An
online Adobe Acrobat version of May 2003 Progress Report on
the Federal Building and
Fire Safety
Investigation of the
World
Trade
Center Disaster (NIST Special Publication
1000-3) is available at http://wtc.nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Technology Partnership
NIST Announces
Seven New Advanced Technology Program Awards
A possible cure for cystic fibrosis, a highly efficient method
of producing biodegradable plastics, and an integrated circuit
that could reduce greatly the costs of high-capacity data networks
are among the novel technologies to be developed by the private
sector with support from seven grants announced on May 5, 2003,
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The new awards represent a
total of up to $12.8 million in requested ATP funding and an
industry share of $6 million.
Each of the seven new projects will be led by a small company.
Companies and their projects are:
Agility
Communications (Santa Barbara, Calif.)—Develop a
photonic integrated circuit that integrates a widely tunable laser,
an optical amplifier, and a high-speed optical modulator, dramatically
cutting costs for tunable transmitters widely used in Internet
data systems.
Chicago
PT Inc. (Evanston, Ill.)—Develop and demonstrate
a prototype robotic tool, the kine-assist, that will enable physical
therapists to deliver more intensive and effective rehabilitation
therapy to stroke patients.
ISOGENIS
Inc. (Denver, Colo.)—Develop gene therapy vectors
that both cure disease and prevent
harmful immune response against the therapy, as
well as develop a system to selectively deliver the vectors
to diseased tissues.
Metabolix
Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)—Reengineer the central
metabolism of E. coli bacteria and demonstrate that the new strains
efficiently convert renewable sugars into high-performance biodegradable
polymers.
Mobile
Systems Verification Corp. (Chicago, Ill.)—Develop
next-generation automated testing technology to improve mobile
information system
reliability.
RAPT
Industries Inc. (Livermore, Calif.)—Extend
the capabilities of reactive atom plasma (RAP) processing so
that it can be used
to rapidly shape and
polish delicate optical and semiconductor materials
without damaging them.
Valaran
Corp. (Princeton, N.J.)—Develop and test telecommunications
software that enables secure collaboration among multiple parties
in impromptu groups using heterogeneous mobile wireless devices.
Detailed
information on the seven new ATP projects and
general information about the ATP may be found
at www.atp.nist.gov.
Physics
NIST
Traps, Prepares and Serves Atoms—One at a Time
Getting
a single, constantly moving atom to go exactly where you want
it to is a difficult scientific challenge. In the May 5, 2003,
Applied Physics Letters, NIST physicists describe a new method
that promises to produce individual “atoms on demand,” a
feat likely to warm the hearts of researchers in fields ranging
from nanotechnology to quantum computing to semiconductor processing.
The new method relies on six intersecting laser beams and a
magnetic field to trap neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber.
A “feedback
loop” ensures that only one atom can be loaded into the trap
at a time. The system works by sending a stream of atoms past a laser
tuned to a frequency readily absorbed by that particular atom. The
instant one atom absorbs the laser energy, it enters a lower energy
state and drops into the trap.
While the atom is in the trap it fluoresces. A detector senses this
and the instant the fluorescence stops (indicating the atom has
escaped), it lets another atom in to take its place. If by chance,
two atoms should drop into the trap at once, the detector senses
too much light and dumps them both out by momentarily shutting
off the trap.
So far, the system traps one atom at a time with 99 percent accuracy,
and can eject them at a rate of 10 times per second. The NIST scientists
hope to substantially speed up that rate with further research
and to devise reliable ways to transfer the individual atoms
to adjacent
instrumentation.
For
technical information, contact Jabez McClelland, (301) 975-3721, jabez@nist.gov.
Quality
Baldrige
Index Beaten by S&P 500 After Nine Winning Years
For
the first time since the study began in 1995, the “Baldrige
Index” has under-
performed the Standard & Poor’s 500. The Baldrige Index
is a fictitious stock fund made up of publicly traded U.S. companies
that received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award between
1992 and 2001.
Throughout
the nine years of the study, the Baldrige Index consistently
has outperformed the S&P 500 by as much as 6 to 1. “These
studies have shown that businesses that excel in everything they
do can achieve success in many areas, including the bottom line,” said
Harry Hertz, director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) Baldrige National Quality Program. “This
past year has been a particularly tough one for technology stocks,
which are a very significant component of the Baldrige portfolio.
But, I am confident that in the coming years, the Baldrige Award
winners will continue to excel in their performance, including
in their bottom line,” he said.
In
this latest study, NIST hypothetically “invested” $1,000
in the two whole company winners—Eastman
Chemical Company (1993 winner) and Solectron Corp. (1991 and
1997 winner)—and the parent companies of 19 subsidiary
winners. Another hypothetical $1,000 was invested in the S&P
500 for the same time period. The investment was tracked from
the first business
day of the month following the announcement of the Baldrige Award
recipients (or the date when they began public trading, if it
is later) through Dec. 2, 2002. The two whole company award winners
underperformed the S&P 500 by about -0.71 to 1, with a
-34.19 percent return compared to a 48.02 percent return for
the S&P 500 over the multiyear period. The group of 19 subsidiary
winners underperformed the S&P 500 by approximately -0.53
to 1, with a
-23.74 percent return compared to a 45.16 percent return for
the S&P 500.
In last year’s study, the same two whole company winners—Eastman
Chemical and Solectron—outperformed the S&P 500 by
about 4.5 to 1, while the parent companies of subsidiary winners
outperformed the S&P 500 by about 3 to 1.
More information on all nine of the Baldrige Index studies
is available at http://baldrige.nist.gov/Stock_Studies.htm.