May 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Cage structures made with nanoparticles could be a route toward making organized nanostructures with mixed materials, and researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how to achieve this through computer simulations. The finding could open new avenues for photonic materials that manipulate light in...
Angstrom-resolution fluorescence microscopy
May 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Cells, the fundamental units of life, contain a plethora of intricate structures, processes and mechanisms that uphold and perpetuate living systems. Many cellular core components, such as DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids, are just a few nanometers in size. This makes them substantially smaller than...
Snapshots of photoinjection
May 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A laser pulse hits an electron in a solid. If it receives enough energy from the light wave, it can then move freely through a solid. This phenomenon, which scientists have been exploring since the beginnings of quantum mechanics, is called photoinjection. There are still...
Human muscle-inspired Hercules artificial muscle fiber
May 25, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Prof. Sang Ouk Kim’s group at KAIST has developed a new type of artificial muscle fiber based on graphene-liquid crystal elastomer composites. This new artificial muscle has been highlighted as the closest system to human muscle among those reported to the scientific community to date,...
Nanopores are the secret to making electricity from thin air
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A team of engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less...
Watching molecules relax in real time
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Designing the next generation of efficient energy conversion devices for powering our electronics and heating our homes requires a detailed understanding of how molecules move and vibrate while undergoing light-induced chemical reactions. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have...
Multifunctional interface enables manipulation of light waves in free space
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Recent technological advances have given us a remarkable ability to manipulate and control light waves, opening up numerous applications in various fields, such as optical communication, sensing, imaging, energy, and quantum computing. At the heart of this progress are photonic structures that can control light...
Algae combined with visible light may create ink for cultured meat
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A few years ago, a French daily newspaper published an article titled “Korea’s Utilization of Algae as a food ingredient for the Earth”. The article highlighted the ecological potential of algae, which Westerners typically find unappealing due to its soft and pulpy consistency. Algae possesses...
Nontoxic nanosystem powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect contaminated drinking water
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) At least 2 billion people worldwide routinely drink water contaminated with disease-causing microbes. Now, scientists at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have invented a low-cost, recyclable powder that kills thousands of waterborne bacteria per second when exposed to ordinary sunlight. The discovery of...
New production process for therapeutic nanovesicles
May 24, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Particles known as extracellular vesicles play a vital role in communication between cells and in many cell functions. Released by cells into their environment, these “membrane particles” consist of a cellular membrane carrying a cargo of specific signaling molecules, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. Unfortunately,...