Aug 14, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In the American action movie “Pacific Rim,” giant robots called “Jaegers” fight against unknown monsters to save mankind. These robots are equipped with artificial muscles that mimic real living bodies and defeat monsters with power and speed. Recently research is being conducted on equipping real...
nanometric photodiodes to study the activity of neurons
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) In a novel approach, a new study at SISSA (Science Advances, "Distributed interfacing by nanoscale photodiodes enables single neuron light-activation and sensory enhancement in 3D spinal explants") uses technology that can activate individual nerve cells with a light impulse. A targeted, non-invasive approach that can...
Bioengineers turn to animal kingdom for creation of bionic super 3D cameras
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A pair of UCLA bioengineers and a former postdoctoral scholar have developed a new class of bionic 3D camera systems that can mimic flies’ multiview vision and bats’ natural sonar sensing, resulting in multidimensional imaging with extraordinary depth range that can also scan through blind...
Overcoming a major manufacturing constraint with two-photon-piolymerization
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Additive manufacturing (AM) using two-photon polymerization lithography (TPP) has increased in usage in industry and research. Currently, a major constraint of TPP in general and specifically of the material IP-Q is the users’ limited access to knowledge about material properties. Due to the nature of...
Using sound and bubbles to make bandages stickier and longer lasting
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have discovered that they can control the stickiness of adhesive hydrogel bandages using ultrasound waves and bubbles. This breakthrough could lead to new advances in medical adhesives, especially in cases where adhesives are difficult to apply such as on wet skin. “Bandages, glues, and...
Engineering enzymes to help solve the planet’s plastic problem
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) have developed a new enzyme engineering platform to improve plastic degrading enzymes through directed evolution. To illustrate the utility of their platform, they have engineered an enzyme that can successfully degrade poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET), the plastic commonly...
Researchers fabricate cobalt copper catalysts for methane on metal-organic framework
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The world is highly dependent on fossil fuels to power its industry and transportation. These fossil fuels lead to excessive carbon dioxide emission, which contributes to global warming and ocean acidification. One way to reduce this excessive carbon dioxide emission that is harmful to the...
Tiny crystal vases
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists from the Department of Materials Science at the University of Tsukuba developed a new method to produce micrometer-scale single crystals in the form of hollow vessels (Science, "Synchronous assembly of chiral skeletal single-crystalline microvessels"). By drop-casting an ethanol solution onto a quartz substrate, the...
A simple way of sculpting matter into complex shapes with ‘twisted’ light
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A new method for shaping matter into complex shapes, with the use of ‘twisted’ light, has been demonstrated in research at the University of Strathclyde. When atoms are cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 degrees C), they stop behaving like particles and start...
Perovskite material with superlattice structure might surpass efficiency of a ‘perfect’ solar cell
Aug 13, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A perovskite solar cell developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego brings researchers closer to breaking the ceiling on solar cell efficiency, suggests a study published in Nature ("Perovskite superlattices with efficient carrier dynamics"). The new solar cell is a lead-free low-dimensional...