EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Collagen-seeking synthetic protein could lead doctors to tumor locations
A new synthetic protein can pinpoint cancer and other diseases in the body by finding nearby damaged collagen.

National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Defense

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012
Early career distinction: Prestigious award recognizes physicist's work in electron dynamics
Matthias Kling, assistant professor of physics, recently received the Early Career Research Program Award from the US Department of Energy. Kling will receive $750,000 to support his research titled "Electron Dynamics in Nanostructures in Strong Laser Fields."

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012
Soaking up the Sun
Engineers from Drexel University and The University of Pennsylvania are teaming up to make dye-sensitized solar panels more efficient. The group is using mathematical modeling to test the use of nanotubes and a polymer substrate in the panels.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012

Nano Letters
Breakthrough in nanotechnology
A University of Central Florida assistant professor has developed a new material using nanotechnology, which could help keep pilots and sensitive equipment safe from destructive lasers.

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012
Researchers pioneer world's first HIV/AIDS nanomedicines
Scientists at the University of Liverpool are leading a £1.65 million project to produce and test the first nanomedicines for treating HIV/AIDS. The research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, aims to produce cheaper, more effective medicines which have fewer side effects and are easier to give to newborns and children.

Public Release: 29-Aug-2012
Project MICREAgents: Self-assembling smart microscopic reagents to pioneer pourable electronics
The project MICREAgents plans to build autonomous self-assembling electronic microreagents that are almost as small as cells. They will exchange chemical and electronic information to jointly direct complex chemical reactions and analyses in the solutions they are poured into. The EU supports the project within the FP7 program with 3.4 million Euros for three years. Four research groups at RUB will join forces with top teams across Europe, from Israel and New Zealand.

EU FP7 programme

Public Release: 28-Aug-2012

Nature Communications
Magnetic vortex reveals key to spintronic speed limit
Spintronics use electron spin to write and read information. To mobilize this emerging technology, scientists must understand exactly how to manipulate spin as a carrier of computer code. Now, scientists at Brookhaven Lab have precisely measured a key parameter of electron interactions called non-adiabatic spin torque that is essential to the development of spintronic devices. This unprecedented precision guides the reading and writing of digital information and sets the spintronic speed limit.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Nature Nanotechnology
A new look at proteins in living cells
Nongjian (NJ) Tao, Professor of Electrical Engineering, and director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute has devised a new technique for examining the binding kinetics of membrane proteins.

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Nature Nanotechnology
New imaging technique homes in on electrocatalysis of nanoparticles
Nongjian (NJ) Tao -- a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute -- has found a clever way to measure catalytical reactions of single nanoparticles and multiple particles printed in arrays, which will help characterize and improve existing nanoparticle catalysts, and advance the search for new ones.

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Angewandte Chemie
Controlling superconductors with light
Proffesor Yoram Dagan of Tel Aviv University says that by shining a light on a thin layer of molecules coating a material, he is able to control the critical temperature at which the material can act as a superconductor. His method might be used to develop more powerful computing devices able to save data and run continuously without generating heat and wasting energy.

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Advanced Functional Materials
The laser beam as a '3-D painter'
With laser beams, molecules can be fixed at exactly the right position in a three dimensional material. The new method developed at the Vienna University of Technology can be used to grow biological tissue or to create micro sensors.

Public Release: 26-Aug-2012

Nature Materials
Researchers develop method to grow artificial tissues with embedded nanoscale sensors
A multi-institutional research team has developed a method for embedding networks of biocompatible nanoscale wires within engineered tissues. These networks -- which mark the first time that electronics and tissue have been truly merged in 3-D -- allow direct tissue sensing and potentially stimulation, a potential boon for development of engineered tissues that incorporate capabilities for monitoring and stimulation, and of devices for screening new drugs.

National Institutes of Health, McKnight Foundation, Boston Children's Hospital

Public Release: 26-Aug-2012

Nature Materials
Merging the biological and the electronic
Harvard scientists have, for the first, time created a type of "cyborg" tissue by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, bio-compatible nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues.

National Institutes of Health, McKnight Foundation, Boston Children's Hospital

Public Release: 26-Aug-2012

Nature Nanotechnology
Weighing molecules 1 at a time
A team led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology has made the first-ever mechanical device that can measure the mass of individual molecules one at a time.

National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 26-Aug-2012

Nature Nanotechnology
New wave of technologies possible after ground-breaking analysis tool developed
A revolutionary tool created by scientists at the University of Sheffield has enabled researchers to analyze nanometer-sized devices without destroying them for the first time, opening the door to a new wave of technologies.

Public Release: 24-Aug-2012

Physica Status Solidi A
Microwave ovens may help produce lower cost solar energy technology
The same type of microwave oven technology that most people use to heat up leftover food has found an important application in the solar energy industry, providing a new way to make thin-film photovoltaic products with less energy, expense and environmental concerns.

Sharp Laboratories, Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute