Nanotechnologies News

Light-controlled neuron activation using optogenetics allows modulation of specific circuits but is invasive and requires genetic engineering. Researchers from the University of Chicago have developed a silicon-based nanowire that allows light modulation of neurons without genetic engineering, paving the way for optical control of neural activity to other neurological models. Image credit: Gerry Shaw / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Develop Nanowiring for Optical Control of Neuron Activation

Feb 23, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Researchers have designed silicon nanowires that allow modulation neuronal activity using light, allowing manipulation of specific neural circuits without...

A chip with a Coulomb blockade thermometer on it is prepared for experiments at extremely low temperatures. Image credit: University of Basel.

Researchers Create World’s Coldest Chip

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

University of Basel’s Professor Dominik Zumbühl and colleagues have succeeded in magnetically cooling a nanoelectronic device to a temperature of 2.8...

Professor Adamson and co-authors demonstrated the use of an interfacial trapping technique to assemble laterally macroscopic films of pristine graphene that are up to 95% transparent. Image credit: Woltornist et al, doi: 10.1021/nn402371c.

U.S. Chemists Develop, Patent New Process for Synthesis of Pristine Graphene

Aug 30, 2017 by News Staff

A research team at the University of Connecticut, led by Professor Douglas Adamson, has developed and patented a one-of-a-kind process for exfoliating...

Scheme of a waveguide-integrated plasmonic nanoantenna for mode-selective polarization (de)multiplexing. The device couples light of orthogonal polarizations into different directions and modes of the underlying silicon waveguide. Image credit: Guo et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1700007.

Optical Nanoantenna Promises Ultra-Fast Graphics on Gaming Consoles, PCs

Jul 20, 2017 by News Staff

A group of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and elsewhere has designed a nanoantenna — a device which is 100 times thinner...

Five Ways Nanoscience is Making Science Fiction into Fact

Feb 16, 2017 by Josh Davies, Cardiff University

Russian author Boris Zhitkov wrote the 1931 short story Microhands, in which the narrator creates miniature hands to carry out intricate surgeries. And...

Schematic of a transistor with a molybdenum disulfide channel and 1-nm carbon nanotube gate. Image credit: Sujay Desai / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Researchers Create World’s Smallest Transistor

Oct 6, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists headed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher Prof. Ali Javey has used carbon nanotubes and a compound called molybdenum...

Top and side views of 136-atom (upper row) and 374-atom (lower row) silver nanoclusters: the metal cores of these clusters have a diameter of 2 and 3 nm, respectively; silver atoms in the metal core are denoted by large orange sphere; the core is protected by a silver-thiol layer (green: silver; yellow: sulfur; carbon: gray. Image credit: Huayan Yang et al.

Researchers Create Record-Breaking Silver Nanoparticles

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has synthesized and characterized two diamond-shaped nanoclusters of 136 and 374 silver atoms. Top and side views...

STM image (96 x 126 nm) of a 1,016-byte atomic memory, written to a passage from physicist Richard Feynman’s lecture ‘There’s plenty of room at the bottom.’ The various markers used are explained in the legend below the images. The memory consists of 127 functional blocks and 17 broken blocks. Image credit: F.E. Kalff et al.

‘Atomic Memory’ Device Uses Single Atoms to Store Information

Jul 19, 2016 by News Staff

An international group of researchers from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands has demonstrated an atomic-scale memory device with a storage density of...

Reversible assembly of light-powered nano-engines. pNIPAM - poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). Image credit: Tao Ding et al / University of Cambridge.

Researchers Develop Light-Powered Nano-Engine

May 4, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, has developed a nanoscale engine — just a few billionths of a meter in size — which...

Scientists in Canada have developed DNA-based thermometers that allow to measure temperature at the nanoscale. Image credit: Kotkoa.

Researchers Use DNA to Create World’s Smallest Thermometer

Apr 27, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Montreal, Canada, has created a DNA-based nanothermometer that is 20,000 times smaller than a human hair. Scientists...

The smallest lattice in the world: its struts and braces are 0.2 µm in diameter; total size of the lattice is about 10 µm. Image credit: Jens Bauer / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Researchers Create Smallest Ever Lattice Structure

Feb 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, has created a glassy carbon nanolattice with single struts shorter than 1 μm...

U.S. scientists have created UV light-driven, single-molecule submersibles. Image credit: Loic Samuel / Rice University.

Researchers Create Light-Driven Submersible Nanomachines

Nov 17, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University has created UV light-driven, unimolecular ‘submarines’ that contain...

Light emission from graphene suspended above a silicon chip. Image credit: Young Duck Kim / Columbia University.

Researchers Create ‘Light Bulb’ with Graphene Filament

Jun 15, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time a visible light source using graphene as a filament. Optical image of remarkably bright visible light emission...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a single Archimedean nano-spiral. Image credit: Haglund Laboratory / Vanderbilt University.

Gold Nano-Spirals Could Protect Against Identity Theft

Jun 4, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr Roderick Davidson II of Vanderbilt University has created nano-spirals with unique optical properties that would be almost...

Molecular structure of thiophene-1,1-dioxide oligomers and schematic of the molecular junction created using asymmetric area electrodes. Image credit: Brian Capozzi et al.

Scientists Create Single-Molecule Diode

May 26, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists led by Dr Latha Venkataraman of Columbia University has developed a single-molecule diode that may have real-world technological...

This transparent and photoluminescent nanocellulose paper could lead to sustainable, roll-up electronics. Image credit: American Chemical Society.

Researchers Create Glowing Nanocellulose Paper

May 20, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Sichuan University in China has developed the first light-emitting, transparent and flexible paper out of environmentally friendly...

The artificial photosynthesis system has four general components: (i) harvesting solar energy; (ii) generating reducing equivalents; (iii) reducing carbon dioxide to biosynthetic intermediates, and (iv) producing value-added chemicals.

Scientists Create Artificial Photosynthesis System

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute,...

Silicene transistor: Vg, Vs and Vd are the gate, source and drain voltages. Image credit: Li Tao

Researchers Create First Silicene Transistor

Feb 4, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Dr Li Tao from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, has created the first transistor made of silicene,...

Combinatorial and modular genetic strategy for engineering self-assembling underwater adhesives; abbreviations: Mfps - mussel foot proteins (Mfp3 and Mfp5 - major mussel adhesive foot proteins, have unstructured coil structures in solution and are critical to the underwater interfacial adhesion of mussels); CsgA - an amyloidogenic protein that is the major subunit of adhesive curli ﬁber in Escherichia coli (contains five stacked strand–loop–strand motifs mediated by conserved residues and can self-assemble into nanofibers via a rate-limiting nucleation step followed by fibril extension). Image credit: Chao Zhong et al.

Mussel-Inspired Waterproof Adhesives Could Help Heal Wounds, Repair Ships

Sep 23, 2014 by News Staff

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed new mussel-inspired waterproof adhesives that could be used to heal wounds or repair...