Nanotechnology

Würzburg, Germany — A hand-held laser pointer produces no noticeable recoil forces when it is “fired” – even though it emits a directed stream of light particles. The reason for this is its very large mass compared to the very small recoil impulses that the light particles cause when leaving the laser pointer. However, it […]

Hiroshima, Japan — Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot (QD) LED light. Their new method […]

Beijing, China — The United Nations’ most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report paints a bleak picture for the world’s water supply: Of the 7.8 billion people on Earth, about 4 billion do not have access to sufficiently clean water for at least a month every year. While several water purification schemes have been proposed, […]

South Korea — Scientists from the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM, President Sang Jin Park) under the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore, President Subra Suresh) have developed a technique to create a highly uniform and scalable semiconductor wafer, paving the way to higher cup yield, […]

Tokyo, Japan — Coordination nanosheets are a new and emerging class of two-dimensional materials, rapidly gaining importance in the field of nanomaterials. They consist of metal ions and organic ligand molecules, linked to each other to form one framework, via coordination bonds. These nanosheets act as building blocks, which can be mixed and matched to […]

Osaka, Japan — T cells, also known as lymphocytes, have important roles in various immune reactions. However, there are only a few reports on delivery systems into T cells. Realizing this, it is essential to work and actively contribute in controlling immune systems. Associate Professor Chie Kojima and her co-workers from Department of Applied Chemistry, […]

Pullman, WA — A nanomaterials-engineered penetrating sealer developed by Washington State University researchers is able to better protect concrete from moisture and salt – the two most damaging factors in crumbling concrete infrastructure in northern states.  The novel sealer showed a 75% improvement in repelling water and a 44% improvement in reducing salt damage in […]

Melbourne, Australia — Inspired by the always immaculate lotus leaf, researchers have developed a self-cleaning bioplastic that is sturdy, sustainable and compostable. The innovative plastic developed at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, repels liquids and dirt – just like a lotus leaf – then breaks down rapidly once in soil. RMIT PhD researcher Mehran Ghasemlou, […]

Würzburg, Germany — Graphene is a carbon material that forms extremely thin layers. Because of its unusual properties, it is interesting for many technical applications. This also applies to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be regarded as cut-outs of graphene. They are considered promising materials for organic photovoltaics or for field-effect transistors. Large, single-layer […]

New York, NY — An international team of researchers has discovered that Schwann cells—which are abundant in the peripheral nervous system and create a protective sheath around nerve fibres—play an essential role in migraine pain. Their study, conducted in mice and human Schwann cells and published in Nature Communications, illustrates how pain is signalled from […]

New York, NY — For 15 years, scientists have been baffled by the mysterious way water flows through the tiny passages of carbon nanotubes — pipes with walls that can be just one atom thick. The streams have confounded all theories of fluid dynamics; paradoxically, fluid passes more easily through narrower nanotubes, and in all […]

Washington, DC — Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are a prime example of the promising field of nanomedicine. But progress in the design and application of nanoparticles as efficient delivery vehicles for biopharmaceutics containing nucleic acid or protein drug substances is, unfortunately, remarkably slow. One recent obstacle to drug delivery research is an observed weak correlation […]