BOOSTING BATTERY POWER, PLANO COMPANY HONORED, DALLAS’ MOBILE 311 TRUCK

Every day, we’re scanning the web, perusing our email, and getting tips about articles you might find interesting. Here are three articles we found today.

How would you like it if your cellphone or car battery could last five times longer? We’d love it. A researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas has made a discovery the may make it possible to attain that kind of battery life. Kyeongjae Cho, Ph.D., professor of materials science and engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has discovered new “catalyst materials” for lithium-air batteries that the university said jumpstarts efforts to expand battery capacity. You can read more about Cho’s work here.

Plano-based OncoNano has been named TECH Fort Worth’s first spotlight winner of 2016 for helping to revolutionize the fight against cancer, according to LaunchDFW. Built in cooperation with the University of Texas Southwestern, OncoNano is led by Ravi Srinivasan. It is working to revolutionize cancer surgery through an injectable agent it created that lights up tumor cells in real time that permits surgeons to remove the tumor and all secondary malignant tissue where that tumor might have spread. For more information, read here.

As the Doobie Brothers’ song might urge, the city of Dallas has been “takin’ it to the streets,” to determine the concerns of its citizens. Since October, the city has been using a truck that visits neighborhoods three times a month to allow residents to pay a water bill or red light ticket, or to express their concerns through the city’s 311 system, and get questions answered by an on-site staffer. Members of the city’s Quality of Life & Environment committee were to be briefed Monday on the effectiveness of the city’s 311 system, NBCDFW reported. Want more? Read here.

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