Scientists can control their branch sizes and surfaces to make them more stable and more effective catalysts. By creating branched nanoparticles from the metal ruthenium, researchers developed a way to increase the speed of catalysis while maintaining the catalyst’s stability.
The first hours of a lithium-ion battery’s life largely determine just how well it will perform. In those moments, a set of molecules self-assembles into a structure inside the battery that will affect the battery for years to come. Now scientists have witnessed the formation of the solid-electrolyte interphase at a molecular level.
Scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry have designed a biocompatible polymer that has the potential to advance photothermal therapy, a technique that deploys near-infrared light to combat antibacterial-resistant infections and cancer.
Just when it seemed like robots couldn’t get any cooler, Cornell University researchers have created a soft robot muscle that can regulate its temperature through sweating.
University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed nanoparticles that, in the lab, can activate immune responses to cancer cells. If they are shown to work as well in the body as they do in the lab, the nanoparticles might provide an effective and more affordable way to fight cancer.
Researchers review the state of the art in magnetic nanostructures. One especially interesting advance involves an exotic nanodisc configuration, known as a vortex state, where magnetic moments arrange into a curly geometry.
Micromobility vehicles, such as e-scooters, zip in and out of traffic. In San Antonio alone, over 12,000 scooters are on the road. For this reason, micromobility is seen as an alleviating trend to help tackle traffic congestion.
Promising intracellular protein-based therapeutics have been of limited use due to the difficulty of delivery into diseased cells. Now bioengineers have developed nanoparticles that can deliver these therapeutics to their targets—avoiding degradation and toxic interactions with healthy tissues.
Rigoberto “Gobet” Advincula has been named Governor’s Chair of Advanced and Nanostructured Materials at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.
As a scientist at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Liam Collins advances atomic force microscopy techniques to enable researchers to study materials and their properties on a nanometer length scale.
A highly sensitive wearable gas sensor for environmental and human health monitoring may soon become commercially available, according to researchers at Penn State and Northeastern University.
A new DNA-programmable nanofabrication platform organizes inorganic or biological nanocomponents in the same prescribed ways.
Lovers of gold watches and heavy jewellery will be thrilled. The objects of their desire may someday become much lighter, but without losing any of their glitter. Especially with watches, a small amount of weight can make all the difference.
The nucleic acids of DNA encode genetic information, while the amino acids of proteins contain the code to turn that information into structures and functions. Together, they provide the two fundamental codes underlying all of life.
A new method could enable researchers to build more efficient, longer lasting perovskite solar cells and LEDs. By growing thin perovskite films on different substrates, UC San Diego engineers invented a way of fabricating perovskite single crystals with precisely deformed, or strained, structures.
An international team of researchers have, for the first time, glimpsed the ultrafast process of proton transfer following ionization of liquid water, shedding light on how radical cations separate from their electron partners, neutralize and subsequently drift about creating damage.
A new study at the University of Georgia has found a way to attack cancer cells that is potentially less harmful to the patient.
Lithium ion batteries often grow needle-like structures between electrodes that can short out the batteries and sometimes cause fires. Now, an international team of researchers has found a way to grow and observe these structures to understand ways to stop or prevent their appearance.
Johns Hopkins researchers report that a type of biodegradable, lab-engineered nanoparticle they fashioned can successfully deliver a “suicide gene” to pediatric brain tumor cells implanted in the brains of mice. The poly(beta-amino ester) nanoparticles, known as PBAEs, were part of a treatment that also used a drug to kill the cells and prolong the test animals’ survival.
In 2019, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory dove deeper into proton spin, took a leap in quantum communication, and uncovered new details of plant biochemistry, battery cathodes, catalysts, superconductors, and more. Here, in no particular order, are the biggest advances of the year.
Researchers have developed a way to prop up a struggling immune system to enable its fight against sepsis, a deadly condition resulting from the body’s extreme reaction to infection.
A new study offers a nanoscopic view of complex oxides, which have great potential for advanced microelectronics.
Researchers have developed new nanoscale technology to image and measure more of the stresses and strains on materials under high pressures.
Researchers have demonstrated a new all-optical technique for creating robust second-order nonlinear effects in materials that don’t normally support them. Using a laser pulse fired at an array of gold triangles on a titanium dioxide (TiO2) slab, the researchers created excited electrons that briefly doubled the frequency of a beam from a second laser as it bounced off the amorphous TiO2 slab.
The Department of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has received more than $10 million in federal funding for several projects focusing on brain tumor research.
Arms control robots, a new national facility, and accelerating the drive to bring the fusion energy that powers the stars to Earth: Ten (and a triple bonus!) Must-Read Stories of 2019 from PPPL
Researchers found a way to create lasers smaller than red blood cells.
A device to quickly capture and identify various strains of virus has been developed, according to researchers at Penn State and New York University.
From nanoparticles to algae ecology, the Office of Science supported a variety of research in 2019.
Profiles of winners of PPPL's 2019 Kaul Foundation Prize recipients.
Researchers have for the first time detected an exceptional surface based on measurements of exceptional points. These points are modes that exhibit phenomenon with possible practical applications in information processing.
There he is, standing upon his pedestal: David by Michelangelo. A world-?famous statue that nearly every child can recognise. But this David is just 1 millimeter tall, pedestal included
A popular microscopy tool can give false results about certain materials’ properties. Scientists have developed a new quantitative approach to identifying and removing these artifacts. This new technique will provide a clear way to distinguish false motions from the sample’s true electromechanical phenomena in materials.
Artificial versions of small proteins, called peptoids, can readily self-assemble into tiny sheets, which gives them a great deal of potential for use in medicine, sensing, and other fields. An international team led by Foundry scientists discovered that peptoids could change shape when they form a nanosheet.
This new research shows how the ligands affect key structural and mechanical properties of the superlattices.
Researchers reporting in ACS Nano have devised a blood test that quickly and sensitively diagnoses the disease at early stages.
An emerging technology involving tiny particles that absorb light and turn it into localized heat sources shows great promise in several fields, including medicine. This heating must be carefully controlled however, since living tissue is delicate, and the ability to monitor temperature increases is crucial. In APL Photonics, scientists report a method to measure these temperatures using terahertz radiation. The study involved suspensions of gold nanorods in water in small cuvettes, which were illuminated by a laser focused on a small spot within the cuvette.
Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.
Jason Dwyer, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Rhode Island, has won an internationally recognized Innovation Award for his advancements in single-molecule nanopore sensing from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies at its annual SciX Conference in Palm Springs, California, in October.
By replicating biological machinery with non-biological components, scientists have created artificial cells that convert light into chemical energy.
A "fuzzy logic" alarm system may help nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) predict impending catheter infusion failure – and prevent complications in critically ill newborns, reports a study in the October issue of Advances in Neonatal Care, official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Power generation, the heat in our homes, air-conditioning, even the manufacturing of some of the products we use each day rely on evaporation and condensation processes. Improving and controlling these phase-change phenomena could increase energy efficiency across a vast number of industries. Shankar Narayanan, assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is leading a team that will be supported by a new NSF CAREER grant to study how evaporation and condensation processes can be improved or controlled at the micro level.
Graphene, a two-dimensional structure made of carbon, is a material with excellent mechani-cal, electronic and optical properties. However, it did not seem suitable for magnetic applica-tions. Together with international partners, Empa researchers have now succeeded in synthesiz-ing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that car-bon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronic applica-tions. The results have just been published in the renowned journal Nature Nanotechnology.
A roar of approval rang out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory upon the announcement in October that John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino had won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. On December 10th in Stockholm, they received this highly coveted prize for their major contributions to the invention of the lithium-ion battery, which is a long-standing major focus of research at Argonne.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine report they have created a tiny, nanosize container that can slip inside cells and deliver protein-based medicines and gene therapies of any size — even hefty ones attached to the gene-editing tool called CRISPR. If their creation – constructed of a biodegradable polymer — passes more laboratory testing, it could offer a way to efficiently ferry larger medical compounds into specifically selected target cells.
Science Snapshots from Berkeley Lab
CFN staff and users from ExxonMobil have developed a new approach to identifying atoms that are neither carbon nor hydrogen within a specific type of molecule in crude oil.
Organic solar cells are steadily improving as new materials are developed for the active layer, and a paper published this week in Applied Physics Reviews presents a practical guide for selecting materials for ternary organic solar cells. The authors set out to employ component engineering to extend the light absorption and efficiency of solar cells in a simple, physical way instead of the complicated process of synthesizing new semiconductors.
By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. Once sprung, the trap lights up. in the most sensitive test for the mosquito-borne diseases yet devised.
A team led by Cornell University physics professors Itai Cohen and Paul McEuen is using the binding power of magnets to design self-assembling systems that potentially can be created in nanoscale form.
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