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Public Release: 12-Nov-2012

Nanotechnology
UT Arlington physics team demonstrates new power generation technique
University of Texas at Arlington and Louisiana Tech University researchers created a hybrid nanomaterial that can be used to convert light and thermal energy into electrical current. The team built a prototype thermoelectric generator they hope can eventually produce milliwatts for use in devices such as self-powering sensors, low-power electronic devices and implantable biomedical micro-devices, they said. UT Arlington's Wei Chen has also coupled gold nanoparticles with copper sulfide nanoparticles for potential use in cancer therapy.

Public Release: 12-Nov-2012

Geophysical Journal International
Surveying Earth's interior with atomic clocks
Ultraprecise portable atomic clocks are on the verge of a breakthrough. An international team lead by scientists from the University of Zurich shows that it may be possible to use the latest generation of atomic clocks to resolve structures within the Earth.

Public Release: 11-Nov-2012

Nature Physics
First noiseless single photon amplifier
Research physicists have demonstrated the first device capable of amplifying the information in a single particle of light without adding noise.

Public Release: 11-Nov-2012

Nature Medicine
Detection, analysis of 'cell dust' may allow diagnosis, monitoring of brain cancer
A novel miniature diagnostic platform using nuclear magnetic resonance technology is capable of detecting minuscule cell particles known as microvesicles in a drop of blood. Microvesicles shed by cancer cells are even more numerous than those released by normal cells, so detecting them could prove a simple means for diagnosing cancer.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012

Nature Biotechnology
Medical devices powered by the ear itself
For the first time, researchers power an implantable electronic device using an electrical potential -- a natural battery -- deep in the inner ear.

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012
Springer to publish new open access journal with the Korean Society for Micro and Nano Systems
Beginning in March 2013, Springer and the Korean Society for Micro and Nano Systems will partner to publish a new interdisciplinary journal Micro and Nano Systems Letters. As a fully sponsored open access journal, it will be part of the SpringerOpen portfolio, available on link.springer.com.

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
What if the nanoworld slides
Some researchers at the International School for Advanced Studies have published in PNAS a study to better understand sliding friction in nanotribology: a new simulation model opens the way to new research methods, thanks to colloidal crystals.

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012
Canada and Europe fund intelligent senior homes
Technology may soon be helping seniors to live longer, healthier lives. A trio of researchers, including Simon Fraser University's Andrew Sixsmith, is working to develop intelligent, interactive sensors to be embedded in seniors' homes and used to support independent living. Sixsmith and his colleagues in Toronto and Sweden are receiving $730,000 through a joint federal and European health research-funding program to develop ambient assistive living technologies.

CIHR

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012

Energy and Environmental Science
Ben-Gurion University develops side-illuminated ultra-efficient solar cell designs
The new cell architecture developed at the David Ben-Gurion National Solar Research Center at BGU can exceed an ultra-efficient 40 percent conversion efficiency with intensities equal to 10,000 suns." Our new designs for concentrator photovoltaic cells comprise multiple tiers of semiconductor materials that are totally independent, and overcome numerous challenges in compiling the elements of even the most efficient solar cells," BGU Prof Gordon says.

Public Release: 8-Nov-2012

Science
Nanocrystals and nickel catalyst substantially improve light-based hydrogen production
Hydrogen is an attractive fuel source because it can easily be converted into electric energy and gives off no greenhouse emissions. A group of chemists at the University of Rochester is adding to its appeal by increasing the output and lowering the cost of current light-driven hydrogen-production systems.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 7-Nov-2012

Nature Methods
Stem cells + nanofibers = Promising nerve research
Using polymer nanofibers thinner than human hairs as scaffolds, researchers have coaxed a particular type of brain cell to wrap around nanofibers that mimic the shape and size of nerves found in the body.

Department of Veterans Affairs, US National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Award, Paralyzed Veterans of America, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Public Release: 7-Nov-2012

Soft Matter
How butterfly wings can inspire new high-tech surfaces
Researchers here have taken a new look at butterfly wings and rice leaves, and learned things about their microscopic texture that could improve a variety of products.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 6-Nov-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New study reveals challenge facing designers of future computer chips
To build the computer chips of the future, designers will need to understand how an electrical charge behaves when confined to metal wires a few atom-widths in diameter. Now, physicists at McGill University, in collaboration with researchers at General Motors R&D, have shown that electrical current may be drastically reduced when wires from two dissimilar metals meet.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fond Quebecois de la recherche

Public Release: 6-Nov-2012

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
New strategy for fingerprint visualization developed at Hebrew University
Identifying fingerprints on paper is a commonly used method in police forensic work, but unfortunately it is not easy to make those fingerprints visible. Now, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a new approach for making such fingerprints more readily readable.

Public Release: 6-Nov-2012
European boost for DNA nanotechnology
The use of DNA strands as nano building materials is on the way to creating revolutionary new opportunities in the development of medicine, optics and electronics. A new graduate school, European School of DNA Nanotechnology, sets out to foster the development of a new generation of scientists with the skills required to meet futures challenges in bionanotechnology, from fundamental science to novel applications.

European Commission/Marie Curie Actions research fellowship programme

Public Release: 5-Nov-2012

Nano Letters
Researchers create laser the size of a virus particle
The miniaturization of the laser -- a key, workhorse instrument -- is critical to ultra-fast data processing and ultra-dense information storage. Now a Northwestern University research team has found a way to manufacture single laser devices that are the size of a virus particle and that operate at room temperature. These plasmonic nanolasers could be readily integrated into silicon-based photonic devices, all-optical circuits and nanoscale biosensors.

Public Release: 5-Nov-2012
Sensors for the real world
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed gravimetric sensors which are not affected by temperature.

Public Release: 5-Nov-2012

Physical Review Letters
Electron microscopes with a twist
Viennese Scientists have developed a new way of producing electron beams in electron microscopes. These beams rotate -- they carry angular momentum. Therefore, they can be used not only to display objects but also to probe their magnetic properties. Using a special kind of screen so-called vortex beams with extraordinary intensity can be created.

Public Release: 1-Nov-2012
New book on physics principles by Wayne State professor explains life as we know it
A new book that delves into the unexpected properties of life at the nanoscale was released this week by Basic Books. "Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos," by Peter M. Hoffmann, Ph.D., professor of physics and materials science and associate dean in Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, uses the principles of physics -- the science of levers and pulleys, atoms and quarks -- to explain life.

Public Release: 1-Nov-2012

Nature Scientific Reports
Rice team boosts silicon-based batteries
Rice researchers crush their custom silicon sponges to make battery anodes that outperform those in current batteries and should easily scale up for manufacturing.

Public Release: 31-Oct-2012
New discovery shows promise in future speed of synthesizing high-demand nanomaterials
A new discovery by University of Oklahoma and North Carolina State University researchers shows a breakthrough in speeding up the process for synthesizing transition metal oxide nanostructures. What had once taken days can now be accomplished instantaneously.

Public Release: 31-Oct-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Folding funnels key to biomimicry
Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that a concept widely accepted as describing the folding of a single individual protein is also applicable to the self-assembly of multiple proteins. Their findings provide important guidelines for future biomimicry efforts, particularly for device fabrication and nanoscale synthesis.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 31-Oct-2012

Nature Photonics
Taming mavericks: Stanford researchers use synthetic magnetism to control light
Stanford researchers in physics and engineering have demonstrated a device that produces a synthetic magnetism to exert virtual force on photons similar to the effect of magnets on electrons. The advance could yield a new class of nanoscale applications that use light instead of electricity.

Public Release: 31-Oct-2012

ACS Nano
Stanford scientists build the first all-carbon solar cell
Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today. "Every component in our solar cell, from top to bottom, is made of carbon materials," said the study's co-lead author Michael Vosgueritchian. "Other groups have reported making all-carbon solar cells, but they were referring to just the active layer in the middle, not the electrodes."

Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, Air Force Office for Scientific Research

Public Release: 31-Oct-2012

European Physical Journal B
Graphene mini-lab
A team of physicists from Europe and South Africa showed that electrons moving randomly in graphene can mimic the dynamics of particles such as cosmic rays, despite travelling at a fraction of their speed, in a paper about to be published in EPJ B.

European Commission, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Excellence Cluster NIM, ACIT


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