May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the past century, students of chemistry, materials science, and physics have been taught to model solid-state materials by considering their chemical composition, the number and location of their electrons, and lastly, the role of more complicated interactions. However, an international team of scientists from...
Using everyday WiFi to help robots see and navigate better indoors (w/video)
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a low cost, low power technology to help robots accurately map their way indoors, even in poor lighting and without recognizable landmarks or features. The technology consists of sensors that use WiFi signals to help...
Spin keeps electrons in line in iron-based superconductor
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from PSI’s Spectroscopy of Quantum Materials group together with scientists from Beijing Normal University have solved a puzzle at the forefront of research into iron-based superconductors: the origin of FeSe’s electronic nematicity. Using Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Swiss Light Source (SLS),...
Small things make a big difference in the science of measurement
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists must make ever more sophisticated measurements as technology shrinks to the nanoscale and we face global challenges from the effects of climate change. As industry works more and more on the nanometre scale (a nanometre is a billionth of a metre), there is a...
Structural color revolutionizes microfluidic fabrication
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Microfluidic devices use tiny spaces to manipulate very small quantities of liquids and gasses by taking advantage of the properties they exhibit at the microscale. They have demonstrated usefulness in applications from inkjet printing to chemical analysis and have great potential in personal medicine, where...
A drone for ultrafast transitions between air and water (w/video)
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A new robot is capable of switching from an underwater drone to an aerial vehicle in less than one second. The robot also features a suction disc inspired by the remora fish, which enables it to hitchhike on wet or dry moving objects to significantly...
Scientists develop ‘off the shelf’ engineered stem cells to treat aggressive brain cancer
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Glioblastomas (GBMs) are highly aggressive cancerous tumors of the brain and spinal cord. Brain cancers like GBM are challenging to treat because many cancer therapeutics cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier, and more than 90 percent of GBM tumors return after being surgically removed, despite...
a bond between David and Goliath
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When single particles like atoms and ions bond, molecules emerge. Such bonds between to particles can arise if they have for example opposite electrical charges and hence attract each other. The molecule observed at the University of Stuttgart exhibits a special feature: It consists of...
Accelerating the pace of machine learning
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Machine learning happens a lot like erosion. Data is hurled at a mathematical model like grains of sand skittering across a rocky landscape. Some of those grains simply sail along with little or no impact. But some of them make their mark: testing, hardening, and...
Ultrahigh piezoelectric performance demonstrated in ceramic materials
May 18, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The ability of piezoelectric materials to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa makes them useful for various applications from robotics to communication to sensors. A new design strategy for creating ultrahigh-performing piezoelectric ceramics opens the door to even more beneficial uses for...