Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) An international team, led by a Swinburne University of Technology researcher, has discovered the seemingly impossible. Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, they have observed massive candidate galaxies at the beginning of time, up to 100 billion times the mass of the Sun which,...
Twin-engine tiny robots for gastrointestinal inflammation therapy
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Micro- and nanorobots with self-propelling and -navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in drug delivery and therapy owing to their controllable locomotion in hard-to-reach body tissues. However, developing self-adaptive micro/nanorobots that can adjust their driving mechanisms across multiple biological barriers to reach distant lesions is...
First transient electronic bandage speeds healing by 30%
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Northwestern University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind small, flexible, stretchable bandage that accelerates healing by delivering electrotherapy directly to the wound site. In an animal study, the new bandage healed diabetic ulcers 30% faster than in mice without the bandage. The bandage also actively monitors...
Artificial intelligence conjures proteins that speed up chemical reactions
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) For the first time, scientists have used machine learning to create brand-new enzymes, which are proteins that accelerate chemical reactions. This is an important step in the field of protein design as new enzymes could have many uses across medicine and industrial manufacturing. “Living organisms...
A new lens on quantum materials
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) One of the striking aspects of the quantum world is that a particle, say, an electron, is also a wave, meaning that it exists in many places at the same time. In a new study, reported in Nature ("The quantum twisting microscope"), researchers from the...
Engineered anti-dust surfaces pave way for self-cleaning surfaces (w/video)
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Dust is a common fact of life, and it’s more than just a daily nuisance – it can get into machinery and equipment, causing loss of efficiency or breakdowns. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with North Carolina-based company Smart Material Solutions...
Solvent affects structure of nano-coatings
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The choice of solvent used can control the specific structure of nanoparticle coatings, as has been demonstrated in a study headed by DESY NanoLab. The study shows that the solvent in which the nanoparticles are suspended before the coating is applied determines the way in...
Metasurface technology could create cheaper and thinner flat screens
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have developed new technology that could usher in the “next-generation” of thinner, higher-resolution and more energy efficient screens and electronic devices (Light: Science & Applications, "Electrically programmable solid-state metasurfaces via flash localised heating"). The international team from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom,...
A 5-minute PCR, faster than self-diagnosis kits
Feb 22, 2023 (Nanowerk News) PCR technology is a molecular diagnostics technology that detects target nucleic acids by amplifying the DNA amount. It has brought marked progress in the life sciences field since its development in 1984. This technology has recently become familiar to the public due to the COVID-19...
Easy-to-use, time-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy for measuring the movement of electrons in nanostructures
Feb 21, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Semiconductors are foundational components of modern energy, communication, and myriad other technologies. Research on tailoring the underlying nanostructure of semiconductors for optimizing device performance has been ongoing for decades. Now, in a study recently published in Scientific Reports ("Externally‑triggerable optical pump‑probe scanning tunneling microscopy with...