Jun 12, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Cells are the basic units of life – but many of their fundamental processes happen so fast and at such small length scales that current scientific tools and methods can't keep up, preventing us from developing a deeper understanding. Now, researchers with SLAC National Accelerator...
Flexible and stretchable microfluidic devices created by direct printing of silicone 3D microchannel networks
Jun 12, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The transition from traditional 2D to 3D microfluidic structures is a significant advancement in microfluidics, offering benefits in scientific and industrial applications. These 3D systems improve throughput through parallel operation, and soft elastomeric networks, when filled with conductive materials like liquid metal, allowing for the...
Dark excitons shed new light on matter
Jun 12, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A team of Monash researchers have uncovered for the first time the full effects of interactions between exciton-polaritons and their associated dark excitonic reservoir. The study was published in Physical Review B ("Polaronic polariton quasiparticles in a dark excitonic medium"). Exciton-polaritons (‘polaritons’, for short) are...
Researchers demonstrate new way to ‘squeeze’ infrared light
Jun 10, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that a specific class of oxide membranes can confine, or “squeeze,” infrared light – a finding that holds promise for next generation infrared imaging technologies. The thin-film membranes confine infrared light far better than bulk crystals, which are...
Controlling immune response expands the possibilities of therapeutic nucleic acid technologies
Dec 05, 2018 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The idea has been around for a while that selected segments of RNA or DNA could be used therapeutically – so-called therapeutic nucleic acids (TNAs) – to affect gene or cell function. The attraction for researchers is the flexibility that TNAs' versatility, programmability, and modularity...
New technique could help build quantum computers of the future
Jun 11, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems in human health, drug discovery, and artificial intelligence millions of times faster than some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. A network of quantum computers could advance these discoveries even faster. But before that can happen, the...
A chain of copper and carbon atoms may be the thinnest metallic wire
Jun 11, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the Laboratory for Theory and Simulation of Materials at EPFL have used computational methods to identify what could be the thinnest possible metallic wire, as well as several other one-dimensional materials with properties that could prove interesting for many applications. One-dimensional (or 1-D)...
Fully 3D-printed shape memory mini-actuators can move small soft robots
Jun 11, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated miniature soft hydraulic actuators that can be used to control the deformation and motion of soft robots that are less than a millimeter thick. The researchers have also demonstrated that this technique works with shape memory materials,...
New computer vision method helps speed up screening of electronic materials
Jun 11, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Boosting the performance of solar cells, transistors, LEDs, and batteries will require better electronic materials, made from novel compositions that have yet to be discovered. To speed up the search for advanced functional materials, scientists are using AI tools to identify promising materials from hundreds...
Programmable wave-based computer advances analog computing
Jun 11, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The pursuit of faster and more efficient computing has been a driving force in technological progress for decades. As the demand for computational power continues to grow, researchers are exploring novel approaches that go beyond the limitations of conventional digital computers. One promising avenue is...