Apr 07, 2026 A research team is investigating a new ecosystem on plastic particles in the oceans. (Nanowerk News) Trillions of persistent plastic particles of varying sizes are scattered throughout the world’s oceans, where they often accumulate in ocean gyres known as ‘garbage patches’. Two of these regions were the...
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Graphene aerogels produce fifty times more thrust in microgravity than on the ground
Apr 07, 2026 Parabolic flight tests reveal that gravity had been masking nearly all of graphene aerogel's light-driven propulsive capability in every prior experiment. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Graphene aerogels move when hit with a laser beam. These ultralight porous carbon structures, weighing as little as a hundredth of a gram per...
Visible light replaces metal catalysts in new method for making porous semiconducting polymers
Apr 07, 2026 Researchers developed a visible-light-driven method using bismuthene as a photocatalyst to produce porous semiconducting polymers without metal catalysts under ambient conditions. (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Koç University have developed a light-driven method to produce porous semiconducting polymers under ambient conditions without the need for metal catalysts. The...
Laser-stitched graphene patterns enable precise flexible biosensors
Apr 07, 2026 Engineers use laser patterning and iron-oxide ink to control graphene growth on polymers, creating flexible microelectrodes that detect dopamine and serotonin. (Nanowerk News) Just as embroiderers, with needle and thread, can transform plain fabric into an intricate pattern, engineers can use lasers and polymers to create flexible,...
Using mechanical inputs to enhance quantum states in sensors
Apr 07, 2026 Scientists use a mechanical resonator to enable greater entanglement for potentially more powerful sensors. (Nanowerk News) Most people think of diamonds as high-end adornments. Not Ania Bleszynski Jayich. The UC Santa Barbara physicist sees diamonds, which she grows in the UC Quantum Foundry, as a potentially powerful...
Living fungi as factories for self-assembling functional materials
Apr 07, 2026 Living fungi weave conductive nanoparticles into their own growing networks, amplifying bioelectric signals 9-fold and opening a path to self-assembling functional materials. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Most manufacturing works by imposing structure on passive raw materials: melting, molding, cutting, curing. Biology works differently. A growing organism builds itself, assembling...
Targeted nanoparticle therapy doubled survival rates in aggressive brain cancer models
Apr 06, 2026 Targeted liposomal nanoparticles successfully cross the blood brain barrier to treat glioblastoma and doubled survival rates in preclinical brain cancer models. (Nanowerk News) Mayo Clinic researchers developed an experimental nanotherapy that delivers two cancer drugs directly to brain tumors, according to a study published in Communications Medicine...
Researchers turn recovered car battery acid and plastic waste into clean hydrogen
Apr 06, 2026 Researchers have developed a solar-powered reactor to break down hard-to-recycle forms of plastic waste using acid recovered from old car batteries, and converting it into clean hydrogen fuel and valuable industrial chemicals. (Nanowerk News) The reactor, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, is powered by...
Trapping molecules turns carbon nanotubes into three-state transistors
Apr 06, 2026 Confined molecules inside carbon nanotubes polarize under gate voltage, creating transistors with three stable logic states from a single material system. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Squeeze a molecule into a space barely wider than itself, and its properties change. Bond angles shift, the electron cloud redistributes, and the molecule...
Astronomers thought the early universe was full of hydrogen. Now they’ve found it
Apr 06, 2026 A new study has now increased the known number of hydrogen gas halos by a factor of ten: from roughly 3,000 to over 33,000. (Nanowerk News) Astronomers using data from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have discovered tens of thousands of gigantic hydrogen gas halos,...