Date: Monday, September 08, 2008
New Delhi: India has set up a Rs.10 billion mission to help scientists do research in nano-technology and innovate new products in fields like healthcare, textiles and drug development, an official said Friday."We have set up a mission to boost nano-technology in the country. The fund will be utilised over a period of five years," Science Secretary T. Ramasami said Friday on the sidelines of an event on nano-technology at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).Under the mission, the government would provide Rs.5 million as grant for the start-up of nano research projects."This would encourage research efforts and commercialisation of technologies. A suitable candidate can avail monetary support up to Rs.15 million," Ramasami told IANS.Ramasami said the mission is a brainchild of C.N.R. Rao, chairman, science advisory council to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.He said so far no one has availed the fund. "But we have short listed three to four scientists for financial support initially."According to FICCI, India has over 30 nano-technology start-ups and approximately 50 research institutes engaged in nano-technology research and development.Product development efforts in India are predominantly directed towards chip design and development, nano-medicine and nano-materials.
Monday, September 8, 2008
India sets up Rs.10 Bn nano-technology mission
Science in India: A progress report
Science in India: A progress report
Over at Science Watch, Christopher King has a short report on the progress of Indian science since 1981. The year 2000 was a major turning point:
In 1985, the number was approximately 12,500, and for the next 15 years the total never much exceeded 14,000. Around the year 2000, however, the number began to tick upwards, rising to nearly 17,000 in 2001, reaching 20,000-plus in 2003, and winding up at more than 27,000 in 2007.
But the citation impact continues to lag the world average in every field (check out the graphs accompanying the report). In physics, for example, citations received per paper from India is about 80 percent of the world average (3.13 vs. 3.96 per paper).
Yet another factoid that caught my attention is this bit about my field:
Materials Science, in fact, is the field in which India displays the steepest growth in representation during the period covered by National Science Indicators. In 1981, only 432 Thomson Reuters-indexed materials papers included an India institutional address—3.68% of the field. In 2007, nearly 2,300 papers with India-based authors were indexed, a share of 6.13%.
Interestingly, the previous issue of Science Watch carried a similar report about China, so some direct comparisons are possible. Overall, the science enterprise in China is about three times as large as that in India, and China's citation figures, like India's, lag behind the world average in all the fields.
Here's some interesting stuff about China's progress in materials science:
China's greatest concentration in the latest five-year period proved to be in materials science, but the change between then and now is striking and illustrative of China's progress. In the previous survey, the nation fielded roughly 15,000 materials papers, or nearly 10.5% of Thomson Reuters-indexed papers in the field. The current figures, by contrast, show more than 27,000 materials papers, representing upwards of 16% of the field. [...]
http://sciencewatch.com/ana/fea/08sepoctFea/
Over at Science Watch, Christopher King has a short report on the progress of Indian science since 1981. The year 2000 was a major turning point:
In 1985, the number was approximately 12,500, and for the next 15 years the total never much exceeded 14,000. Around the year 2000, however, the number began to tick upwards, rising to nearly 17,000 in 2001, reaching 20,000-plus in 2003, and winding up at more than 27,000 in 2007.
But the citation impact continues to lag the world average in every field (check out the graphs accompanying the report). In physics, for example, citations received per paper from India is about 80 percent of the world average (3.13 vs. 3.96 per paper).
Yet another factoid that caught my attention is this bit about my field:
Materials Science, in fact, is the field in which India displays the steepest growth in representation during the period covered by National Science Indicators. In 1981, only 432 Thomson Reuters-indexed materials papers included an India institutional address—3.68% of the field. In 2007, nearly 2,300 papers with India-based authors were indexed, a share of 6.13%.
Interestingly, the previous issue of Science Watch carried a similar report about China, so some direct comparisons are possible. Overall, the science enterprise in China is about three times as large as that in India, and China's citation figures, like India's, lag behind the world average in all the fields.
Here's some interesting stuff about China's progress in materials science:
China's greatest concentration in the latest five-year period proved to be in materials science, but the change between then and now is striking and illustrative of China's progress. In the previous survey, the nation fielded roughly 15,000 materials papers, or nearly 10.5% of Thomson Reuters-indexed papers in the field. The current figures, by contrast, show more than 27,000 materials papers, representing upwards of 16% of the field. [...]
http://sciencewatch.com/ana/fea/08sepoctFea/
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Energy Storage For Hybrid Vehicles
ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2008) — Hybrid technology combines the advantages of combustion engines and electric motors. Scientists are developing high-performance energy storage units, a prerequ
isite for effective hybrid motors.
Prototype of a lithium-polymer accumulator for use in hybrid vehicles. (Credit: Copyright Fraunhofer ISIT)
The vehicle is powered by petroleum on the freeway and by electricity in town, thus using considerably less energy. A hybrid propulsion system switches over to generator operation when the brakes go on, producing electric current that is temporarily stored in a battery. The electric motor uses this current when starting up. This yields tremendous savings, particularly in urban traffic.But up to now, hybrid technology has always had a storage problem. Scientists from three Fraunhofer Institutes are developing new storage modules in a project called “Electromobility Fleet Test”.The pilot project was launched by Volkswagen and Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment BMU together with seven other partners. The Fraunhofer Institutes for Silicon Technology ISIT in Itzehoe, Integrated Circuits IIS in Nuremberg, and Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB in Erlangen will be pooling their expertise for the next three years. The researchers are developing an energy storage module based on lithium-polymer accumulator technology that is suitable for use in vehicles.“This module has to be able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions it will encounter in a hybrid vehicle, and above all it must guarantee high operational reliability and a long service life,” states ISIT scientist Dr. Gerold Neumann, who coordinates the Fraunhofer activities. The researchers hope to reach this goal with new electrode materials that are kinder to the environment.A specially developed battery management system makes the energy storage device more durable and reliable. The experts are also researching into new concepts that will enable large amounts of energy to be stored in a small space. To do this, they integrate mechanical and electrical components in a single module, devising systems for temperature control, performance data registration and high-voltage safety.The tasks involved are distributed between the three Fraunhofer Institutes according to their skills: The ISIT experts, who have long experience in developing and manufacturing lithium accumulators, are manufacturing the cells. Their colleagues at IIS are responsible for battery management and monitoring. The scientists from IISB are contributing their know-how on power electronics components to configure the accumulator modules. The development and configuration of the new energy storage module is expected to be finished by mid-2010. Volkswagen AG – the industrial partner in this project – will then carry out field trials to test the modules’ suitability for everyday use in the vehicles.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/ 080814091059.htm
isite for effective hybrid motors.Prototype of a lithium-polymer accumulator for use in hybrid vehicles. (Credit: Copyright Fraunhofer ISIT)
The vehicle is powered by petroleum on the freeway and by electricity in town, thus using considerably less energy. A hybrid propulsion system switches over to generator operation when the brakes go on, producing electric current that is temporarily stored in a battery. The electric motor uses this current when starting up. This yields tremendous savings, particularly in urban traffic.But up to now, hybrid technology has always had a storage problem. Scientists from three Fraunhofer Institutes are developing new storage modules in a project called “Electromobility Fleet Test”.The pilot project was launched by Volkswagen and Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment BMU together with seven other partners. The Fraunhofer Institutes for Silicon Technology ISIT in Itzehoe, Integrated Circuits IIS in Nuremberg, and Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB in Erlangen will be pooling their expertise for the next three years. The researchers are developing an energy storage module based on lithium-polymer accumulator technology that is suitable for use in vehicles.“This module has to be able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions it will encounter in a hybrid vehicle, and above all it must guarantee high operational reliability and a long service life,” states ISIT scientist Dr. Gerold Neumann, who coordinates the Fraunhofer activities. The researchers hope to reach this goal with new electrode materials that are kinder to the environment.A specially developed battery management system makes the energy storage device more durable and reliable. The experts are also researching into new concepts that will enable large amounts of energy to be stored in a small space. To do this, they integrate mechanical and electrical components in a single module, devising systems for temperature control, performance data registration and high-voltage safety.The tasks involved are distributed between the three Fraunhofer Institutes according to their skills: The ISIT experts, who have long experience in developing and manufacturing lithium accumulators, are manufacturing the cells. Their colleagues at IIS are responsible for battery management and monitoring. The scientists from IISB are contributing their know-how on power electronics components to configure the accumulator modules. The development and configuration of the new energy storage module is expected to be finished by mid-2010. Volkswagen AG – the industrial partner in this project – will then carry out field trials to test the modules’ suitability for everyday use in the vehicles.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/ 080814091059.htm
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