Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at TU Delft have discovered that E. coli bacteria can synchronise their movements, creating order in seemingly random biological systems. By trapping individual bacteria in micro-engineered circular cavities and coupling these cavities through narrow channels, the team observed coordinated bacterial motion. Their findings, which...
MXene nanomaterial boosts plant immunity and protects crops from disease
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Plant diseases destroy up to 40% of global food crops, threatening food security and agricultural sustainability. While plants naturally resist many diseases, their defenses often fail against aggressive pathogens. Current solutions rely heavily on chemical pesticides, which can harm beneficial organisms, contaminate soil and water,...
16-year study shows chaotic dynamo
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The STELLA observatory in Tenerife has studied a star’s surface for 16 years using robotic spectroscopy and Doppler imaging. Unlike the cyclic spots on our Sun, this star exhibited chaotic, non-periodic star spot behavior, revealing a fundamentally different dynamo mechanism. The groundbreaking study has now...
Novel ZnO nanoplatform enables rapid detection of cancer biomarker
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In the ongoing battle against cancer, early detection remains a crucial factor in improving survival rates and reducing the economic burden on healthcare systems. A recent study, published in BME Frontiers ("Synergistic Assembly of 1DZnO and Anti-CYFRA 21-1: A Physicochemical Approach to Optical Biosensing"), introduces...
New bioprinting technique creates functional tissue 10x faster
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Three-dimensional (3D) printing isn’t just a way to produce material products quickly. It also offers researchers a way to develop replicas of human tissue that could be used to improve human health, such as building organs for transplantation, studying disease progression and screening new drugs....
High-performance motor manufacturing with magnetic 3D printing
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) has developed magnetic 3D printing technology capable of manufacturing high-performance motors, a first in South Korea. By developing dedicated magnetic material 3D printing equipment and specialized designs, the technology enables the creation of complex motor structures without molds....
Can we make hydrogen from water and sunlight?
Dec 04, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using solar energy holds the promise of truly renewable fuel – but until now, it hasn’t been feasible outside the laboratory. Writing for Frontiers in Science ("Photocatalytic water splitting for large-scale solar-to-chemical energy conversion and storage"), renowned experts in...
Graphene memory devices mimic brain synapses through chemical modification
Dec 03, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The human brain processes complex information while consuming merely the power of a dim light bulb. This remarkable efficiency stems from synapses, the connections between brain cells that can strengthen or weaken based on patterns of electrical signals. These synapses allow the brain to form...
Smallest walking robot makes microscale measurements
Dec 02, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Cornell researchers in physics and engineering have created the smallest walking robot yet. Its mission: to be tiny enough to interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that it can maneuver to specific locations – in a tissue sample, for instance...
Infrared detectors made from quantum dots
Dec 03, 2024 (Nanowerk News) What do motion detectors, self-driving cars, chemical analyzers and satellites have in common? They all contain detectors for infrared (IR) light. At their core and besides readout electronics, such detectors usually consist of a crystalline semiconductor material. Such materials are challenging to manufacture: They often...