"Also of Interest" for December 5, 2011

[Sharp-eyed regular readers or those with good memories will notice that we no longer have our "Elementals" sub-section; it was just getting to be a lot of extra work for little return, since most of the items there could be found by basic keyword search. This is unlike "Also of Interest", which has the special serendipity factor.]

The "Also of Interest" listing is the embodiment of our belief that engineers are interested in exploring topics which are not directly related to their jobs, but which will broaden their knowledge and sometimes spur further innovative and creative approaches.

Among the publications we check are IEEE Spectrum, Machine Design, Design News, Laser Focus World, Photonics Spectra, NASA Tech Briefs (in its various manifestations), Microwave Journal, RF & Microwaves, and Physics Today—and there are others, as well.

Consider these items as online "extras", and worth a look and a few minutes of your time. (Please note: there are also links to the past weeks' editions of this feature, in the "Navigate" box to the right.)

Also of Interest:

• Hardness tests let engineers check whether materials have been processed correctly:
  "Getting help from hardness testing,"
  Machine Design, July 7, 2011
• Machining issues designers should understand:
  "Think like a machinist when creating solid models,"
  Machine Design, September 8, 2011
• This spill-resistant cup can be used by commuters for general beverage consumption on-the-go:
  "A Zero-Gravity Cup for Drinking Beverages in Microgravity,"
  NASA Tech Briefs, October 2011
• This device can also be used on commercial combustion devices such as furnaces, power generators, and gas-fueled cooking appliances like grills, ranges, and ovens:
  "Catalytic Microtube Rocket Igniter,"
  NASA Tech Briefs, August 2011
• A medical device manufacturer discovered that a large supply of its laser flow cytometers had multiple failures that could not be specifically identified by the company’s internal design team:
  " Reverse-Engineering Addresses Performance Failures in Laser Flow Cytometers,"
  Medical Tech Briefs, October 2011
• Simulation has become crucial to designing and implementing the next generations of fuel cells:
  "Modeling Fuel Cells,"
  Desktop Engineering, November 2011
• Bringing cold atoms to the classroom gives undergraduate students a hands-on way to learn about physics:
  "Cold-Atom Lab in a Box,"
  Photonics Spectra, July 2011
• Use of autobalanced detectors to monitor the sample and reference beams of an interferometric system delivers high bandwidth with improved gain and reduced noise for applications such as optical coherence tomography:
  "Interferometry: Emerging applications push receivers to higher speeds,"
  Laser Focus World, June 2011
• Quantum efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio, resolution, and speed all come into play in the low-light-imaging arena, ICCD cameras can offer a quantifiable improvement over EMCCD- or sCMOS-based cameras at the single-photon level:
  "ICCD, EMCCD, and sCMOS compete in low-light imaging,"
  Laser Focus World, July 2011

• November 30, 2011
• November 23, 2011
• November 16, 2011
• November 9, 2011