Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The increasing use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) — and a proposal in the European Union to ban the entire class of materials — highlights the need for an updated and standardized approach to assess human and environmental impacts of CNTs and products that contain them,...
Chance twists ordered carbon nanotubes into ‘tornado films’
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Chiral materials interact with light in very precise ways that are useful for building better displays, sensors and more powerful devices. However, engineering properties such as chirality reliably at scale is still a significant challenge in nanotechnology. Rice University scientists in the lab of Junichiro...
Easy-to-use, self-powered patch continuously tracks diabetes right under your skin
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Frequent blood draws are the uncomfortable reality for millions living with diabetes. These diagnostic finger pricks disrupt daily life and come with health risks like infection. Researchers have long sought a minimally invasive way to sample the clear fluid that surrounds our cells, known as...
Wireless millirobots successfully navigate arteries
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) For the first time ever, wireless millirobots navigated a narrow blood vessel both along and against arterial flow. Researchers from the University of Twente and Radboudumc inserted the screw-shaped robots in a detached aorta with kidneys where they controlled them using a robotically controlled rotating...
Portable, non-invasive, mind-reading AI turns thoughts into text (w/video)
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In a world-first, researchers from the GrapheneX-UTS Human-centric Artificial Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have developed a portable, non-invasive system that can decode silent thoughts and turn them into text. The technology could aid communication for people who are unable to...
Nanoparticle-delivered RNA reduces neuroinflammation in lab tests
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Some Covid-19 vaccines safely and effectively used lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to deliver messenger RNA to cells. A new MIT study shows that different nanoparticles could be used for a potential Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy. In tests in multiple mouse models and with cultured human cells,...
In a new light – new approach overcomes long-standing limitations in optics
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) When you look up at the sky and see clouds of wondrous shapes, or struggle to peer through dense, hazy fog, you’re seeing the results of ‘Mie scattering’, which is what happens with light interacts with particles of a certain size. There is a growing...
Achieving nonreciprocal coupling in non-hermitian topological photonics
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In every physical system, energy and environment interact, which is why non-Hermitian systems are common. In the context of physics and engineering, a "non-Hermitian system" refers to a situation where the interaction between energy and its environment doesn't follow a conventional, balanced pattern. Normally, in...
Made-to-order 3D-printed diagnostic tests
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) McGill University researchers have made a breakthrough in diagnostic technology, inventing a ‘lab on a chip’ that can be 3D-printed in just 30 minutes. The chip has the potential to make on-the-spot testing widely accessible. As part of a recent study, the results of which...
Webb stuns with new high-definition look at exploded star
Dec 12, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. While all is bright, this scene is no proverbial silent night....