DIT RESC research is licensed to Irish start-up company

Hot on the heels of receiving Enterprise Ireland's 'One-To-Watch' award, Dr. Fiona Lyng of the DIT Centre for Radiation and Environmental Science has joined forces with Irish business to set up a spin-off company, Raman Diagnostics, to commercialise her research into the diagnosis of cervical cancer with Raman spectroscopy.

See Spectroscopy Europe.

Perimeter Institute publishes live physics resources

The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics has published on its website a section on hot topics in modern physics on the 'What We Research' outreach page. The info includes text, graphics and online presentations dealing with Cosmology, Superstring Theory, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Foundations, Quantum Information and Particle Physics. The resource section at the bottom of each page recommends a wealth of interesting online lectures by some famous scientists.

See Perimeter Institute.

Physics research at Bell is finished

See this: "After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab. Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software."

Sounds like the usual short-sightedness of focusing on today's apparent requirement rather than tomorrow's potential. Fundamental research, like broad-based education, seems to be falling out of favour in lots of places. How far does this go before it's irreversible?

See Wired.