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News-Medical—Patients who go to the doctor to provide a blood sample are typically faced with a needle and syringe and hours or days of waiting to get results back from a lab. ���񱦵� researchers hope to change that with a new handheld, sound-based diagnostic system to deliver precise results in an hour with a mere finger prick of blood.

Fourteen teams of University of Colorado entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and graduate student innovators will compete for a combined $1.25 million in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) Showcases. Judges from Venture Partners at ���񱦵�’s entrepreneurial network will hear Shark Tank-style pitches across two nights, one for innovations in biosciences and another for physical sciences and engineering.

Photonics Online—A new variant of liquid crystal is at the core of ���񱦵� startup Polaris Electro-Opstics' technology. Designed as a seamless drop-in enhancer of silicon photonic chips, Polaris's modulator technology paves the way for the next generation of optical interconnects critical to the future of data center disaggregation.

���񱦵� Today—An international team of researchers led by an engineer at ���񱦵� has revealed the underlying mechanism behind battery degradation. Their discovery could help scientists to develop better batteries.

College of Arts & Sciences—���񱦵� Physics Professor Ivan Smalyukh and his team have achieved a remarkable milestone by receiving a Guinness World Records award for creating the world's most transparent material. Their aerogel, which has now been successfully patented, can be added to windows to boost thermal insulation, increasing the overall efficiency of a building.

���񱦵� Today—A ���񱦵�-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken a critical step toward developing a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects.

LASP—To learn more about how dust particles may affect future missions, NASA has awarded $1 million to a team from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at ���񱦵� to develop a Rubik’s cube-sized instrument. Once built and tested, CEDA (Compact Electrostatic Dust Analyzer) will be capable of measuring the speed, size and charge of tiny dust particles on rocky bodies less than 5 kilometers across.

College of Arts and Sciences Magazine—���񱦵� chemist Wei Zhang has developed a novel method to separate gases more efficiently, potentially revolutionizing industries reliant on gas separation technologies. Their breakthrough, which utilizes advanced materials and innovative techniques, promises to reduce energy consumption and enhance the sustainability of these processes.

���񱦵� Today—Researchers at ���񱦵� will soon begin working on what they call the “quantum machine shop” of the 21st century. The U.S. National Science Foundation today announced a $20 million grant to ���񱦵� to launch a facility known as the National Quantum Nanofab (NQN). In this facility, Colorado researchers and quantum specialists from around the country will be able to design and build incredibly small devices that tap into the world of atoms and photons—the tiny packets of energy that make up light.

���񱦵� Today—Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ushered in a new bill to support the state’s rapidly growing quantum industry. Polis signed the bill from the top floor of the JILA Tower, one of the epicenters of quantum research on campus, with a view of the Flatirons in the background.