The National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., has awarded research grants to five engineering research centers that will develop cross-disciplinary programs to address societal problems and to launch new industries. Among the recipients is the Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE) center based at Princeton University in New Jersey. Researchers there will develop technologies that use mid-IR quantum cascade lasers as the basis for a variety of next-generation air-monitoring sensors to reveal toxins released by smokestacks, to monitor greenhouse gases and to warn of possible chemical attack.