Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) No one would ever imagine crumpling up their smartphone, television or another electronic device. Today’s displays – which are flat, rigid and fragile – lack the ability to reshape to interactively respond to users. As part of an overarching quest to build “skin-inspired” electronics that...
Revamped design could take powerful biological computers from the test tube to the cell
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Tiny biological computers made of DNA could revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat a slew of diseases, once the technology is fully fleshed out. However, a major stumbling block for these DNA-based devices, which can operate in both cells and liquid solutions, has been...
Quantum sensors: Measuring even more precisely
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Atomic clocks are the best sensors mankind has ever built. Today, they can be found in national standards institutes or satellites of navigation systems. Scientists all over the world are working to further optimize the precision of these clocks. Now, a research group led by...
Getting the thick and thin on the Milky-Way’s evolution
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) German researchers say that they have been working out how our galaxy formed. The team say that the Milky-Way likely evolved in a few different phases, starting with forming populations of stellar material and stars in a thin disk - as opposed to material that...
Astronomers map the movement of white dwarfs of the Milky Way
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) White dwarfs were once normal stars similar to the Sun but then collapsed after exhausting all their fuel. These interstellar remnants have historically been difficult to study. However, a recent study from Lund University in Sweden reveals new information about the movement patterns of these...
Feeding silkworms carbon dots to produce brightly fluorescent silk
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Silk fibers produced by Bombyx mori, the domestic silkworm, have been prized for millennia as a strong yet lightweight and luxurious material. Although synthetic polymers like nylon and polyester are less costly, they do not compare to silk's natural qualities and mechanical properties. More recently,...
Growing uniformly sized nanodiamonds
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Diamonds aren’t just glittery, sparkly gems for jewelry. The smallest ones, only a few nanometers wide, are also crucial for drug delivery, sensors and quantum computer processors. Producing diamond nanoparticles that are consistently sized is important to the success of these technologies. Now, scientists report...
Biodegradable implant could help doctors monitor brain chemistry
Mar 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A wireless, biodegradable sensor could offer doctors a way to monitor changes in brain chemistry without requiring a second operation to remove the implant, according to an international team of researchers (Advanced Materials, "Hetero-integration of silicon nanomembranes with 2D materials for bioresorbable, wireless neurochemical system")....
Long-term continuous glucose monitoring with smart contact lenses
Mar 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Several research projects are working on reinventing the contact lens as a smart electronic device that, for instance, works as a self-powered biosensor for various point-of-care monitoring and wireless biomedical sensing, which may detect in real time the pathogen, bacteria, glucose, and infectious keratitis present...
Catalytic hydrogen generation without expensive precious metals
Mar 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A research team from Friedrich Schiller University Jena has developed a molecular photosystem inspired by nature that generates hydrogen under visible light irradiation. In contrast to other existing systems of this type, it functions without the use of precious or heavy metals. Low-cost and environmentally...