Apr 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) MIT engineers have designed a new nanoparticle sensor that could enable early diagnosis of cancer with a simple urine test. The sensors, which can detect many different cancerous proteins, could also be used to distinguish the type of a tumor or how it is responding...
Jellyfish-like robots could one day clean up the world’s oceans
Apr 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Most of the world is covered in oceans, which are unfortunately highly polluted. One of the strategies to combat the mounds of waste found in these very sensitive ecosystems – especially around coral reefs – is to employ robots to master the cleanup. However, existing...
Two-component nanoparticle system could offer a new way to halt internal bleeding
Apr 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) MIT engineers have designed a two-component system that can be injected into the body and help form blood clots at the sites of internal injury. These materials, which mimic the way that the body naturally forms clots, could offer a way to keep people with...
Researchers 3D print a miniature vacuum pump
Apr 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Mass spectrometers are extremely precise chemical analyzers that have many applications, from evaluating the safety of drinking water to detecting toxins in a patient’s blood. But building an inexpensive, portable mass spectrometer that could be deployed in remote locations remains a challenge, partly due to...
Circuit boards from renewable raw materials
Apr 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) For many years, Thomas Geiger has been conducting research in the field of cellulose fibrils – fine fibers that can be produced from wood pulp or agricultural waste, for example. Cellulose fibrils hold great potential for sustainable production and the decarbonization of industry: they grow...
Expanding plasmonic enhancement limits with hexagonal boron nitride
Apr 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A study spearheaded by Professor Yang Liangbao from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) effectively inhibits electron tunneling, thereby extending the ultimate plasmonic enhancement boundaries in single-atom-layer gaps. This breakthrough offers valuable insights...
New technique paves way for imaging individual molecules
Apr 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) An international research team has succeeded for the first time in using X-rays for an imaging technique that exploits a particular quantum property of light. As the researchers describe in their work just published in the journal Physical Review Letters ("Imaging via Correlation of X-Ray...
Greener batteries
Apr 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Our modern rechargeable batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, are anything but sustainable. One alternative is organic batteries with redox-organic electrode materials (OEMs), which can be synthesized from natural “green” materials. In the journal Angewandte Chemie ("A Recyclable and Scalable High-Capacity Organic Battery"), a Chinese team...
Vaccine printer could help vaccines reach more people
Apr 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Getting vaccines to people who need them isn’t always easy. Many vaccines require cold storage, making it difficult to ship them to remote areas that don’t have the necessary infrastructure. MIT researchers have come up with a possible solution to this problem: a mobile vaccine...
New programmable smart fabric responds to temperature and electricity
Apr 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A new smart material developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli. The resarch has been published in Small ("Multi-Stimuli Dually-Responsive Intelligent Woven Structures with Local Programmability...