Nanotechnology News - August 2009 Archives

Acoustic tweezers can position tiny objects (8/31/2009)

Manipulating tiny objects like single cells or nanosized beads often requires relatively large, unwieldy equipment, but now a system that uses sound as a tiny tweezers can be small enough to place on a chip, according to Penn State engineers. ...> Full Article

Researchers pinpoint neural nanoblockers in carbon nanotubes (8/29/2009)

A team of Brown University scientists has pinpointed why carbon nanotubes tend to block a critical signaling pathway in neurons. It's not the tubes, the team finds, but the metal catalysts used to form the tubes. The discovery means carbon nanotubes without metal catalysts may be useful in treating human neurological disorders. The results appear in Biomaterials. ...> Full Article

Lower-cost solar cells to be printed like newspaper, painted on rooftops (8/26/2009)

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2.5m Funding To Commercialize Breakthrough Carbon Nanotube Interconnection Process For Next-Generation Semiconductors (8/25/2009)

Second-round venture capital for silicon-friendly carbon nanotube growth process ...> Full Article

Let there be light: Teaching magnets to do more than just stick around (8/23/2009)

Researchers led by a University of Washington chemist have found a way to train tiny semiconductor crystals, called nanocrystals or quantum dots, to display new magnetic functions at room temperature using light as a trigger. ...> Full Article

Bio-enabled, surface-mediated approach produces nanoparticle composites (8/22/2009)

Using thin films of silk as templates, researchers have incorporated inorganic nanoparticles that join with the silk to form strong and flexible composite structures that have unusual optical and mechanical properties. ...> Full Article

A safe approach to nanotechnology (8/21/2009)

Boiling up zinc oxide nanorods without toxic solvents ...> Full Article

Researchers harness carbon nanomaterials for drug delivery systems, oxygen sensors (8/20/2009)

Two nanoscale devices recently reported by University of Pittsburgh researchers in two separate journals harness the potential of carbon nanomaterials to enhance technologies for drug or imaging agent delivery and energy storage systems, in one case, and, in the other, bolster the sensitivity of oxygen sensors essential in confined settings, from mines to spacecrafts. ...> Full Article

New material for nanoscale computer chips (8/18/2009)

New data from Chinese-Danish collaboration shows that organic nanoscale wires could be an alternative to silicon in computer chips. The discovery has just been published in the respected scientific journal Advanced Materials. ...> Full Article

New nanolaser key to future optical computers and technologies (8/17/2009)

Researchers have created the tiniest laser since its invention nearly 50 years ago, paving the way for a host of innovations, including superfast computers that use light instead of electrons to process information, advanced sensors and imaging. ...> Full Article

Nanoelectronic transistor combined with biological machine could lead to better electronics (8/16/2009)

If manmade devices could be combined with biological machines, laptops and other electronic devices could get a boost in operating efficiency. ...> Full Article

Capping a two-faced particle gives engineers complete control (8/14/2009)

Duke University engineers say they can for the first time control all the degrees of a nanoparticle's motion, opening up broad possibilities for nanotechnology and device applications. ...> Full Article

Researchers make carbon nanotubes without metal catalyst (8/12/2009)

Oxides, as well as metals, seem to be able to sprout carbon nanotubes ...> Full Article

Growth spurts (8/11/2009)

Berkeley Lab experts in nanocrystal growth and electron microscopy combined their skills to record the first ever direct observations in real-time of the growth of single nanocrystals in solution. Their findings revealed that there are two distinct trajectories by which nanocrystals can grow but in the end the crystals come out roughly the same size and shape. ...> Full Article

Carbon nanoparticles toxic to adult fruit flies but benign to young (8/10/2009)

Researchers at Brown University have discovered that certain types of carbon nanoparticles can be environmentally toxic to adult fruit flies, although they were found to be benign when added to food for larvae. The findings, published online in Environmental Science & Technology, may further reveal the environmental and health dangers of carbon nanoparticles. ...> Full Article

Physicists to study attractive and repulsive forces crucial in designing nano-machines (8/8/2009)

The Casimir force is typified by the small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. Now, to study this force, two physicists at the University of California, Riverside have received funding of $1.6 million for two years from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The physicists will conduct experimental and theoretical research on ways to manipulate the Casimir force between objects -- a necessary step in designing micro- and nano-machines. ...> Full Article

Nanoscale origami from DNA (8/7/2009)

Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Harvard University have thrown the lid off a new toolbox for building nanoscale structures out of DNA, with complex twisting and curving shapes. In the Aug. 7 issue of the journal Science, they report a series of experiments in which they folded DNA, origami-like, into 3-D objects including a beach ball-shaped wireframe capsule just 50 nanometers in diameter. ...> Full Article

Sputtering System Supports Novel Commercially-Focused Silicon Device Research (8/5/2009)

Novel know-how could catalyze breakthrough in non-volatile memory, with flexible system software and quality hardware offers route from research to volume fabrication. ...> Full Article

Self-healing surfaces (8/5/2009)

The engineers' dream of self-healing surfaces has taken another step towards becoming reality -- researchers have produced a electroplated layer that contains tiny nanometer-sized capsules. If the layer is damaged, the capsules release fluid and repair the scratch. ...> Full Article

From graphene to graphane, now the possibilities are endless (8/4/2009)

Ever since graphene was discovered in 2004, this one-atom thick, super strong, carbon-based electrical conductor has been billed as a "wonder material" that some physicists think could one day replace silicon in computer chips. In August's Physics World, Kostya Novoselov -- a condensed-matter physicist from the Manchester University group that discovered graphene -- explains how their discovery of graphane, an insulating equivalent of graphene, may prove more versatile still. ...> Full Article

Nanotubes take flight (8/3/2009)

Rice scientists use nanomaterials to grow flying carpets, 'odako' kites ...> Full Article

Breaking barriers with nanoscale lasers (8/2/2009)

Demonstration of thinnest semiconductor laser holds promise of better computers and Internet access ...> Full Article

All-in-1 nanoparticle: A Swiss Army knife for nanomedicine (8/1/2009)

For the first time, researchers combine nanoparticles used for medical imaging and therapy in one tiny package. ...> Full Article