Controlling climate change, abandoning dependency on fossil fuels, and creating the conditions for sustainable development will require as great a transformation as our ancestors accomplished over tens of thousands of years in moving from agrarian to urban societies. "Nanotechnology: Engines On" is a new book about how Nanotechnology is contributing to solve this vital challenges.
Mar 18th, 2011
Read moreResearchers at Berkeley Lab have been able to enhance spontaneous magnetization in special versions of the popular multiferroic material bismuth ferrite. What's more, they can turn this magnetization "on/off" through the application of an external electric field, a critical ability for the advancement of spintronic technology.
Mar 18th, 2011
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A major milestone in microfluidics could soon lead to stand-alone, self-powered chips that can diagnose diseases within minutes. The device, developed by an international team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Dublin City University in Ireland and Universidad de Valparaiso Chile, is able to process whole blood samples without the use of external tubing and extra components.
Mar 18th, 2011
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Scientists at CSIRO have developed a simple but effective technique for growing and adding value to an exciting new group of smart materials which could be used in areas such as optical sensing and drug storage and delivery.
Mar 18th, 2011
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Argonne National Laboratory and Nalco Company, with headquarters in Naperville, Ill., have reached a licensing agreement for an electrodeionization technology that will help significantly reduce the cost of producing clean energy and of the chemicals and water used in industry. The separations technology can process biomass-based feedstocks into biofuels and chemicals.
Mar 18th, 2011
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Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory shined a low-power laser - similar in intensity to ones used in office laser pointers - into a solution of gold and carbon nanoparticles suspended in water. Unexpectedly, they found that the carbon nanoparticles decomposed or deformed to create a kind of "glue" that enabled the creation of long gold and carbon chains that assembled continuously wherever the laser was pointed.
Mar 18th, 2011
Read moreGN11 will address challenges and opportunities for nanotechnology, and delineate how companies can incorporate green nanotechnology into its products and processes. The meeting will focus on two key research areas where reduction to practice has the most potential to significantly advance the field. It will highlight state-of-the-art in materials and characterization challenges, and biological impacts of nanotechnology.
Mar 18th, 2011
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Researchers gather to discuss the state of their field and the potential for new treatments.
Mar 18th, 2011
Read moreA team of researchers has integrated tiny detectors capable of counting individual photons on computer chips. These detectors, called "single-photon avalanche diodes (SPAD)," act like mini Geiger counters, producing a "tick" each time a photon is detected.
Mar 17th, 2011
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Radioactive waste decaying down at the dump needs millions of years to stabilize. The element Neptunium, a waste product from uranium reactors, could pose an especially serious health risk should it ever seep its way into groundwater - even 5 million years after its deposition. Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have shown the hazardous waste can be captured and contained.
Mar 17th, 2011
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Modifications of ribonucleic acid mRNA introduced by scientists from the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw in collaboration with the Louisiana State University are blazing a trail for safer and more effective gene drugs. Clinical trials of the first new-generation anti-cancer vaccine, developed in Germany with the aid of the Polish invention, will begin already later this year.
Mar 17th, 2011
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New evidence suggests fluctuating magnetic stripes are the cause of mysterious hourglass magnetic spectrum of high temperature superconductors.
Mar 17th, 2011
Read moreTU Delft has demonstrated that the speed at which inexpensive solar cells are produced can be increased by a factor of ten - and that this can be achieved without any detriment to the energy yield of the cells.
Mar 17th, 2011
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Carbon nanofibers hold promise for technologies ranging from medical imaging devices to precise scientific measurement tools, but the time and expense associated with uniformly creating nanofibers of the correct size has been an obstacle - until now. A new study from North Carolina State University demonstrates an improved method for creating carbon nanofibers of specific sizes, as well as explaining the science behind the method.
Mar 17th, 2011
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Spinpolarisierte Elektronen lassen sich mit Hilfe von akustischen Wellen transportieren. Mit einem raffinierten Versuchsaufbau koennen Physiker verfolgen, wie sich dabei der Spin der Elektronen veraendert.
Mar 17th, 2011
Read morePhysicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeeded in manipulating atoms individually in a lattice of light and in arranging them in arbitrary patterns. These results are an important step towards large scale quantum computing and for the simulation of condensed matter systems.
Mar 17th, 2011
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