Nanotechnology News - May 2009 Archives
 | Rice University researchers today announced that the first field tests of "nanorust," the University's revolutionary, low-cost technology for removing arsenic from drinking water, will begin later this year in Guanajuato, Mexico. In the tests, tiny particles of rust will be added to sand in large filters and used to remove arsenic from groundwater. ...> Full Article |
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a molecular structure that could help create current-generating machines at the nanoscale.
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 | A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to "tunnel" as a pack from a state with a higher electrical current to one with a notably lower current, providing more evidence of the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling. ...> Full Article |
By combining the art of origami with nanotechnology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have folded sheets of DNA into multilayered objects with dimensions thousands of times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. These tiny structures could be forerunners of custom-made biomedical nanodevices such as "smart" delivery vehicles that would sneak drugs into patients' cells, where they would dump their cargo on a specific molecular target.
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 | Without knowing how much of an industrial chemical is being produced, it is almost impossible for scientists to determine if it poses any threat to the environment or human health. Civil engineers at Duke University believe they have come up with a novel way of estimating how much of one such material -- titanium dioxide -- is being generated, laying the groundwork for future studies to assess any possible risks. ...> Full Article |
A research team at Northwestern University has demonstrated use of a Nanofountain Probe that can precisely deliver tiny doses of drug-carrying nanomaterials to individual cells.
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Graphene has attracted significant attention due to its potential use in high-performance electronics, sensors and alternative energy devices such as solar cells. While the physics of graphene has been thoroughly explored, chemical functionalization of graphene has proven to be elusive. Now Northwestern University researchers have identified conditions for chemically functionalizing graphene with the organic semiconductor perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride. The chemistry's stability and uniformity suggest that it can be used as a platform for many device applications.
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Substantial advances for applications of nanocrystals in the fields requiring a continuous output of photons and high quantum efficiency may soon be realized due to discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals. This discovery announced by scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory, University of Rochester, Cornell University and Eastman Kodak Company is an important step to the use of nanocrystals in various practical devices ranging from low-threshold lasers to the solar cells and biological imaging and tracking.
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Nature has long perfected the construction of nanomachines, but David Gonzalez and his fellow researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Utrecht University under the leadership of Spinoza Award winner Bert Meijer, have brought the construction of artificial supramolecular structures a step closer by. The researchers managed to carefully control the self-assembly of guanosine, one of the building blocks of our DNA. Their research results were published by Nature Chemistry on April 19.
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Researchers from the Kavli Institute of NanoScience in Delft are the first to have successfully captured a single electron in a highly tunable carbon nanotube double quantum dot. This was made possible by a new approach for producing ultraclean nanotubes. Moreover, the team of researchers, under the leadership of Spinoza winner Leo Kouwenhoven, discovered a new sort of tunneling as a result of which electrons can fly straight through obstacles. The results of the research were published by Nature Nanotechnology on April 5, 2009.
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Researchers analyze forces on DNA in gel
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Applying innovative measurement techniques, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have directly measured the unusual energy spectrum of graphene, a technologically promising, two-dimensional form of carbon that has tantalized and puzzled scientists since its discovery in 2004.
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 | For more than a decade, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to create continuously emitting light sources from individual molecules because of an optical quirk called "blinking," but now scientists at the University of Rochester have uncovered the basic physics behind the phenomenon, and along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light. ...> Full Article |
 | The US military can now calibrate high-power laser systems, such as those intended to defuse unexploded mines, more quickly and easily thanks to a novel nanotube-coated power measurement device developed at NIST. ...> Full Article |
 | The creation of large-area graphene using copper may enable the manufacture of new graphene-based devices that meet the scaling requirements of the semiconductor industry, leading to faster computers and electronics, according to a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Texas at Austin. ...> Full Article |
UCLA physicists have created the world's smallest incandescent lamp using a filament made from a single carbon nanotube only 100 atoms wide. Invisible to the untrained eye, the filament appears as a tiny point of light when the lamp is turned on. Even with the best optical microscope it is only just possible to resolve the nanotube's nonzero length. The team uses an electron microscope capable of atomic resolution to image the filament's true structure.
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A lattice of vanadium dioxide molecules just six atoms thick in which electrons appear to be guided by conflicting laws of physics depending on their direction of travel has been modeled by a team of physicists at the University of California, Davis. Its unique properties could open up a new world of possibilities in the emerging field of spintronics technology, which takes advantage of the magnetic as well as the electric properties of electrons in the design of novel electronic devices.
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Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, have demonstrated, for the first time, that the activation energy of impurities in semiconductor nanowires is affected by the surrounding dielectric and can be modified by the choice of the nanowire embedding medium.
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Gold nanorods could detect, treat cancer
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 | Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes. ...> Full Article |
Kondo effect noted in single-atom contacts of pure ferromagnets
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Scientists discover 'catastrophic event' behind the halt of star birth in early galaxy formation
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone
Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
Tracking down the human 'odorprint'
Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
Researchers discover new way of producing electricity
Trapping sunlight with silicon nanowires
Researchers gain detailed insight into failing heart cells using new nano technique
Scientists glimpse nanobubbles on super non-stick surfaces
A new way forward for nanocomposite nanostructures
Nanotechnologists collaborate to form near-frictionless diamond material