May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Glucose is the sugar we absorb from the foods we eat. It is the fuel that powers every cell in our bodies. Could glucose also power tomorrow’s medical implants? Engineers at MIT and the Technical University of Munich think so. They have designed a new...
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The vibrational modes of nanomechanical resonators are analogous to different notes of a guitar string and have similar properties such as frequency (pitch) and lifetime. The lifetime is characterized by the quality factor, which is the number of times that the resonator oscillates until its...
Scientists grow plants in soil from the Moon
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists have grown plants in soil from the Moon, a first in human history and a milestone in lunar and space exploration. In a new paper published in the journal Communications Biology ("Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for...
Quantum one-way street in topological insulator nanowires
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An international group of scientists have demonstrated that wires more than 100 times thinner than a human hair can act like a quantum one-way street for electrons when made of a peculiar material known as a topological insulator. The discovery opens the pathway for new...
A rapid graphene sensor platform for the detection of viruses in a pinprick
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at Swansea University, Biovici Ltd and the National Physical Laboratory have developed a method to detect viruses in very small volumes. The work, published in Advanced NanoBiomed Research ("A Rapid Graphene Sensor Platform for the Detection of Viral Proteins in Low Volume Samples"), follows...
Algae-powered computing
Researchers have used a widespread species of blue-green algae to power a microprocessor continuously for a year - and counting - using nothing but ambient light and water. Their system has potential as a reliable and renewable way to power small devices.
Skipping tiny stones into a quantum whirlpool
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University used numerical simulations to confirm observations of quantized vortices in superfluid helium using silicon nanoparticles, improving understanding of quantum fluids and superconductors (Science Advances, "Visualization of quantized vortex reconnection enabled by laser ablation"). Researchers have observed the vortices that form...
Artificial intelligence agents argue to enhance the speed of materials discovery
May 12, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered approach to analyzing X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. XRD uses the shifting of X-rays to peer inside the structure of matter. The new approach, called the X-ray Crystallography companion Agent (XCA), assembles a group of AIs that debate...
Artificial cell membrane channels composed of DNA can be opened and locked with a key
May 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Just as countries import a vast array of consumer goods across national borders, so living cells are engaged in a lively import-export business. Their ports of entry are sophisticated transport channels embedded in a cell’s protective membrane. Regulating what kinds of cargo can pass through...
AI traffic light system could make traffic jams a distant memory
May 11, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Long queues at traffic lights could be a thing of the past, thanks to a new artificial intelligence system developed by Aston University researchers. The system – the first of its kind – reads live camera footage and adapts the lights to compensate, keeping the...