DOE program seeks innovative energy ideas The Department of Energy has launched a new grant program aimed at soliciting the "innovative energy ideas" of individuals and small groups. In the belief that individuals and small groups may be an untapped source of practical, immediately useful ideas that will help solve some of the nation's energy problems, DOE will make awards of up to $50,000 in its Midwest Appropriate Technology Grant Program. Although it probably will be expanded to other regions of the country eventually, the present program is restricted to projects conducted in the six-state region comprising Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Potential awardees include individuals, local nonprofit institutions, state and local public agencies, Indian tribes, and small businesses. DOE says that full patent protection will be granted to successful projects with the provision that the government, for its own use, will have royalty-free rights. DOE will accept proposals in three categories. Concept development includes new uses for old procedures. Full-scale development is aimed at testing of ideas already at hand. Demonstration would prove commercial utility. The program makes available $950,000 and will try to coordinate efforts with state and local agencies having similar programs. The native ingenuity that DOE hopes
to stimulate with the grant program probably will be manifested more in conservation areas than anywhere else. The maximum grant of $50,000 can be received in one year, but no more than the maximum can be received in two years. For concept development grants, the maximum is $10,000. Deadline for proposals is Oct. 23,1978. A trial program was conducted by DOE in the southwestern U.S. last year. In that program, a total of 1116 proposals was submitted, of which only 40 were rejected as technically unfeasible. The 108 grants made in the trial program were concentrated strongly in the solar energy area, with wind power and conservation coming in second and third. California led the parade of successful proposers with 54, but there were six grants made to people in the U.S. Pacific Trust territory. Most of the trial grants were made to individuals (48%) with small business (30%) and nonprofit groups (12%) next in line. Proposals from the Midwest are expected to be concentrated in the agricultural areas, although participation is not limited to that. Biomass conversion and wind power probably will be the biggest fields of interest. DOE says that all proposals received will be reviewed by a group of technical consultants strictly on merit and will not be allocated in any way on the basis of political regions, subject matter, or proposing groups. •
Acoustic microscope achieves high resolution An acoustic microscope with the resolution of an optical microscope has been developed by Stanford University engineer Calvin F. Quate and graduate student Victor Jipson. Such resolution is three times better than in any previous acoustic microscope, they say. In biomedicine, the instrument could resolve the structure of living cells without damaging them. With integrated circuitry and other thin-layer materials, it could uncover hidden stresses and structural fatigue, or perform quality control inspections. Above, for example, the acoustic microscope reveals a mix of several phases within a sample of cobalt-titanium alloy (left)—a structure that is invisible in an optical microscope's image (right). The Stanford device generates its sound waves, 550 nm long, by an oscillator vibrating 20 billion times per second. Focused by a hemispherical lens of sapphire, the waves travel to the object under study through water at 140° C. The object, in turn, is moved back and forth by a second oscillator so that it is scanned by the beam. The sound waves, after penetrating the object, are reflected back through the water and sapphire to a zinc oxide film on the back of the sapphire, where the film transduces the waves into electrical impulses.
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Aug. 21, 1978 C&EN 25
