Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When it comes to sharing its orbit with asteroids, Earth lags behind many of its fellow solar system planets. Trojan asteroids – bodies accompanying Earth along its path around the Sun – have been known to exist for decades alongside other planets. Mars has 9...
Spaceflight rewires cosmonauts’ brains
Feb 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A new study published in Frontiers in Neural Circuits ("Brain Connectometry Changes in Space Travelers After Long-Duration Spaceflight") is the first to analyze the structural connectivity changes that happen in the brain after long-duration spaceflight. The results show significant microstructural changes in several white matter...
Easy aluminum nanoparticles for rapid, efficient hydrogen generation from water
Feb 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Aluminum is a highly reactive metal that can strip oxygen from water molecules to generate hydrogen gas. Its widespread use in products that get wet poses no danger because aluminum instantly reacts with air to acquire a coating of aluminum oxide, which blocks further reactions....
Van der Waals attractions replace additives in new class of printable 2D inks
Feb 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Conventional ink formulations for printing two-dimensional (2D) materials commonly use additives such as surfactants, binders, and rheology modifiers to prevent the inks from becoming thermodynamically unstable. For instance, large concentrations of polymeric binders are needed to increase the viscosity of graphene inks to a level...
International Space Station: how Nasa plans to destroy it
Feb 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Nasa has announced plans for the International Space Station (ISS) to be officially decommissioned in 2031. After dozens of launches since 1998 got the station up and into orbit, bringing it down will be a feat of its own – the risks are serious if...
Biological bandages from a 3D printer, for use in outer space
Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When it comes to burns or abrasions that measure several square centimeters in total area, the body’s self-healing powers are overwhelmed and often only an autologous skin graft can help. But problems arise both during the removal and transplantation of skin, explains Professor Georg Duda,...
Perovskite solar modules with a marble look
Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) At the laboratory, perovskite solar cells already reach efficiencies above 25 percent. Compared to silicon solar cells of similar efficiency, the initial materials used in the former case are cheaper and production methods are simpler. So far, however, this has only been true on the...
Frozen light in graphene
Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the University of Regensburg (Germany), MIPT (Russia), the University of Kansas and MIT (USA) have discovered an abnormally strong absorption of light in magnetised graphene. The effect appears upon the conversion of normal electromagnetic waves into ultra-slow surface waves running along graphene. The...
Monte Carlo simulations bring new focus to electron microscopy
Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) With highly specialized instruments, we can see materials on the nanoscale – but we can’t see what many of them do. That limits researchers’ ability to develop new therapeutics and new technologies that take advantage of their unusual properties. Now, a new method developed by...
Researchers combine piezoelectric thin-film and metasurfaces to create lens with tunable focus
Feb 17, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, researchers have created a metasurface lens that uses a piezoelectric thin film to change focal length when a small voltage is applied. Because it is extremely compact and lightweight, the new lens could be useful for portable medical diagnostic instruments, drone-based...