Nov 26, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Thanks to work by scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators, scientists are closer to creating devices that can use microscopic movements in a coordinated way to create coherent motion on a macroscopic scale. This replicates the way living organisms move...
Thermoelectric crystal conductivity reaches a new high
Nov 26, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Just as a voltage difference can generate electric current, a temperature difference can generate a current flow in thermoelectric materials governed by its “Peltier conductivity” (P). Now, researchers from Japan demonstrate an unprecedented large P in a single crystal of Ta2PdSe6 that is 200 times...
New microscope uses photonics to gain insights into superbugs
Nov 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Scientists are building a new super-resolution microscope that uses laser light to study the inner workings and behaviours of superbugs to gain new insights into how they cause disease. The microscope will allow scientists to peer into bacteria like Streptococcus Pneumoniae at a molecular-scale resolution...
using an antiferromagnet for solid devices
Nov 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany, together with collaborators at the Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati, have discovered, for the first time, a giant thermoelectric effect in an antiferromagnet. The study, published in Nature...
DARPA takes first steps towards biomanufacturing capabilities in space
Nov 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) The DoD has a role in orbital and lunar missions as defined by the US Space Force (USSF) Space Capstone Publication (PDF). In this document, USSF notes the "inherent value of the space domain and the tremendous influence space has on U.S. prosperity and security."...
Scientists successfully manipulate a single skyrmion at room temperature
Nov 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators have shown that they can manipulate single skyrmions—tiny magnetic vortices that could be used as computing bits in future ultra-dense information storage devices—using pulses of electric current, at room temperature. Skyrmions—tiny particles that can...
Mars seismic deployment lays groundwork for future planetary missions
Nov 24, 2021 (Nanowerk News) About 1000 days after the Mars InSight mission deployed SEIS, the first seismometer on the red planet, researchers are analyzing new seismic data and reporting on instrument responses, using these data to plan for future planetary seismographs. The reports in a special issue of the...
Artificial vision device capable of mimicking human optical illusions
Nov 25, 2021 (Nanowerk News) NIMS has developed an ionic artificial vision device capable of increasing the edge contrast between the darker and lighter areas of an mage in a manner similar to that of human vision (Nano Letters, "Neuromorphic system for edge information encoding: Emulating retinal center-surround antagonism by...
Doing photon upconversion a solid
Nov 25, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Solid-solution organic crystals have been brought into the quest for superior photon upconversion materials, which transform presently wasted long-wavelength light into more useful shorter wavelength light. Scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology revisited a materials approach previously deemed lackluster – using a molecule originally developed...
Stretchable pressure sensor could lead to better robotics, prosthetics (w/video)
Nov 25, 2021 (Nanowerk News) In the future, soft robotic hands with advanced sensors could help diagnose and care for patients or act as more lifelike prostheses. But one roadblock to encoding soft robotic hands with human-like sensing capabilities and dexterity has been the stretchability of pressure sensors. Although pressure...