Glucose and oxygen are important components of human metabolic processes -- many diseases are associated with glucose transport and metabolic disorders including diabetes and cancer. Monitoring glucose and cell metabolism can provide invaluable information for understanding these diseases. There are many assays and sensors for both glucose and oxygen,...

The advent of epitaxial techniques for growing thin films has allowed for the growth of unnatural, metastable structures having properties previously unattainable in equilibrium systems. Specifically, quaternary compounds are of great interest for microelectronic and optoelectronic devices due to expectations that these materials will exhibit...

Single-cell and cell cluster optical tomography, or Cell-CT, has found increasing application in life sciences basic research. Two limitations to its use in this area are that it can image only fixed cells, and the lack of thixotropic gels that can support live cells and also satisfy refractive index constraints. Researchers at the Biodesign Institute...

The efficiency of biofuel production depends on the photosynthetic activity of microbes; to maximize their growth it is necessary to continually monitor the environmental conditions. Traditional monitoring methods (such as using electrodes to measure CO2 consumption and/or O2 generation) are typically time- and labor-intensive, have low throughput,...

Batteries operate by polarizing and transferring ions through liquid or molecular solvents. Recent developments have made use of organic cation salts in plastic crystalline states as solvents, in which lithium salts can be dissolved. These lithium salts are known as electrolytes. Unfortunately, they are associated with low conductivity. Other electrolytes...

Efficient integration of wind energy in power grids is challenging due to the variability of wind energy. The uncertainty of wind impacts various system level considerations, such as the reliability and operational planning of power grids. Mischaracterizing these uncertainties can lead to significant loss of the wind generation. Accurate wind generation...

The demand for electric automobiles is driving research to find new rechargeable battery options. Current lithium ion batteries are very heavy and require large amounts of space. Additionally, these batteries have the potential to overheat during charging and cause fires. Lithium ion batteries are used because they can be recharged, but the charging...

Civil and geotechnical engineers must fortify sandy soil in order to build durable structures on loose terrain. Effective soil cementation can be achieved by microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), a process using microbes to generate urease enzymes that catalyze calcium carbonate precipitation. However, MICP is limited by the large size of...

Even though green technologies such as wind and solar are currently dropping in cost, energy storage innovations are still needed to make sustainable energy solutions competitive within the consumer market. Providing a lightweight, high-energy-density power source, rechargeable lithium ion batteries are great for portable electronics. But they quickly...

The lithium battery industry is undergoing rapid expansion, now representing the largest segment of the portable battery industry and dominating the computer, cell phone, and camera power source industry. Beyond consumer electronics, LIBs are also growing in popularity for military, electric vehicle, and aerospace applications. Lithium-ion batteries...