Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Fuel cells rescued by batteries

Fuel cells were originally considered to be replacements for internal combustion engines used in traditional vehicles and replacements for traction batteries used in pure electric vehicles. Unfortunately, they have proved woefully incapable of efficiently and economically supporting the frequent load changes of vehicle traction. Thus building ever larger fuel cells was pursued from about 1991 to 2001 but it ended in tears. After that, better batteries, notably NiMH then Li-ion were able to take over even more of the work of traction.

July 27, 2011 Read more

New invisibility cloak hides objects from human view

For the first time, scientists have devised an invisibility cloak material that hides objects from detection using light that is visible to humans. The new device is a leap forward in cloaking materials.

July 27, 2011 Read more

New X-ray camera will reveal big secrets about how chemistry works

Designed to record bursts of images at an unprecedented speed of 4.5 million frames per second, an innovative X-ray camera being built with STFC's world-class engineering expertise will help a major new research facility shed light on the structure of matter.

July 27, 2011 Read more

Multifunctional nanotechnology tool simplifies design and study of nanostructures

Basic operations in the field of nanotechnology that are currently very difficult or impossible to perform can become easy with a new multi-nano tool called FIBLYS. Nanosized components in for example solar cells will be designed and studied in an entirely new way, which the researchers hope will increase the solar cells' energy output with up to 15 percent.

July 27, 2011 Read more

Artificial cilia spur new thinking in nanotechnology (w/video)

Due to the importance of ciliary functions for health, there is great interest in understanding the mechanism that controls the cilias' beating patterns. But learning exactly how cilia movement is coordinated has been challenging. That may be beginning to change as a result of the creation, by a team of Brandeis researchers, of artificial cilia-like structures that dramatically offers a new approach for cilia study.

July 27, 2011 Read more

Prototype tools for mass producing nanostructures to launch in Singapore

The Industrial Consortium On Nanoimprint (ICON), which is headed by the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), a research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), is ready to put roll-to-roll nanoimprint manufacturing to the test.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Got flow cytometry? All you need is five bucks and a cell phone

Researchers at the BioPhotonics Laboratory at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a compact, lightweight and cost-effective optofluidic platform that integrates imaging cytometry and florescent microscopy and can be attached to a cell phone. The resulting device can be used to rapidly image bodily fluids for cell counts or cell analysis.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Researchers create more powerful lab-on-a-chip for genetic analysis

University of British Columbia researchers have invented a silicone chip that could make genetic analysis far more sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective by allowing individual cells to fall into place like balls in a pinball machine.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Nanotechnology for a Viagra patch

Sildenafil citrate, commonly known as Viagra, is currently the first choice drug for erectile dysfunction but despite its success oral delivery of the drug is hampered by numerous side effects, the long delay before it starts working and the short amount of time it lasts. Researchers in Egypt think they may have a solution via nanotechnology.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Researchers graft olfactory receptors onto nanotubes

Penn researchers have helped develop a nanotechnology device that combines carbon nanotubes with olfactory receptor proteins, the cell components in the nose that detect odors.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Lipid-based nanocarriers for drug delivery

Scientists seeking to improve cancer treatments have created a tiny drug transporter that maximizes its ability to silence damaging genes by finding the equivalent of an expressway into a target cell.

July 26, 2011 Read more

One electron could be key to future drugs that repair sunburn

Researchers who have been working for nearly a decade to piece together the process by which an enzyme repairs sun-damaged DNA have finally witnessed the entire process in full detail in the laboratory.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Storing quantum information permanently

Storing quantum information correctly and permanently has not been possible thus far. The latest studies show that topological memory harbours great potential in this respect - but only if the interferences that eventuate stay put instead of spreading.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Progress on research of polymer solar cells

A selection of articles on recent advances in polymer solar cell research.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Biological nanowire interface using piezotronics

Taking advantage of the unique properties of zinc oxide nanowires, researchers have demonstrated a new type of piezoelectric resistive switching device in which the write-read access of memory cells is controlled by electromechanical modulation. Operating on flexible substrates, arrays of these devices could provide a new way to interface the mechanical actions of the biological world to conventional electronic circuitry.

July 26, 2011 Read more

Nanosensor detects minute traces of plastic explosives

Working in collaboration with the RhineMain Polytechnic, materials scientists at the TU Darmstadt have developed an extremely sensitive explosives sensor that is capable of detecting even slight traces of the high-explosive chemical compound pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Terrorists had employed PETN in several attacks on commercial aircraft.

July 26, 2011 Read more