Volume 4, Number 2 May/June 1996
NASA, industry and university researchers have developed an optical instrument that can generate the world's most intense x-rays, a breakthrough that will result in quicker and more accurate scientific and medical research.
The three-year collaboration among NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., X-ray Optical Systems, Inc., Albany, New York, and the Center for X-ray Optics of the State University of New York at Albany resulted in an instrument that is capable of generating beams more than 100 times the intensity of conventional x-ray sources.
This new instrument can control the direction of x-ray beams, which has never been possible, said Dr. Walter Gibson, professor of physics at the State University of New York at Albany.
New capillary optics technology is at the heart of the instrument. The University of New York at Albany incorporated the special optics manufactured by X-ray Optical Systems into the new x-ray lens system it designed under NASA contract. This instrument could result in smaller, cheaper and safer x-ray sources and make some research more feasible in standard x-ray laboratories.
"The x-rays are controlled by reflecting them through tens of thousands of tiny curved channels or capillaries, similar to the way light is directed through fiber optics," said Gibson. "Thus, we are able to concentrate the beams to suit the particular needs of the intended research or medical procedure."
Marshall researchers use the new x-ray instrument to determine the atomic structure of important proteins targeted for drug design by leading pharmaceutical companies. "Our current research efforts focus on many difficult public health problems such as cancer, AIDS and heart disease. This new capillary x-ray technology will allow us to pursue more challenging research problems in our own laboratory with a speed and effectiveness never before possible," said Dr. Daniel Carter of Marshall's Laboratory for Structural Biology.
"We expect this new technology to significantly accelerate the ability of researchers to gather the information necessary to design entire families of highly-effective, disease-fighting drugs," said Carter.
X-ray Optics President, David Gibson, said the new technology has many commercial applications including better manufacturing control for semi-conductor circuits, better medical imaging such as in mammography and improved forensics.
"As a result of working with NASA and the State University of New York at Albany, we have developed x-ray optics which will provide important commercial benefits to a broad range of industries," David Gibson said.
For more information, contact Dr. Daniel C. Carter at Marshall Space Flight Center. Phone: 205/544-5492, E-mail: Dan.Carter@msfc.nasa.gov Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
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COSMIC (Computer Software Management and Information Center) is currently transitioning into an innovative partnership with NASA to foster the commercialization of NASA software. The new business approach builds upon the center's successful track record in processing and distributing NASA software to the industry, government and academic sectors. COSMIC provides access to state-of-the-art NASA software and supporting services to enable commercial application and development. COSMIC's new Director, Tim Peacock, has applied his business background in software production and quality control to streamline and improve the validation of NASA software. Software reliability and stability is enhanced using ISO 9000 quality assurance techniques. "We will put our expertise and 29 years of experience to work for you and your company," said Tim Peacock. As part of the NASA Commercial Technology Network, COSMIC maintains a unique inventory of advanced software technology produced for NASA projects. There are currently over 800 computer programs in the COSMIC inventory with new programs added every month. COSMIC offers first line support and porting services and will assist commercialization activities with NASA. Software is available in a wide range of areas, including: artificial intelligence, computational fluid dynamics, finite element structural analysis, scientific visualization, and thermal and fluid flow analysis. Programs are priced on a cost-recovery basis and most include source code. For more information on NASA software, COSMIC services, and COSMIC software catalog, please call (706) 542-3265 or visit the COSMIC Web site (http://www.cosmic.uga.edu). The COSMIC catalog of NASA software is available electronically at no charge. |
