May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb’s surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the...
Charting a safe course for autonomous robots through a highly uncertain environment
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An autonomous spacecraft exploring the far-flung regions of the universe descends through the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet. The vehicle, and the researchers who programmed it, don’t know much about this environment. With so much uncertainty, how can the spacecraft plot a trajectory that will...
Researchers develop new measurement method in molecular electronics
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Controlling electrical signals using single molecules enables the miniaturization of transistors in integrated circuits down to the atomic level. This research area of molecular electronics not only paves the way for the next generation of ultra-powerful computers, but also for entirely new electronic systems and...
A Moebius band constructed solely by carbon atoms
May 19, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Obtaining structurally uniform nanocarbons—ideally as single molecules—is a great challenge in the field of nanocarbon science in order to properly relate structure and function. Thus, the construction of structurally uniform nanocarbons is crucial for the development of functional materials in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and biomedical...
Topology is everywhere
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...