Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed a synthetic system that responds to environmental changes in the same way as living organisms, using a feedback loop to maintain its internal conditions. This not only keeps the material’s conditions stable but also makes it possible to build mechanisms that react...
Theorists’ method can predict shapes of crystals that lack symmetry
Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A crystal’s shape is determined by its inherent chemistry, a characteristic that ultimately determines its final form from the most basic of details. But sometimes the lack of symmetry in a crystal makes the surface energies of its facets unknowable, confounding any theoretical prediction of...
Physicist identifies how electron crystals melt
Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The mysterious changes in phases of matter – from solid to liquid and back again – have fascinated Eun-Ah Kim since she was in lower elementary school in South Korea. Without cold drinking water readily available, on hot days the children would bring bottles of frozen water...
How to fire projectiles through materials without breaking anything
Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) It sounds a bit like a magic trick: Some materials can be shot through with fast, electrically charged ions without exhibiting holes afterwards. What would be impossible at the macroscopic level is allowed at the level of individual particles. However, not all materials behave the...
New magnetometer designed to be integrated into microelectronic chips
Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the UPC’s Department of Electronic Engineering have developed a new type of magnetometer that can be integrated into microelectronic chips and that is fully compatible with the current integrated circuits. Of great interest for the miniaturisation of electronic systems and sensors, the study...
Researchers take first step towards controlling photosynthesis using mirrors spaced nanometers apart
Nov 28, 2022 (Nanowerk News) With the help of mirrors, placed only a few hundred nanometers apart, a research team has managed to use light more efficiently. The finding could eventually be useful for controlling solar energy conversion during photosynthesis, or other reactions driven by light. For example, one application...
Thermo-tunable metamaterial with ultra-broadband absorption property
Nov 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A research team, led by Prof. Xiaoyong Tian in the State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University, has successfully manufactured a thermo-tunable broadband metamaterial (T-TBM) by 3D printing. The electromagnetic (EM) response of the T-TBM can be adjusted by controlling the...
Safer touch with antiviral coatings
Nov 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Antiviral coatings based on nanomaterials could help reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, according to a review in the International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering ("Recent development of antiviral nano-coatings for COVID-19 management"). The authors reviewed the state-of-the-art in the context of...
Protein scissors activate defense function
Nov 25, 2022 (Nanowerk News) For several years now, the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors have been causing a sensation in science and medicine. This new tool of molecular biology has its origins in an ancient bacterial immune system. It protects bacteria from attack by so-called phages, i. e. viruses that infect...
Astronomers observe intra-group light – the elusive glow between distant galaxies
Nov 24, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An international team of astronomers have turned a new technique onto the faint light between galaxies – known as ‘intra-group light’ – to characterise the stars that dwell there. Lead author of the study published in MNRAS ("Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): extended intragroup light...