Dec 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Robots and autonomous cars will have eyes that see much more than the human eye is capable of, a review of the growing field of meta-optics has found. Meta-optics is advancing science and technology far beyond the 3000-year-old optical paradigm that we rely on for...
New X-ray imaging technique to study the transient phases of quantum materials
Dec 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The use of light to produce transient phases in quantum materials is fast becoming a novel way to engineer new properties in them, such as the generation of superconductivity or nanoscale topological defects. However, visualizing the growth of a new phase in a solid is...
Researchers have cut the world’s smallest Christmas record (w/video)
Dec 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Measuring only 40 micrometres in diameter, researchers at DTU Physics have made the smallest record ever cut. Featuring the first 25 seconds of the Christmas classic “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”, the single is cut using a new nano-sculpting machine – the Nanofrazor – recently...
Researchers use 3D bioprinting to create eye tissue
Dec 23, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists used patient stem cells and 3D bioprinting to produce eye tissue that will advance understanding of the mechanisms of blinding diseases (Nature Methods, "3D outer retina barrier uncovers RPE-dependent choroidal phenotype in advanced macular degeneration"). The research team from the National Eye Institute (NEI),...
At the edge of graphene-based electronics
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A pressing quest in the field of nanoelectronics is the search for a material that could replace silicon. Graphene has seemed promising for decades. But its potential faltered along the way, due to damaging processing methods and the lack of a new electronics paradigm to...
Scientists turn single molecule clockwise or counterclockwise on demand (w/video)
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) You can easily rotate a baseball in your hand by twisting your fingers. But you need inventive scientists with access to world-class scientific facilities to rotate an object that is only two billionths of a meter wide. That is a million times smaller than a...
The physical intelligence of ant and robot collectives (w/video)
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Individual ants are relatively simple creatures and yet a colony of ants can perform really complex tasks, such as intricate construction, foraging and defense. Recently, Harvard researchers took inspiration from ants to design a team of relatively simple robots that can work collectively to perform...
Collective circular dichroism by chiral plasmonic nanoparticles
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Molecular chirality means the geometrical property of molecules with broken mirror symmetry. Characterizing molecular chirality and understanding their roles in physiochemical situations has been important in broad research scope such as, biology, chemistry, and pharmaceutics. In general, molecular chirality can be analyzed using circular dichroism...
Engineers develop new microscale 3D printer for multi-level anticounterfeiting labels
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Counterfeiting threatens the global economy and security. According to the report issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2020, the value of global counterfeit and pirated products is estimated between US$ 1.7 and 4.5 trillion a year. Despite enormous efforts, conventional...
Charge density distributions of electric double layers
Dec 22, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Expanding on their recently developed electrochemical 3D atomic force microscopy (EC-3D-AFM) technique, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have derived the depth profile of the charge density of electric double layers (EDLs). Through statistical analysis, peak deconvolution, and electrostatic calculations, the researchers developed charge profiling 3D...