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Last November, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative held the Designing Nanostructures at the Interface Between Biomedical and Physical Systems conference at which researchers from science, engineering and medicine discussed recent developments in nanotechnology, directions for future research, and possible biomedical applications. The centerpiece of the conference was breakout sessions in which ten focus groups of researchers from different fields spent eight hours developing research plans to solve various problems in the field of nanotechnology. Among the challenges were: Building a nanosystem that can isolate, sequence and identify RNA or DNA Developing a system to detect diseas...
On November 15, 2004, the National Academies sponsored a symposium at the Beckman Center in honor of Arnold O. Beckman. The symposium concentrated on the wide-ranging practical applications of scientific instrumentation as was the focus of much of Arnold Beckman's career. The report begins with two presentations: a remembrance by Arnold Beckman's daughter, Pat, and an overview of his life and accomplishments by Arnold Thackray, President of the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The next section contains presentations on the application of instrumentation in seven, diverse areas: organic chemistry, molecular and systems biology, synchrotron x-ray sources, nanoscale chemistry, forensics, and clinical medicine. Finally, there is a summary of a panel discussion on the evolving relationship between instrumentation and research.
Arnold O. Beckman was a legend in his time: the blacksmith's son who grew up to play a pivotal role in the instrumentation revolution that dramatically changed science, technology, and society. From his rural boyhood world of farming and woodworking, through his service in the U.S. Marines and his appointment to the Caltech faculty, to his path-breaking creation of the pH meter, the DU spectrophotometer, and the establishment of the Beckman Instruments company, this work portrays an individual whose ingenuity and integrity made him a scientific leader and industrial pioneer. It also discusses his role in California and national politics, and his career as a major philanthropist. Arnold Beckman's story is inseparable from that of the 20th century--a very inspiring read. Included with this biography is a video portrait of Arnold Beckman, in CD-ROM format for both PC and Mac. You will see and hear Dr. Beckman talk about his early life, his marriage to Mabel, and his philosophies of inventing, education, and philanthropy. The CD-ROM was produced by Jeffrey I. Seeman.
This publication represents the culmination of the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), a program of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine supported by a 15-year, $40 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to advance the future of science through interdisciplinary research. From 2003 to 2017, more than 2,000 researchers and other professionals across disciplines and sectors attended an annual "think-tank" style conference to contemplate real-world challenges. Seed grants awarded to conference participants enabled further pursuit of bold, new research and ideas generated at the conference.
The 2005 conference, "The Genomic Revolution: Implications for Treatment and Control of Infectious Disease," attracted scientists, engineers, and medical researchers to work on new interdisciplinary responses using genomics to treat and control infectious diseases. Eleven conference working groups gave the participants eight hours to develop new research approaches to problems in infectious disease using genomics. Among the challenges were designing a new device to detect viral and bacterial pathogens; how best to use $100 million to prevent a future pandemic flu outbreak; how to improve rapid response to an outbreak of disease and reduce the cost of diagnostic tests; and how to sequence an ...
Commercially significant amounts of crude oil and natural gas lie under the continental shelf of the United States. Advances in locating deposits, and improvements in drilling and recovery technology, have made it technically and economically feasible to extract these resources under harsh conditions. But extracting these offshore petroleum resources involves the possibility, however remote, of oil spills, with resulting damage to the ocean and the coastline ecosystems and risks to life and limb of those performing the extraction. The environmental consequences of an oil spill can be more severe underwater than on land because sea currents can quickly disperse the oil over a large area and, thus, cleanup can be problematic. Bolted connections are an integral feature of deep-water well operations. High-Performance Bolting Technology for Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Operations summarizes strategies for improving the reliability of fasteners used in offshore oil exploration equipment, as well as best practices from other industrial sectors. It focuses on critical boltingâ€"bolts, studs, nuts, and fasteners used on critical connections.
Imaging science has the power to illuminate regions as remote as distant galaxies, and as close to home as our own bodies. Many of the disciplines that can benefit from imaging share common technical problems, yet researchers often develop ad hoc methods for solving individual tasks without building broader frameworks that could address many scientific problems. At the 2010 National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference on Imaging Science, researchers from academia, industry, and government formed 14 interdisciplinary teams created to find a common language and structure for developing new technologies, processing and recovering images, mining imaging data, and visualizing it effectiv...
The importance of salmon to the Pacific Northwestâ€"economic, recreational, symbolicâ€"is enormous. Generations ago, salmon were abundant from central California through Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to British Columbia and Alaska. Now they have disappeared from about 40 percent of their historical range. The decline in salmon numbers has been lamented for at least 100 years, but the issue has become more widespread and acute recently. The Endangered Species Act has been invoked, federal laws have been passed, and lawsuits have been filed. More than $1 billion has been spent to improve salmon runsâ€"and still the populations decline. In this new volume a committee with diverse exper...
The U.S. Department of Energy has been at the center of many of the greatest achievements in science and engineering in this century. DOE spends billions of dollars funding projects-and plans to keep on spending at this rate. But, documentation shows that DOE's construction and environmental remediation projects take much longer and cost 50% more than comparable projects undertaken by other federal agencies, calling into question DOE's procedures and project management. What are the root causes for these problems?
NASA's exploration of planets and satellites during the past 50 years has led to the discovery of traces of water ice throughout the solar system and prospects for large liquid water reservoirs beneath the frozen ICE shells of multiple satellites of the giant planets of the outer solar system. During the coming decades, NASA and other space agencies will send flybys, orbiters, subsurface probes, and, possibly, landers to these distant worlds in order to explore their geologic and chemical context. Because of their potential to harbor alien life, NASA will select missions that target the most habitable outer solar system objects. This strategy poses formidable challenges for mission planners ...