In response to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request, the National Academies have conducted a study to identify improvements that the EPA can make to improve its risk assessment process in the near term (2-5 years) and long term (10-20 years). The objective of the study was to better prepare EPA to meet significant challenges to its current risk assessment model and process that include long delays in the regulatory risk assessment process, a lack of data leading to significant uncertainty in assessments, and numerous chemicals in the marketplace that have not been evaluated .

NPCA|FSCT EDGE Senior Futurist John Meagher sat down with Prof. Leon Fuerth, Vice President Al Gore’s National Security Advisor and a member of the NPCA|FSCT EDGE's Senior Advisory Group in July 2009 to discuss the potential national security and market implications of new developments in stealthy or camouflaging paints and coatings. Prof. Fuerth is currently a research professor at the George Washington University Elliot Public Policy School in Washington DC, where he leads the Forward Engagement Project.

Superabsorbent polymers are polymers that are capable of absorbing and retaining large quantities of water and other aqueous mixtures. They find current commercial application in baby diapers, feminine hygiene products, and adult incontinence products. Emerging applications include medical wound dressings, soil/water stabilization layers in farming and civil engineering structures, food packaging, fiber and metallic cable sealing, lubricants, sealants and cosmetics. Global production of SAP is approximately 1-mt annually.

In 2015 the Chinese chemical sector will be worth nearly €400 billion, up from €137 billion in 2005. This will make China the world’s second-largest chemicals manufacturer after the United States (€600 billion in 2015) and ahead of third-ranked Germany (€200 billion in 2015). China’s share of the global chemicals market will increase from 8% to 13% by 2015. China's demand for paints and coatings has grown at a fast pace in the past decade. In the next five years, both production and demand will continue to grow.

A copper coating reinforced with nano-diamonds was produced by the friction cladding (FC) method. The initial bulk material for the coating (a mixture of copper and nano-diamonds) was obtained by mechanical alloying followed by compaction. During the friction cladding, a flexible tool (rotated brush) transferred micro-particles from the bulk material to the surface to be coated. In this work, the coating was applied to cylindrical workpieces. The rotation regimes for a cylindrical workpiece and the flexible tool (brush) were investigated.

Technology being developed today will help retailers guide paint consumers to more quickly hone in on the colors they desire. Machine vision, backed by facial and gestural recognition software, will be able to scan customers as they look through paint samples and determine changes in their emotional state.