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Categories: Engineering: Nanotechnology, Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published 'Plug and play' nanoparticles could make it easier to tackle various biological targets
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have developed modular nanoparticles that can be easily customized to target different biological entities such as tumors, viruses or toxins. The surface of the nanoparticles is engineered to host any biological molecules of choice, making it possible to tailor the nanoparticles for a wide array of applications, ranging from targeted drug delivery to neutralizing biological agents.
Published Roosters might recognize themselves in the mirror
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scrape, cluck, lay eggs -- that's it? Anyone involved in chicken farming knows that the animals are capable of much more. Researchers have found evidence that roosters could recognize themselves in a mirror. Whether this is successful, however, depends on the experimental conditions -- a finding that points beyond the experiment with roosters and could also be of importance for other animal species.
Published DNA Origami nanoturbine sets new horizon for nanomotors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers introduce a pioneering breakthrough in the world of nanomotors -- the DNA origami nanoturbine. This nanoscale device could represent a paradigm shift, harnessing power from ion gradients or electrical potential across a solid-state nanopore to drive the turbine into mechanical rotations. The core of this pioneering discovery is the design, construction, and driven motion of a 'DNA origami' turbine, which features three chiral blades, all within a minuscule 25-nanometer frame, operating in a solid-state nanopore. By ingeniously designing two chiral turbines, researchers now have the capability to dictate the direction of rotation, clockwise or anticlockwise.
Published Using sound to test devices, control qubits
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a system that uses atomic vacancies in silicon carbide to measure the stability and quality of acoustic resonators. What's more, these vacancies could also be used for acoustically-controlled quantum information processing, providing a new way to manipulate quantum states embedded in this commonly-used material.
Published Rider on the storm: Shearwater seabird catches an 11 hour ride over 1,000 miles in a typhoon
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research suggests that increasingly severe weather driven by climate change may push oceangoing seabirds to their limits.
Published Achieving large and uniform particle sizes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Dispersions of polymer particles in a liquid phase (latexes) have many important applications in coatings technology, medical imaging, and cell biology. A team of researchers has now developed a method to produce stable polystyrene dispersions with unprecedentedly large, and uniform, particle sizes. Narrow size distributions are essential in many advanced technologies, but were previously difficult to produce photochemically.
Published Bizarre new fossils shed light on ancient plankton
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Recently discovered microfossils date back half a billion years. Resembling modern-day algae, they provide insight into early life in our oceans.
Published Raining cats and dogs: Global precipitation patterns a driver for animal diversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has identified several factors to help answer a fundamental ecological question: why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? They discovered that what an animal eats (and how that interacts with climate) shapes Earth's diversity.
Published Plants transformed into detectors of dangerous chemicals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What if your house plant could tell you your water isn't safe? Scientists are closer to realizing this vision, having successfully engineered a plant to turn beet red in the presence of a banned, toxic pesticide.
Published Unexpected behavior discovered in active particles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Physicists have now shown that, depending on the extent to which the propulsion speed of active particles is dependent on their orientation, clusters in different shapes arise in many-particle systems. This might be a possible key to the realization of programmable matter.
Published International team develops novel DNA nano engine
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism and can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a coupling and install it as a drive in complex nano machines.
Published Electron-rich metals make ceramics tough to crack
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have developed a recipe to make a certain class of ceramics tougher and more resistant to cracking. The newfound toughness of these ceramics paves the way for their use in extreme applications, such as spacecraft and other hypersonic vehicles.
Published Wearable device makes memories and powers up with the flex of a finger
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have invented an experimental wearable device that generates power from a user's bending finger and can create and store memories, in a promising step towards health monitoring and other technologies.
Published Going rogue: Scientists apply giant wave mechanics on a nanometric scale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have shown how the principles of rogue waves -- huge 30-meter waves that arise unexpectedly in the ocean -- can be applied on a nano scale, with dozens of applications from medicine to manufacturing.
Published Milestone: Miniature particle accelerator works
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Particle accelerators are crucial tools in a wide variety of areas in industry, research and the medical sector. The space these machines require ranges from a few square meters to large research centers. Using lasers to accelerate electrons within a photonic nanostructure constitutes a microscopic alternative with the potential of generating significantly lower costs and making devices considerably less bulky. Until now, no substantial energy gains were demonstrated. In other words, it has not been shown that electrons really have increased in speed significantly. Two teams of laser physicists have just succeeded in demonstrating a nanophotonic electron accelerator.
Published Superlensing without a super lens: Physicists boost microscopes beyond limits
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Attempts to break the diffraction limit with 'super lenses' have all hit the hurdle of extreme visual losses. Now physicists have shown a new pathway to achieve superlensing with minimal losses, breaking through the diffraction limit by a factor of nearly four times. The key to their success was to remove the super lens altogether.
Published Nanoparticle vaccine could curb cancer metastasis to lungs by targeting a protein
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have developed an experimental vaccine that could prevent the spread of metastatic cancers to the lungs. Its success lies in targeting a protein known to play a central role in cancer growth and spread, rather than targeting the primary tumor itself.
Published Art with DNA -- Digitally creating 16 million colors by chemistry
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The DNA double helix is composed of two DNA molecules whose sequences are complementary to each other. The stability of the duplex can be fine-tuned in the lab by controlling the amount and location of imperfect complementary sequences. Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability. Now, researchers have succeeded in creating fluorescent duplexes that can generate any of 16 million colors -- a work that surpasses the previous 256 colors limitation. This very large palette can be used to 'paint' with DNA and to accurately reproduce any digital image on a miniature 2D surface with 24-bit color depth.
Published Harnessing molecular power: Electricity generation on the nanoscale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers tested a molecular energy harvesting device that captures the energy from the natural motion of molecules in a liquid. Their work showed molecular motion can be used to generate a stable electric current. To create the device, they submerged nanoarrays of piezoelectric material in liquid, allowing the movement of the liquid to move the strands like seaweed waving in the ocean, except in this case the movement is on the molecular scale, and the strands are made of zinc oxide. When the zinc oxide material waves, bends, or deforms under motion, it generates electric potential.
Published Surprising discovery shows electron beam radiation can repair nanostructures
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a surprising new study, researchers have found that the electron beam radiation that they previously thought degraded crystals can actually repair cracks in these nanostructures. The groundbreaking discovery provides a new pathway to create more perfect crystal nanostructures, a process that is critical to improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of materials that are used in virtually all electronic devices we use every day.