Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at ITMO University are the first in the world to develop a platform that predicts the catalytic activity of nanozymes, a type of artificial enzymes (Small, "DiZyme: Open-Access Expandable Resource for Quantitative Prediction of Nanozyme Catalytic Activity"). It takes seconds for the new algorithm...
Researchers develop novel microscopic picoshell particles
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Production of high-energy fats by microalgae may provide a sustainable, renewable energy source that can help tackle climate change. However, microalgae engineered to produce lipids rapidly usually grow slowly themselves, making it difficult to increase overall yields. UCLA bioengineers have created a new type of...
Astronomers confirm a highly eccentric black hole merger for the first time
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, scientists believe they have detected a merger of two black holes with eccentric orbits. According to a paper published in Nature Astronomy ("Eccentricity estimate for black hole mergers with numerical relativity simulations") by researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for...
Germanium halides serve as ideal precursors to synthesize high-quality perovskite nanocrystals
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Organohalides are widely adopted to serve as halide source in traditional three-precursors route to obtain metal halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs). However, these organohalides are usually highly toxic, which is unfavorable for large-scale and sustainable use. Moreover, their efficacy in producing high-quality Pb-free PNCs is questionable....
Researchers design an artificial light-fuelled molecular machine
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A molecular machine is a series of molecules that can conduct different mechanical movements as a response to a stimulus. This is a key structure for the development of different cellular functions. Professor Lluïsa Pérez-García, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the...
Scientists build ‘valves’ in DNA to shape biological information flows
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at the University of Bristol have developed new biological parts that are able to shape the flow of cellular processes along DNA. The work, now published in the journal Nature Communications ("Massively parallel characterization of transcript isoforms using direct RNA sequencing"), offers a fresh...
Experiment with turnstiles of single electrons shows way towards new power standard
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The world’s most commonly used system of measurement, the International System of Units (SI), was redefined in 2019. Since then, units have needed to be defined in terms of the constants of Nature – that is, Nature’s rules that are fixed and of no uncertainty,...
New efficiency record for perovskite solar cell technology
Jan 21, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has set a new record in the power conversion efficiency of solar cells made using perovskite and organic materials. This technological breakthrough paves the way for flexible, light-weight, low cost and ultra-thin photovoltaic cells...
Theory predicts new type of bond that assembles nanoparticle crystals
Jan 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Entropy, a physical property often explained as “disorder,” is revealed as a creator of order with a new bonding theory developed at the University of Michigan and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("A theory of entropic bonding"). Engineers dream of...
Crystallography for the misfit crystals
Jan 20, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Francis Crick, who famously co-discovered the shape of DNA, once said: “If you want to understand function, study structure.” Many decades later, this remains a tenet of biology, chemistry, and materials science. A key breakthrough in the quest for DNA’s structure came from X-ray crystallography,...