Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The knee is not only one of the largest and most complex joints in the body—it is also easily injured. In fact, one of the most common orthopedic injuries is the tearing of the meniscus, a half-moon-shaped piece of cartilage in the knee. Each knee...
A quick new way to screen virus proteins for antibiotic properties
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) As conventional antibiotics continue to lose effectiveness against evolving pathogens, scientists are keen to employ the bacteria-killing techniques perfected by bacteriophages, the viruses that infect bacteria. One major challenge standing in their way is the difficulty of studying individual bacteriophage (phage) proteins and determining precisely...
Magnetism fosters unusual electronic order in quantum material
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Physicists were surprised by the 2022 discovery that electrons in magnetic iron-germanium crystals could spontaneously and collectively organize their charges into a pattern featuring a standing wave. Magnetism also arises from the collective self-organization of electron spins into ordered patterns, and those patterns rarely coexist...
Scientists determine new proton hydration structure
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) MXenes are able to store large amounts of electrical energy like batteries and to charge and discharge rather quickly like a supercapacitor. They combine both talents and thus are a very interesting class of materials for energy storage. The material is structured like a kind...
2D phosphorus sets the pace in high-performance transistors
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A newly discovered blue form of ultrathin phosphorus — with electronic properties that can be tuned to enhance the injection of charge carriers (negatively and positively charged) into transistors — are set to push next-generation electronic devices forward. Two-dimensional semiconductors, such as graphene and transition...
Understanding quantum mechanics with active particles
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The study of active particles is one of the fastest-growing areas of physics. With „active particles“ physicists refer to objects which move by themselves as a result of internal self-propulsion. These include living things such as bacteria and fish swimming, birds flying or humans walking...
Single-photon nanowire detectors to combat spies
Mar 13, 2023 (Nanowerk News) How can we combat data theft, which is a real issue for society? Quantum physics has the solution. Its theories make it possible to encode information (a qubit) in single particles of light (a photon) and to circulate them in an optical fibre in a...
Microbes can create a more peaceful world: Scientists call to action
Mar 11, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Microorganisms should be ‘weaponised’ to stave off conflicts across the globe, according to a team of eminent microbiologists. The paper "Weaponising microbes for peace" by Anand et al, outlines the ways in which microbes and microbial technologies can be used to tackle global and local...
Knots smaller than human hair make materials unusually tough
Mar 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In the latest advance in nano- and micro-architected materials, engineers at Caltech have developed a new material made from numerous interconnected microscale knots. The knots make the material far tougher than identically structured but unknotted materials: they absorb more energy and are able to deform...
A new age of 2.5D materials
Mar 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Scientists are exploring new ways to artificially stack two-dimensional (2D) materials, introducing so-called 2.5D materials with unique physical properties. Researchers in Japan reviewed the latest advances and applications of 2.5D materials in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials ("Science of 2.5 dimensional materials:...