Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) One of the challenges encountered by research on novel electronic devices is to compare devices based on different materials in a consistent way. RWTH Professor Max Lemme and colleagues from USA, China, and Belgium have now proposed a set of clear guidelines for benchmarking key...
Scientists use modified silk proteins to create new nonstick surfaces
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Tufts University have developed a method to make silk-based materials that refuse to stick to water, or almost anything else containing water for that matter. In fact, the modified silk, which can be molded into forms like plastic, or coated onto surfaces as...
New technique allows researchers to scrape beyond the surface of nanomaterials
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Since the initial discovery of what has become a rapidly growing family of two-dimensional layered materials — called MXenes — in 2011, Drexel University researchers have made steady progress in understanding the complex chemical composition and structure, as well as the physical and electrochemical properties,...
Advanced robotics to address the translational gap in tendon engineering
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A review paper by scientists at the University of Oxford discussed possible benefits of using humanoid musculoskeletal robots and soft robotic systems as bioreactor platforms in producing clinically useful tendon constructs. The new review paper, published in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems ("Advanced Robotics...
Atomic-scale imaging reveals a facile route to crystal formation
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) What do clouds, televisions, pharmaceuticals, and even the dirt under our feet have in common? They all have or use crystals in some way. Crystals are more than just fancy gemstones. Clouds form when water vapor condenses into ice crystals in the atmosphere. Liquid crystal...
Wearable sensors styled into t-shirts and face masks
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Imperial College London researchers have embedded new low-cost sensors that monitor breathing, heart rate, and ammonia into t-shirts and face masks. Potential applications range from monitoring exercise, sleep, and stress to diagnosing and monitoring disease through breath and vital signs. Spun from a new Imperial-developed...
Mysterious ripples in the Milky Way were caused by a passing dwarf galaxy
Sep 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Using data from the Gaia space telescope, a team led by researchers at Lund University in Sweden has shown that large parts of the Milky Way's outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy, now seen in the constellation Sagittarius, that shook...
Differentiate right- and left-handed particles by the force exerted by light
Sep 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Chirality is the property that the structure is not superposable on its mirrored image. Chiral materials exhibit the characteristic feature that they respond differently to left- and right-circularly polarized light (optical activity, Figure 1). When a matter is irradiated with strong laser light, optical force...
Astronomers detect hot gas bubble swirling around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
Sep 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have spotted signs of a ‘hot spot’ orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. The finding helps us better understand the enigmatic and dynamic environment of our supermassive black hole. “We think...
Heat-resistant nanophotonic material could help turn heat into electricity
Sep 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A new nanophotonic material has broken records for high-temperature stability, potentially ushering in more efficient electricity production and opening a variety of new possibilities in the control and conversion of thermal radiation. Developed by a University of Michigan-led team of chemical and materials science engineers,...