Adenovirus, an objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a new diagnostic test using Real-time PCR to detect 15 viruses simultaneously. Those are: Flu A&B; Corona viruses (Cor63, 229 & 43), Parainfluenza viruses (para1,2,3&4), Human metapneumovirus (Hump A and B), Rhinovirus (rhino), RSV(A & B) and adenovirus (AV)). Methods: Nasal swabs were collected (to detect upper respiratory viruses). Patient's personal data as well as diagnosis and medical history were gathered using questionnaires filled by the doctor treating the patients at the time of the nasal swab. These questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS V.14. Results: The sample size consisted of 200 patients, 18 years of age or older, with asthma and/or COPD. Out of the 200 patients, 190 had asthma and 10 had COPD. However, only 36 patients had viruses related to respiratory tract infection; 31 of which had asthma and 5 had COPD. It was found that the Rhino viruses are the most predominant respiratory viruses. Additionally, using Real-time PCR enabled the detection of more than five viruses at the same time with similar sensitivity and specificity when compared to the Immune Fluorescent Assay. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of respiratory tract viral infections from Qatar. Detection of these infections may have significant clinical implications in the study population. Additionally, it was found that the new diaginostic-respiratory detection by real-time PCR technique was able to detect more than five viruses at the same time compared with the (IFA) with similar sensitivity and specificity.

Leveraging on being small—Singapore's strategy to catalyze integrative innovations

Microtechnology is not unfamiliar to Sin-gapore. Around the 1980s, Singapore es-tablished itself as one of the leading manufacturers of semiconductor micro-chips. Over the last 10 years, Singapore has established a biomedical research industry, epitomized by Biopolis, a two million square feet research campus. Biopolis is home to the national biomedical research institutes under the administration of the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), as well as corporate labs from GlaxoSmithKine (GSK), No-vartis and Eli Lily. A stone’s throw away is another major research hub, Fusionopolis, the physical science and engineering equivalent of Biopolis. Microtechnology also finds its way into this vibrant research community facilitating inter-disciplinary and translational research between biomedical and physical sciences. Other research centers, such as the Research Centres of Excellence initiated by the National Research Foundation, at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University are also in close proximity. Engineers or physical scientists need not look very far to find a myriad of opportunities to apply their technologies to help expedite biomedical sciences. Here, we feature a number of research centers where mi-crotechnologies are finding headway in advancing biomedical and fundamental sciences.

The Epistemology of the Suburbs: Knowledge, Production, and Corporate Laboratory Design

For those in search of a whipping boy for the evils of modern capi- talism, the corporate research laboratory seems like an easy choice. Seen from a passing car or a low-flying airplane (figs.1-2), these build- ings might appear to reinforce any number of cliches about the kind of people—and the kind of knowledge—created when profit reigns su- preme.Theirmonolithic,repetitivearchitectureconjuresimagesofthe man in the gray flannel suit, stripped of individuality and creativity, rotting in New Jersey. Their huge lawns and manicured trees hint that these are closed, isolated fortresses that do not produce disinterested knowledge for the betterment of humanity but instrumental knowl- edgethatservesonlythelogicofcapital.Afterall,aren'tthesetheplaces where nicotine is shown to be nonaddictive, where rabbits are tortured to make cosmetics, and where promising young researchers trade their scholarly ambitions for a generous paycheck? The chronology here is likewise suggestive. The first of these megafacilities was built in the late 1930s. Spurred by the triple intersection of big business, architectural modernism, and war—all of which have a pesky reputation for certain flavors of authoritarianism—over the course of the 1940s the typolog- ical principles of the corporate laboratory were adopted almost univer-

Lasers and the Glory Days of Industrial Research

Fifty years ago, well-funded corporate labs were great places to do research. They could afford sophisticated equipment; they employed an enviable depth of talent; and they paid better than academia. That made them the ideal environment for developing lasers in the 1960s.

Open versus closed innovation: development of the wide strip mill for steel in the United States during the 1920s

A paired comparison is made between rival attempts to develop the first continuous rolling mill for wide strip in the USA during the 1920?s. One firm was secretive, the other relied upon collaboration. Development of the wide strip mill is a natural experiment comparing closed and open innovation since two firms were competing for the same target using different institutional arrangements for their R&D. Wide strip rolling technology was developed by rival teams in the USA during the mid-1920?s. The less successful team at Armco, Ashland, Kentucky was closed to outside influences. Breakthroughs came from Columbia Steel at Butler, Pennsylvania which pursued an open pattern of cooperation with equipment suppliers. Columbia Steel?s collaboration with machinery suppliers, use of independent advice on bearing technology and willingness to learn from precursors in copper rolling enabled them to build a successful wide strip mill complex, commissioned in 1926. Butler established the dominant design for the next 80 years. The leading equipment supplier at Butler, the United Engineering and Foundry Co., led global sales of the technology for four decades. It is not clear how far this example of successful open innovation in the US inter-war economy is typical. Historical studies of the management of R&D focus on formal, science based research in large corporate labs rather than engineering development.

The Social Study of Corporate Science: A Research Manifesto

Laboratory ethnographies have provided valuable insights in the workings of contemporary science and technology and about facts in the making. Nearly all these ethnographic studies have been conducted at nonprofit research institutes. In this article, the authors argue that it is time for science and technology studies (STS) ethnography to direct its gaze toward for-profit knowledge production sites. The authors do so, based on a long-standing recognition that nonprofit academic laboratories do not have a monopoly on knowledge construction. First, they historicize STS’ focus on public knowledge production, distinguishing between two roles for STS. Second, they argue that relationships between industry and society have changed, resulting in increasing corporate transparency. Third, they argue that this change enables STS ethnography to enter corporations and corporate laboratories. The authors conclude by proposing a research agenda for the social study of corporate science.

Intensity-Modulated Advanced X-Ray Source (IMAXS) for Homeland Security Applications

X-ray cargo inspection systems for the detection and verification of threats and contraband must address competing performance requirements. In addition to high X-ray energy, high X-ray intensity is needed to penetrate dense cargo, while low intensity is desirable to minimize the radiation footprint, i.e. the size of the controlled area, required shielding and the dose to personnel. We report here on a collaborative effort between HESCO/PTSE Inc., Schonberg Research Corporation and Rapiscan Laboratories, Inc. to design an Intensity-Modulated Advanced X-ray Source (IMAXS) that allows such cargo inspection systems to achieve up to two inches greater penetration capability, while on average retaining the same radiation footprint as present fixed-intensity sources. Alternatively, the new design can be used to obtain the same penetration capability as with conventional sources, but reducing the average radiation footprint by about a factor of three. The key idea is to anticipate the needed intensity for each X-ray pulse by evaluating signal strength in the cargo inspection system detector array for the previous pulse. Requirements therefore include an X-ray source capable of changing intensity from one pulse to the next by electronic signal, as well as electronics inside the cargo inspection system detector array determining the required source intensity for the next pulse. The feasibility of pulse-to-pulse intensity modulation of both S-band (2998 MHz) and X-band (9303 MHz) linac sources has been demonstrated.

The Chicago guide to your career in science: a toolkit for students and postdocs

Embarking upon research as a graduate student or postdoc can be exciting and enriching - the start of a rewarding career. But the world of scientific research is also a competitive one, with grants and good jobs increasingly hard to find. The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science is intended to help scientists not just cope with but excel at this critical phase in their careers.Victor A. Bloomfield and Esam E. El-Fakahany, both well-known scientists with extensive experience as teachers, mentors, and adminstrators, have combined their knowledge to create a guidebook that addresses all of the challenges that today's scientists-in-training face. They begin by considering the early stages of a career in science: deciding whether or not to pursue a PhD, choosing advisors and mentors, and learning how to teach effectively. Bloomfield and El-Fakahany then explore the skills essential to conducting and presenting research. The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science offers detailed advice on how to pursue research ethically, manage time, and communicate effectively, especially at academic conferences and with students and peers. Bloomfield and El-Fakahany write in accessible, straightforward language and include a synopsis of key points at the end of each chapter, enabling readers to dip into relevant sections with ease.From students prepping for the GRE to postdocs developing professional networks to managers of corporate labs, scientists at every level will find The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science an unparalleled resource.The toolkit includes advice on: choosing a graduate program; speaking effectively; defending your dissertation; making the most of scientific meetings; writing fellowship and grant proposals; landing a job; pursuing professional contacts; and, choosing an alternative career.

Competing Research Traditions in American Industry: Uncertain Alliances between Engineering and Science at Westinghouse Electric, 1886–1935

Westinghouse Electric opened a new research laboratory near the company’s main factory in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1916. Located in the suburban borough of Forest Hills, the laboratory was set up to provide scientific knowledge for the older materials testing and product development laboratories at the factory. Unlike its industrial counterparts, however, the Forest Hills laboratory was dominated by a strong engineering research tradition that disrupted efforts undertaken in the 1920s and again in the 1930s to build and sustain a diversified fundamental research program. Whereas Eastman Kodak, DuPont, AT&T, and General Electric had successfully integrated fundamental research into their corporate laboratories, the Forest Hills laboratory remained the site of recurring tensions between two cultures of innovation—one based on fundamental science, the other on engineering research. Although such tensions often resulted in competing research strategies, managerial conflicts, and mismatched corporate priorities, the long-standing culture of engineering research contributed far more to Westinghouse’s strategic growth than even the most advanced fundamental research. More generally, the interactions between the cultures of engineering and science that characterize the early history of industrial research at Westinghouse highlight the evolving and sometimes conflicting patterns of technological innovation and organizational change in American industry before World War II.

Competing Research Traditions in American Industry: Uncertain Alliances between Engineering and Science at Westinghouse Electric, 1886–1935

Westinghouse Electric opened a new research laboratory near the company’s main factory in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1916. Located in the suburban borough of Forest Hills, the laboratory was set up to provide scientific knowledge for the older materials testing and product development laboratories at the factory. Unlike its industrial counterparts, however, the Forest Hills laboratory was dominated by a strong engineering research tradition that disrupted efforts undertaken in the 1920s and again in the 1930s to build and sustain a diversified fundamental research program. Whereas Eastman Kodak, DuPont, AT&T, and General Electric had successfully integrated fundamental research into their corporate laboratories, the Forest Hills laboratory remained the site of recurring tensions between two cultures of innovation—one based on fundamental science, the other on engineering research. Although such tensions often resulted in competing research strategies, managerial conflicts, and mismatched corporate priorities, the long-standing culture of engineering research contributed far more to Westinghouse’s strategic growth than even the most advanced fundamental research. More generally, the interactions between the cultures of engineering and science that characterize the early history of industrial research at Westinghouse highlight the evolving and sometimes conflicting patterns of technological innovation and organizational change in American industry before World War II.

Small-molecule CRTH2 antagonists for the treatment of allergic inflammation: an overview

The discovery of a second receptor for prostaglandin D2, chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecule expressed on T helper type 2 (CRTH2), has revived significant efforts into the development of small-molecule antagonists for allergic diseases as the receptor is predominantly expressed on cells such as eosinophils, TH2 cells and basophils, which are major pro-inflammatory cells in diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis. This brief review serves to illustrate current patent literature focusing on the similarities and differences of an ever-growing number of CRTH2 antagonists emerging from corporate laboratories.

Transparent transistors: a new class of semiconductors makes for fast, flexible, and invisible electronics

Two groups, in Japan and the United States, have reported making see-through circuits out of a new class of semiconductors. Besides holding out the possibility of building displays into the windows of cars and trains, the materials' low cost and low-temperature fabrication may suit them to future applications that don't need transparency, notably roll-up electronic displays. Standard silicon-based techniques can't compete in this area, because even if they could be made flexible, their processing temperatures, generally around 250 /spl deg/C, are so high they would melt any plastic substrate holding the silicon in place. To get around the problem, several academic and corporate laboratories are developing pentacene and other organic semiconductors - so called because they consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. But although organic transistors can be processed at low temperatures and even printed like ink, they don't let electrons and other charge carriers move around very quickly; therefore, they perform poorly. Besides, organic materials tend to be thermally and chemically unstable. The semiconductor is n-type, meaning that electrons carry charges through it. The speed at which the electrons move in the device - called the field-effect charge carrier mobility - is the key, because it limits how fast a transistor can switch. In a-IGZO devices, the mobility is 6-10 square centimeters per volt-second, about five times that in similar organic thin-film transistors and more than seven times that of the hydrogenerated amorphous silicon in flat-panel displays today.