Technology currently used to prevent infection in medical implants and to prepare microcapsules for drug delivery may also one day help ease concerns about global warming. To investigate this possibility, a novel collaboration has been formed linking a medical school, a university department of chemical engineering, and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

The collaboration was made possible through NETL's University Research Initiative, a program that teams NETL researchers with university professors and students at West Virginia University, the University of Pittsburgh, or Carnegie Mellon University. NETL started the research initiative to strengthen the relationships between the national laboratory and regional universities.

Under the University Research Initiative, NETL scientists are working with the West Virginia University School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh's Chemical Engineering Department on a nanotechnology called "electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly," or LBL. Originally developed for medical applications, the technology shows promise in the development of sorbent technology for the capture of carbon dioxide.

NETL has expertise in developing sorbents - materials that can remove various chemicals from the gases produced by fossil fuel combustion. Some of the sorbents use amines, chemical compounds that contain nitrogen as the key atom, to remove carbon dioxide.

To prepare for CO2 capture, amine sorbents are deposited within a substrate structure - a structure similar to a sponge - in layers. Using nanotechnology, the deposits can be made very uniform - and the more uniform the deposition, the more effective the sorbent is at CO2 removal.

That's where the university researchers come in.

The letters are made of solid polymeric materials dispersed in a liquid solution. The research will be published March 29 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, where it will be illustrated on the cover. The scientists anticipate that their "LithoParticles" will have significant technological and scientific uses.

"We can even choose the font style; if we wanted Times New Roman, we could produce that," said study co-author Thomas G. Mason, a UCLA associate professor of chemistry who holds UCLA's John McTague Career Development Chair.

Lead author Carlos J. Hernandez, a UCLA chemistry graduate student, designed a customized font for the letters and produced them.

"We have demonstrated the power of a new method, at the microscale, to create objects of precisely designed shapes that are highly uniform in size," said Mason, a member of UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute. "They are too small to see with the unaided eye, but with an optical microscope, you can see them clearly; the letters stand out in high fidelity. Our approach also works into the nanoscale."

Hernandez and Mason also have produced particles with different geometric shapes, including triangles, crosses and doughnuts, as well as three-dimensional "Janus particles," which have two differently shaped faces.

"We have made fluorescent lithographic particles, we have made complex three-dimensional shapes and, as shown by UCLA postdoctoral fellow Kun Zhao, we can assemble these particles, for example, in a lock-and-key relationship," said Mason, whose research is at the intersection of chemistry, physics, engineering and biology. "We can mass-produce complex parts having different controlled shapes at a scale much smaller than scientists have been able to produce previously. We have a high degree of control over the parts that we make and are on the verge of making functional devices in solution. We may later be able to configure the parts into more complex and useful assemblies.

The Federal Trade Commission today told the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security that “the government and the private sector must continue to work together to reduce the opportunities for thieves to obtain consumers’ personal information and make it more difficult for thieves to misuse that information if they obtain it.” Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said government and the business community should evaluate whether they need to collect and maintain the data they have about consumers, better-protect the data that they do possess, and develop better ways to authenticate customers to keep identity thieves from using the information they steal.

According to the testimony, “A recent Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, for example, found that, as a result of fears about protecting their identities, 30 percent of consumers polled were limiting their online purchases, and 24 percent were cutting back on their online banking.”

The testimony notes that “since 2001, the Commission has brought fourteen cases challenging businesses that failed to reasonably protect sensitive consumer information that they maintained. . . . Together, the cases stand for the proposition that companies should maintain reasonable and appropriate measures to protect sensitive consumer information.”

The testimony notes that the FTC has participated in an Identity Theft Task Force established by the President to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat identity theft. FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras serves as the Task Force’s co-chair. A set of interim recommendations in the areas of prevention, victim assistance, and law enforcement “have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.” In addition, the Task Force is reviewing approximately 150 comments and recommendations received from consumer advocacy groups, trade associations and identity theft victims in preparation of a final strategic plan and recommendations.

When Satellite Vehicle Number 15 launched Oct. 1, 1990, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the 2nd Space Operations Squadron's mission was markedly different from what it is today, the 2nd SOPS commander noted.

"We did a great job of telemetry, tracking and control for satellites (when SVN-15 was launched)," Lt. Col. Kurt Kuntzelman said. "The mission today has expanded focus from pure satellite command and control to include effects-based operations."

Today, 2nd SOPS provides precision navigation and timing combat effects for war fighters around the world.

"We used to work our shifts, and as long as the satellites were broadcasting their signal and everything looked good on telemetry, we'd pat ourselves on the back," Colonel Kuntzelmen said. "But we didn't really have an appreciation for how people were using that signal. Now we're growing our user operations focus."

Colonel Kuntzelman was a second lieutenant at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., when SVN-15 became operational. At the time, the logistics plans and programs officer was helping to convert B-1B Lancers from a strategic to a conventional role in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.