Feature Channels: Nanotechnology

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MIT and Brookhaven Lab scientists use electron microscopy imaging techniques to settle a solid-state controversy and raise new experimental possibilities

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Columbia University researchers have grown high-quality crystals of molybdenum disulfide, the world’s thinnest semiconductor, and studied how these crystals stitch together at the atomic scale to form continuous sheets, gaining key insights into the optical and electronic properties of this new “wonder” material.

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The results of a new study led by George Washington University Professor Tianshu Li provide direct computational evidence that nucleation of ice in small droplets is strongly size-dependent, an important conclusion in understanding water’s behavior at the nanoscale.

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DNA “linker” strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement—with the rods forming “rungs” on ladder-like ribbons could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.

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Some materials dissolve too quickly, before cardiac arteries can fully heal, and some hang around forever. Zinc, however, may be just right.

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Ultra-precise method for doping the tiny semiconductors produces vivid hues.

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University of Delaware researcher John Xiao and his team report a fundamental finding in the journal Nature Communications that will help advance the development of next-generation electronics called "spintronics."

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The latest research from a Kansas State University chemical engineer may help improve humidity and pressure sensors, particularly those used in outer space.

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Researchers have discovered a technique for controlling the sensitivity of graphene chemical sensors.

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University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and systems to convert waste heat to electricity.

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Breast cancer brain metastases present a challenge to clinicians because there are few systemic therapies capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier to control the disease. An international team, led by scientists at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, reports pre-clinical research showing improved efficacy of a PEGylated liposomal (encapsulated) anti-cancer agent compared with a non-liposomal formulation of the same drug in an intracranial model of breast cancer. The study results were published online in the May 1, 2013 issue of PLOS ONE.

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Sperm cell release can be triggered by tightening the grip around the delivery organ, according to a team of nano and microsystems engineers and plant biologists at the University of Montreal and Concordia University.

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Scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have invented a technique for imaging nanoparticle dynamics with atomic resolution as these dynamics occur in a liquid environment.

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Increase in gold nanoparticles can accelerate aging and wrinkling, slow wound healing, cause onset of diabetes.

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An Indiana University School of Medicine breast cancer surgeon Susan Clare, M.D., Ph.D., is pursuing research that will utilize glass, gold, nanotechnology and Greek mythology hoping to vanquish breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain.

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Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a “nanosponge” capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream – including toxins produced by MRSA, E. coli, poisonous snakes and bees.

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A new process for growing forests of manganese dioxide nanorods may lead to the next generation of high-performance capacitors.

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Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed a method for making a material that conducts electrons ten times faster than silicon.

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McGill researchers demonstrate new way to control light in semiconductor nanocrystals.

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Controlling the shapes of nanometer-sized catalytic and electrocatalytic particles made from noble metals such as platinum and palladium may be more complicated than previously thought.

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Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to kill deadly pathogenic bacteria, including listeria, in food handling and packaging. This innovation represents an alternative to the use of antibiotics or chemical decontamination in food supply systems.

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Mention a breakthrough involving “gumbo” technology in this city, and people think of a new twist on The Local Dish, the stew that’s the quintessence of southern Louisiana cooking. But scientific presentations at a meeting of the world’s largest scientific society this week are focusing on what may be an advance in developing GUMBOS-based materials with far-reaching medical, electronic and other uses.

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Earlier efforts to determine the health and environmental effects of the nanoparticles that are finding use in hundreds of consumer products may have produced misleading results by embracing traditional toxicology tests that do not take into account the unique properties of bits of material so small that 100,000 could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.

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Cuts in federal funding of nanotechnology research threaten to slow progress toward some of the field’s greatest promises, including commercialization of sustainable new energy sources that do not contribute to global warming, an international authority in the field cautioned here today.

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Engineers at the University of California, San Diego are developing nanofoams that could be used to make better body armor; prevent traumatic brain injury and blast-related lung injuries in soldiers; and protect buildings from impacts and blasts. It’s the first time researchers are investigating the use of nanofoams for structural protection.

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Doses of medicine 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair prevent the tissue damage associated with atherosclerosis and other chronic diseases in mice.

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Researchers have developed biodegradable nanoparticles that are capable of delivering inflammation-resolving drugs to sites of tissue injury. The nanoparticles, which were successfully tested in mice, have potential for the treatment of a wide array of diseases characterized by excessive inflammation, such as atherosclerosis. The study was published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

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A new x-ray imaging technique yields unprecedented measurements of nanoscale structures ranging from superconductors to solar cells.

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Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

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Sometimes the best discoveries come by accident. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, headed by Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, unexpectedly found the mechanism by which tiny single molecules spontaneously grow into centimeter-long microtubes by leaving a dish for a different experiment in the refrigerator.

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A new article in JoVE demonstrates the fabrication and folding of self assembling, origami inspired particles.

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Canada-US-Italian research team develops a cocaine biosensor inspired from nature. Since the beginning of time, living organisms have developed ingenious mechanisms to monitor their environment. As part of an international study, a team of researchers has adapted some of these natural mechanisms to detect specific molecules such as cocaine more accurately and quickly. Their work may greatly facilitate the rapid screening—less than five minutes—of many drugs, infectious diseases, and cancers.

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By loading fragile RNA into silicon nanoparticles, researchers have found a new drug delivery system can reduce the size of ovarian tumors by as much as 83 percent -- and stop tumor growth in chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer tissue.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have devised a way to detect whether cells previously transplanted into a living animal are alive or dead, an innovation they say is likely to speed the development of cell replacement therapies for conditions such as liver failure and type 1 diabetes. As reported in the March issue of Nature Materials, the study used nanoscale pH sensors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to tell if liver cells injected into mice survived over time.

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A new platform to support and extend the viability of proteins for scientific study has been developed through work done as part of the doctoral studies of a recent University of Alabama in Huntsville doctoral graduate.

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By cloaking nanoparticles in the membranes of white blood cells, scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute may have found a way to prevent the body from recognizing and destroying them before they deliver their drug payloads.

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By bringing nanophotonics technology to traditional optical spectroscopy, a new kind of optical spectrometer with functions of sensing and spectral measurement has been recently demonstrated by a research team at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

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Super-small particles of silicon react with water to produce hydrogen almost instantaneously without the need for light, heat or electricity, according to new University at Buffalo research.

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A Kansas State University researcher is developing more efficient ways to save costs, time and energy when creating nanomaterials and lithium-ion batteries.

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The University of South Carolina's Chuanbing Tang is a research leader in the move to fabricate microelectronics with a "bottom-up" approach.

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Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute investigators have invented a way to directly image biological structures at their most fundamental level and in their natural habitats.

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Vasily Kolchenko, associate professor of biological sciences at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), is a key player on a research team that recently made a breakthrough with enormous potential significance for the treatment of serious diseases.

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A new material created by Cornell University researchers is so soft it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape. It is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like a sponge, and qualifies as a "metamaterial" with properties not found in nature.

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Three University of Chicago chemistry professors hope that their separate research trajectories will converge to create a new way of assembling what they call “designer atoms” into materials with a broad array of potentially useful properties and functions.

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A team of interdisciplinary researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a new method for significantly increasing the heat transfer rate across two different materials. Results of the team’s study, published in the journal Nature Materials, could enable new advances in cooling computer chips and lighting-emitting diode (LED) devices, collecting solar power, harvesting waste heat, and other applications.

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Arthrobotrys oligospora doesn’t live a charmed life; it survives on a diet of roundworm. But a discovery by a team led by Mingjun Zhang, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, could give the fungus's life more purpose—as a cancer fighter.

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A medical sensor that attaches to the skin like a temporary tattoo could make it easier for doctors to detect metabolic problems in patients and for coaches to fine-tune athletes’ training routines. And the entire sensor comes in a thin, flexible package shaped like a smiley face.

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Say goodbye to that annoying buzz created by overhead fluorescent light bulbs in your office. Scientists at Wake Forest University have developed a flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting. The research using FIPEL technology is described in the journal Organic Electronics and soon will have home applications as well.

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Using a combination of the new tools of metamaterials and transformation optics, engineers at Penn State University have developed designs for miniaturized optical devices that can be used in chip-based optical integrated circuits.