Feb 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The research team led by Dr. Kim Tae-hoon of the Department of Functional Composites of the Composites Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, succeeded in developing the world's first multifunctional...
Cooling matter from a distance
Feb 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the University of Basel have succeeded in forming a control loop consisting of two quantum systems separated by a distance of one meter. Within this loop, one quantum system — a vibrating membrane — is cooled by the other — a cloud of...
A new way to store sustainable energy: ‘Information batteries’
Feb 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A future powered by sustainable energy sources could save the world from devastating climate change and reduce energy bills. But renewable energy has an intermittency problem — the sun provides no power at night, while winds can stop suddenly. In addition, power grids must keep...
On the spot drug delivery with light-controlled organic microswimmers
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Science Fiction novelists couldn’t have come up with a crazier plot: microrobots streaming through blood or through other fluids in our body which are driven by light, can carry drugs to cancer cells and drop off the medication on the spot. What sounds like a...
Analysis and containment of defect formation in Zn3P2 crystals: a nanoscale approach
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) is a semiconductor whose properties, including the abundance on our planet of its components, a direct bandgap and a high capacity to absorb light in the visible range, make it an attractive candidate for use in solar cells as an absorber –i.e....
Controlling robots from space
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Astronauts in orbit could soon be using robots to explore lunar or planetary surfaces without having to expose themselves to the dangers of the extraterrestrial environment. A paper by Kjetil Wormnes and his colleagues based at the European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands, published...
More predictive in vitro assays may improve nanomedicine
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are a prime example of the promising field of nanomedicine. But progress in the design and application of nanoparticles as efficient delivery vehicles for biopharmaceutics containing nucleic acid or protein drug substances is, unfortunately, remarkably slow. One recent obstacle to drug...
Novel nanoparticle SARS-CoV-2 vaccine combines immune focusing and self-assembling nanoparticles to elicit more potent protection
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines have been highly effective, but also have limitations: their efficacy can wane without a booster shot, and they may be less effective against some variants. Now scientists at The Wistar Institute have developed a more targeted vaccine that, in...
Artificial intelligence system rapidly predicts how two proteins will attach
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Antibodies, small proteins produced by the immune system, can attach to specific parts of a virus to neutralize it. As scientists continue to battle SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, one possible weapon is a synthetic antibody that binds with the virus’ spike proteins to...
Engineering a multi-element atomic arrangement
Feb 01, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, a research group at the University of Maryland (UMD) has demonstrated the single phase nanoscale multi-principal element intermetallics (MPEIs) with up to 8 different metals – completely devoid of particle growth, or phase separation - via a novel multi-element disorder-to-order strategy....