Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at PSI have compared the electron distribution below the oxide layer of two semiconductors. The investigation is part of an effort to develop particularly stable quantum bits –and thus, in turn, particularly efficient quantum computers. They have now published their latest research in the...
Watching the charge move in photoexcited molecules
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An international research team led by Markus Gühr’s group at the University of Potsdam performed laser experiments at DESY's free-electron laser FLASH to monitor charge motions in light-excited molecules of thiouracil, which is a modified nucleobase. This class of molecules has a variety of medical...
Enhancing simulations of curved space with qubits
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) One of the mind-bending ideas that physicists and mathematicians have come up with is that space itself—not just objects in space—can be curved. When space curves (as happens dramatically near a black hole), sizes and directions defy normal intuition. Something as straightforward as defining a...
Impossible material made possible inside a graphene sandwich
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The design of new materials allows for either improved efficiency of known applications or totally new applications that were out of reach with the previously existing materials. Indeed, tens of thousands of conventional materials such as metals and their alloys have been identified over the...
New type of supernova discovered
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In the not-so-distant past, the discovery of a supernova – an exploding star – was considered a rare occasion. When Prof. Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute’s Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department was a doctoral student, for example, he located seven of them over the...
‘Superpower’ nano bubbles could treat, prevent current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at Northwestern Medicine and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified natural nano-bubbles containing the ACE2 protein (evACE2) in the blood of COVID-19 patients and discovered these nano-sized particles can block infection from broad strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies....
comprehensive detection of on- and off-target mutations
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Sometimes the smallest action can have unintended consequences, like the proverbial flap of a butterfly’s wings. So, when making small changes, it’s important to be alert to large effects, such as when using gene editing technology to create new mutations. In a study published in...
a new way to control the polarization of light
Jan 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For quantum communication or optical computing it is important to measure and to influence in which direction a light wave is oscillating. It is now for the first time possible to manipulate this polarization of a continuous laser wave with a special glass fibre, which...
Researchers use electrically responsive fluid to make eye-like adaptive lens
Jan 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed an adaptive liquid lens based on a new electrically responsive fluid called dibutyl adipate (DBA) that changes focal length when a voltage is applied. The lens is lightweight, compact and simple to fabricate, which makes it ideal for mobile phone cameras, endoscopes,...
When graphene speaks, scientists can now listen (w/video)
Jan 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) It may be true that seeing is believing, but sometimes hearing can be better. Case in point: Two brothers in a Rice University laboratory heard something unusual while making graphene. Ultimately, they determined the sound itself could give them valuable data about the product. The...