Technologies News

Numerical simulation results mapping the acoustic field around a particle that shows the physical operating principle for the 3D acoustic tweezers. 3D trapping node in the microfluidic chamber is created by two superimposed, orthogonal, standing surface acoustic waves and the induced acoustic streaming. Image credit: Tony Jun Huang / Pennsylvania State University.

Acoustic Tweezers Capture, Manipulate Single Cells in 3D

Jan 26, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the United States has demonstrated that ‘acoustic tweezers’ can be used to trap and manipulate single cells along three dimensions...

Holograms are 3D light-fields that can be projected from a 2D surface; Asier Marzo of the University of Bristol and the Public University of Navarre and his colleagues have created acoustic holograms with shapes such as tweezers, twisters and cages that exert forces on particles to levitate and manipulate them. Image credit: Asier Marzo / Bruce Drinkwater / Sriram Subramanian.

European Researchers Create Acoustic Tractor Beam

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists from the United Kingdom and Spain have built the world’s first working acoustic tractor beam. Holograms are 3D light-fields that...

This false-color image shows carbon nanofibers. Image credit: Stuart Licht.

Scientists Turn Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide into Nanofibers

Aug 20, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers led by Dr Stuart Licht of George Washington University has developed a novel method to economically convert atmospheric carbon dioxide...

This image shows a water strider together with robotic insects that can jump on water. Image credit: Seoul National University.

Researchers Create Robotic Water Strider

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers and engineers, led by Dr Kyu-Jin Cho of Seoul National University in Korea, has created an insect-like robot that can jump on water...

A 3D structure of hexagonal boron nitride sheets and boron nitride nanotubes could be a tunable material to control heat in gadgets. Image credit: Rouzbeh Shahsavari / Navid Sakhavand / Rice University.

3D Boron Nitride Could Help Keep Gadgets Cool

Jul 16, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Rice University has completed the first analysis of how 3D boron nitride might be used as a tunable material to control heat flow...

The black phosphorus crystal structure is composed of puckered honeycomb layers with an interlayer distance of 0.5 nm. Image credit: V. Tayari et al.

Black Phosphorus: Alternative to Silicon for Future Electronics

Jul 8, 2015 by News Staff

A new study led by Dr Thomas Szkopek of McGill University suggests that black phosphorus could help researchers surmount one of the big challenges for...

Taxis in New York City. Image credit: Prayitno Hadinata / CC BY 2.0.

Robotic Taxis Could Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Scientists Say

Jul 7, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, per-mile greenhouse gas emissions of an electric vehicle deployed as an autonomous...

The seahorse’s tail is made up of about 36 square-like segments, each composed of four L-shaped corner plates that progressively decrease in size along the length of the tail. Image credit: Shellac / CC BY 2.0.

Seahorse’s Square Tail Could Inspire Future Breakthroughs in Biomedicine, Robotics

Jul 3, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers studying the seahorse’s tail have found that square-shaped tails are better when both grasping and armor are needed. The finding could lead...

Stanford University bioengineers have developed a computer that operates on water droplets. Image credit: Kurt Hickman.

Researchers Build Water Droplet-Based Computer

Jun 9, 2015 by News Staff

A group of bioengineers led by Dr Manu Prakash of Stanford University has developed a synchronous computer that operates using the physics of moving water...

This image shows a nano-lasing device consisting of gold nanoparticle arrays and a microfluidic channel fabricated by sandwiching a 250 μm-thick silicone sheet with a 5-mm-wide and 15-mm-long slit in the center between the gold nanoparticle substrate and a glass microscope slide. Image credit: Ankun Yang et al.

Researchers Create First Liquid Nanoscale Laser

Apr 27, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists from Northwestern University and Duke University has found a way to manufacture a liquid nanoscopic laser whose emission properties...

Laser light enters a synthetic diamond from a facet at its corner and bounces around inside the diamond until its energy is exhausted; this excites the NVs that can be used to measure magnetic fields. Image credit: H. Clevenson / MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Physicists Create Ultrasensitive Magnetometer

Apr 10, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed an ultrasensitive magnetic-field detector that could lead to smaller devices...

Pasig River, Manila, Philippines. Image credit: Bar Fabella / CC BY 2.0

New Low-Cost Method Can Detect Sewage Pollution in Streams, Rivers

Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield, UK, has developed and tested a promising novel method that uses inexpensive samplers (cotton tampons)...

Proton transfer channel across a quad-defect in graphene. Image credit: Murali Raju / Penn State.

Imperfect Graphene Could Lead to Better Fuel Cells, Water Filters

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists headed by Dr Franz Geiger of Northwestern University has found that slightly imperfect graphene shuttles protons, and only protons,...

Scientists have found a way to unboil eggs. Image credit: Eugene Kim / CC BY 2.0.

Scientists Discover How to ‘Uncook’ Egg Whites

Jan 28, 2015 by News Staff

In research that could dramatically reduce costs for cancer treatments and food production, a team of chemists from Australia and the United States, led...

This micromaser is a major step toward building quantum-computing systems out of semiconductor materials; a battery forces electrons to tunnel one by one through two double quantum dots located at each end of a cavity, moving from a higher energy level to a lower energy level and in the process giving off microwaves that build into a coherent beam of light. Image credit: Jason Petta.

Scientists Create Rice Grain-Sized Maser

Jan 16, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Jason Petta of Princeton University has built a rice grain-sized microwave laser, or maser, powered by single electrons...

Ultrasound is focused to create the shape of a virtual sphere. Image credit: © Bristol Interaction and Graphics group, University of Bristol.

New Device Allows Users Touch, Feel 3D Holograms

Dec 3, 2014 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, has created a device that enables its users to touch and feel three-dimensional holograms in thin...

STM image reveals honeycomb structure of germanene. Image credit: M E Dávila et al.

Germanene: European Scientists Synthesize New Cousin of Graphene

Sep 10, 2014 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Spain, Germany and France has managed to synthesize graphene’s cousin – an atom-thin, ordered, two-dimensional material...

This false-color scanning electron micrograph shows Escherichia coli. Image credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories / NIAID / NIH.

Escherichia coli Engineered to Produce Renewable Propane

Sep 6, 2014 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Finland and the United Kingdom has engineered the common gut bacteria, Escherichia coli, to generate renewable propane. This...

This image shows a transparent luminescent solar concentrator module. Image credit: Yimu Zhao.

Scientists Develop Transparent Solar Concentrator

Aug 25, 2014 by News Staff

The newly developed transparent luminescent solar concentrator can be used on buildings, cell phones and any other device that has a clear surface, says...