Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from Santa Clara University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Hong Kong have been able to successfully teach microrobots how to swim via deep reinforcement learning, marking a substantial leap in the progression of microswimming capability. There has been tremendous interest...
Graphene oxide membranes reveal unusual behaviour of water at the nanoscale
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Do more pores in a sieve allow more liquid to flow through it? As material scientists have uncovered, this seemingly simple question may have an unexpected answer at the nanoscale – and it could have important implications in the development of water filtration, energy storage...
Gold nanoclusters may hold the secret to treating in?ammatory bowel disease
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), also known as "green cancer", is a chronic, non-specific disease of the intestine. IBD includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, both of which tend to be debilitating, lifelong conditions that can prove fatal in severe cases. Currently, there is no cure...
No trace of dark matter halos
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) According to the standard model of cosmology, the vast majority of galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter particles. This halo is invisible, but its mass exerts a strong gravitational pull on galaxies in the vicinity. A new study led by the University...
Micro-engineered and 3D printed electrodes could cut battery manufacturing costs
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) New, easily fabricated, high performance carbon microlattice electrodes could soon be used to make cheaper batteries powered by readily available sodium ions. The approach was published by Tohoku University researchers and colleagues in the journal Small ("A 3D-Printed, Freestanding Carbon Lattice for Sodium Ion Batteries")....
Turning Martian air, dirt and sunlight into iron
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A team of researchers, led by Swinburne’s Professor Akbar Rhamdhani, has published the first detailed study of its kind on metal production on another planet (Acta Astronautica, "Metals extraction on Mars through carbothermic reduction"). The team are focused on metal extraction on Mars. They are...
Microbatteries much smaller than a grain of rice for a smart dust future
Aug 05, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) 'Smart dust' is a vision of the networked future where intelligent networks of trillions of minuscule sensors continuously feel, taste, smell, see, and hear what is going on in their surrounding environment, communicate with each other and exchange information. Smart dust networks are the ultimate...
Sponge-like electrodes inspired by sugar cubes could improve medical monitoring
Aug 04, 2022 (Nanowerk News) To monitor heart rhythms and muscle function, doctors often attach electrodes to a patient’s skin, detecting the electrical signals that lie beneath. These impulses are vital to the early diagnosis and treatment of many disorders, but currently available electrodes have limited function or are expensive...
Researchers create flow-driven rotors at the nanoscale
Aug 04, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from TU Delft have constructed the smallest flow-driven motors in the world. Inspired by iconic Dutch windmills and biological motor proteins, they created a self-configuring flow-driven rotor from DNA that converts energy from an electrical or salt gradient into useful mechanical work. The results...
In DNA, scientists find solution to building superconductor that could transform technology
Aug 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their collaborators have used DNA to overcome a nearly insurmountable obstacle to engineer materials that would revolutionize electronics (Science, "DNA-guided lattice remodeling of carbon nanotubes"). One possible outcome of such engineered materials could be superconductors,...