Feb 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Nanowires, used in sensors, transistors, optoelectronic devices and other systems that require subatomic preciseness, like to stick together. Untangling electrical wires can be a difficult task — imagine trying to separate out wires 1/1000 the width of a human hair. The self-attraction of nanowires has...
New plant-derived cellulose nanocrystal composite is tough as bone and hard as aluminum
Feb 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The strongest part of a tree lies not in its trunk or its sprawling roots, but in the walls of its microscopic cells. A single wood cell wall is constructed from fibers of cellulose — nature’s most abundant polymer, and the main structural component of...
Scientists develop fully woven, smart display
Feb 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An international team of scientists have produced a fully woven smart textile display that integrates active electronic, sensing, energy and photonic functions. The functions are embedded directly into the fibres and yarns, which are manufactured using textile-based industrial processes. The researchers, led by the University...
Cellular tornadoes sculpt our organs (w/video)
Feb 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) How are the different shapes of our organs and tissues generated? To answer this question, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, forced muscle cells to spontaneously reproduce simple shapes in vitro. By confining them on adhesion discs, the biochemists and physicists observed...
New flexible and stretchy supercapacitors could boost ‘battery’ life for Internet of Things
Feb 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Smartwatches, fitness trackers and other Internet of Things devices could get a significant boost to their “battery” life thanks to new, environmentally friendly energy research from the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) and the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), Brazil. In a paper...
Taking a look at nanobubbles
Feb 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The formation and collapse of microscopic bubbles is important in a wide range of fields as both a potential mechanism behind tissue damage, such as in cases of blast-wave-induced traumatic brain injury, and as a useful tool for technology applications, such as mechanical properties evaluation,...
Optimizing methods for stable storage of nucleic acid nanoparticles and their transportation at ambient temperatures
Feb 10, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Advances in nucleic acids research and therapeutic nanotechnology have allowed for the development of rationally designed therapeutic nucleic acids (TNAs) that have played a crucial role in many clinical applications. TNAs have become even more relevant due to the current COVID-19 pandemic as they were...
Future gravitational wave detector in space could uncover secrets of the Universe
Feb 10, 2022 (Nanowerk News) New research has shown that future gravitational wave detections from space will be capable of finding new fundamental fields and potentially shed new light on unexplained aspects of the Universe. Professor Thomas Sotiriou from the University of Nottingham’s Centre of Gravity and Andrea Maselli, researcher...
Scientists find clue to possible extraterrestrial origin of peptides
Feb 10, 2022 (Nanowerk News) All life as we know it consists of the same chemical building blocks. These include peptides, which perform various completely different functions in the body – transporting substances, accelerating reactions or forming stabilising scaffolds in cells. Peptides consist of individual amino acids arranged in a...
Carbon nanotube films open up new prospects for electronics
Feb 10, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Physicists from MIPT and Skoltech have found a way to modify and purposely tune the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes to meet the requirements of novel electronic devices. The paper is published in Carbon ("Terahertz-infrared spectroscopy of wafer-scale films of single-walled carbon nanotubes treated by...