Jul 08, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Within a newborn’s umbilical cord lie potentially life-saving stem cells that can be used to fight diseases like lymphoma and leukemia. That is why many new parents elect to store (“bank”) their infant’s stem cell-rich umbilical cord blood. But in the 6 to 15 percent...
Artificial intelligence folds RNA molecules
Jul 08, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For the function of many biomolecules, their three-dimensional structure is crucial. Researchers are therefore not only interested in the sequence of the individual building blocks of biomolecules, but also in their spatial structure. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), bioinformaticians can already reliably predict...
Smart additive for autonomous temperature control
Jul 08, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The right temperature ensures the success of technical processes, the quality of food and medicines, or affects the lifetime of electronic components and batteries. Temperature indicators enable to detect (un)desired temperature exposures and irreversibly record them by changing their signal for a readout at any...
Building blocks for RNA-based life abound at center of our galaxy
Jul 08, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Nitriles, a class of organic molecules with a cyano group, that is, a carbon atom bound with a triple unsaturated bond to a nitrogen atom, are typically toxic. But paradoxically, they are also a key precursor for molecules essential for life, such as ribonucleotides, composed...
New design for plasmonic metasurfaces expands wide-spectrum camera abilities
Jul 07, 2022 (Nanowerk News) By turning a traditional lab-based fabrication process upside down, researchers at Duke University have greatly expanded the abilities of light-manipulating metasurfaces while also making them much more robust against the elements. The combination could allow these quickly maturing devices to be used in a wide...
Scientists invent ‘quantum flute’ that can make particles of light move together
Jul 07, 2022 (Nanowerk News) University of Chicago physicists have invented a “quantum flute” that, like the Pied Piper, can coerce particles of light to move together in a way that’s never been seen before. As described in two studies published in Physical Review Letters ("Seamless High-Q Microwave Cavities for...
Scientists develop new material inspired by limpets with super strength
Jul 07, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The small aquatic snail-like molluscs use a tongue bristling with tiny microscopic teeth to scrape food off rocks and into their mouths. These teeth contain a hard yet flexible composite, which in 2015 was found to be the strongest known biologically occurring material, far stronger...