Liu Yang, a 33-year-old fighter pilot, will join two other astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft when it lifts off from a remote Gobi Desert launch site on Saturday evening. They will attempt a manned docking for the first time with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module, launched last September and part of China’s exploratory […]
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Biomedical engineer’s work on platelets wins NSF CAREER Award
Biomedical engineer and pediatric hematologist/oncologist Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, has earned a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation. The four-year, $450,000 award will support Lam’s research on the biomechanical properties of platelets, the cells responsible for blood clot formation. Lam is an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department […]
Cablevision offers self-provision tool to business customers
Cablevision Systems has introduced an online tool that small business customers can use to manage many aspects of their own services, including provisioning services and features. The MSO’s Optimum Business Account Center is an online portal that Optimum Business customers can visit to manage their Internet, voice and video services. One option now enabled is […]
Democrats push FCC, DOJ to scrutinize Verizon AWS deal
A group of House Democrats are urging the FCC and Justice Department to closely scrutinize Verizon Wireless’ purchase of a nationwide block of AWS spectrum from four cable operators. The transaction “may have significant implications for the policy objectives established in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, including the promotion of competition and the expansion of […]
FCC mulls best use of 4.9 GHz band
The FCC has adopted rules allocating 50 MHz of spectrum in the 4.9 GHz band for fixed and mobile wireless services. The Commission is now seeking comment on various issues, including licensing and services rules for the band. The spectrum will allow public safety users to set up temporary mesh networks that support data, voice […]
Sprint hikes fiber backbone to 100G, plans 400G trials
Sprint is increasing the capacity of the high-speed fiber links that connect large areas of its network as part of a modernization project that includes the rollout of LTE in conjunction with the decommissioning of its iDEN network. The operator said Wednesday that it hired Ciena to upgrade its optical backbone network to 40 Gbps […]
Researchers ‘heal’ plasma-damaged semiconductor with treatment of hydrogen radicals
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a highly promising material for a wide range of optical and high-power electronic devices, which can be fabricated by dry etching with plasmas. However, the plasma-induced defects and surface residues that remain after such processes tend to degrade the optical and electrical properties of the devices. A team of Japanese researchers […]
Robotic assistants may adapt to humans in the factory
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In today’s manufacturing plants, the division of labor between humans and robots is quite clear: Large, automated robots are typically cordoned off in metal cages, manipulating heavy machinery and performing repetitive tasks, while humans work in less hazardous areas on jobs requiring finer detail. But according to Julie Shah, the Boeing Career […]
Sprint iDEN teardown advances with vendor picks
With just a year to go before it turns off its iDEN network, Sprint is working to keep the decommissioning on track with the hiring of four contractors who will handle the logistics of shutting down cell sites. Sprint plans to take 9,600 iDEN sites off the air before the end of the third quarter […]
Elemental, CTCSP partner in Japan
Elemental Technologies and Japan’s CTCSP have formed a strategic partnership to provide video encoding and transcoding solutions to streaming service providers in Japan. The partnership brings together Elemental’s high-performance video processing systems and CTCSP’s broad systems integration expertise. The deal formalizes an ongoing relationship. Together, the two companies have already secured as customers Fujitsu Limited, […]