Herald staff and news services

Microvision Inc. of Bothell has demonstrated for the first time a new ultralow-power technique for scanning a beam of light that could improve high-resolution electronic displays and imaging systems. The company said on Tuesday that the new technique requires a hundred times less electrical energy than the current system. The development is important to Microvision’s development of miniature scanning laser cameras for applications ranging from bar-code scanning to industrial and medical imaging.

Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc. announced Tuesday that it will present favorable results from Phase 1 tests of its brain cancer treatment. The data, to be presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, apparently shows the Bothell company’s DCVax-Brain treatment can slow the progression rate of glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer in some patients. Based on these results, the company recently received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to conduct Phase 2 clinical trials on newly diagnosed and recurring patients with glioblastoma, the most common and most lethal form of brain cancer.

Orders to U.S. factories dipped 0.1 percent in February as weaker demand for computers and cars eclipsed gains for household appliances and industrial machinery. The decline was the first drop in orders since November and followed a strong increase in January, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The weaker than expected performance in orders for a wide variety of manufactured goods comes just one day after a more forward-looking report offered some good news for the sector. The Institute for Supply Management reported that a key gauge of manufacturing activity flashed a growth signal in March for the second straight month, a sign that manufacturing is staging a comeback.

General Motors Corp. on Tuesday reported its U.S. vehicle sales slipped 1.7 percent last month from a year ago, while Ford Motor Co.’s sales sank 12.6 percent and sales by the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler AG were down 3.8 percent. GM, the world’s largest automaker, reported its light truck sales increased 8.7 percent in March compared with a year ago, while passenger car sales declined 12.9 percent. For the first quarter, sales of GM vehicles fell 4.2 percent from the same period in 2001, with car sales down 21.7 percent and truck sales up 13.6 percent. Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars were 12.7 percent lower in March than a year ago, and light truck sales decreased 12.5 percent.

Herald staff and news services