University of Colorado Boulder researchers have used ultra-fast extreme ultraviolet lasers to measure the properties of materials more than 100 times thinner than a human red blood cell. The team, led by scientists at JILA, reported its new feat of wafer-thinness this week in the journal Physical Review Materials. The group’s target, a film just 5 Read more about How small we could go and how accurate we could be[…]
Especially activities in the field of artificial intelligence, like teaching robots to walk or precise automatic image recognition, demand ever more powerful, yet at the same time more economical computer chips. While the optimization of conventional microelectronics is slowly reaching its physical limits, nature offers us a blueprint how information can be processed and stored Read more about Neuromorphic computers with one step closer due to neurotransistors[…]
Since World War I, the vast majority of American combat casualties has come not from gunshot wounds but from explosions. Today, most soldiers wear a heavy, bullet-proof vest to protect their torso but much of their body remains exposed to the indiscriminate aim of explosive fragments and shrapnel. Designing equipment to protect extremities against the Read more about A new nanofiber material could protect soldiers, firefighters, astronauts and more[…]
According to the British Royal Automobile and the French Automobile clubs, the first car was created in 1770 by the Frenchman Joseph Cugnot. This “Fardier” (French name for a trolley used to transport heavy loads) was a car propelled by a steam engine and powered by a boiler. This 7 m long self-propelled machine reached Read more about Nano Grand Prix empowered by new nanocars[…]
A research team from Empa and EPFL has developed a molecular motor which consists of only 16 atoms and rotates reliably in one direction. It could allow energy harvesting at the atomic level. The special feature of the motor is that it moves exactly at the boundary between classical motion and quantum tunneling – and Read more about The smallest motor in the world[…]
A team of researchers from Empa, ETH Zurich and Zurich University Hospital has succeeded in developing a novel sensor for detecting the new coronavirus. In future it could be used to measure the concentration of the virus in the environment – for example in places where there are many people or in hospital ventilation systems. Read more about A new biosensor for the COVID-19 virus[…]
A team from Graz University of Technology succeeded in using the FEBID method to produce complex 3D-printed nano-components for the first time without additional support structures. In the nanometer range, complex, free-standing 3D architectures are very difficult to produce in a single step due to the required precision. In the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Direct Read more about How the new 3D nanoprinting technology works[…]
Researchers have developed an ultra-thin and ultra-flexible electronic material that could be printed and rolled out like newspaper, for the touchscreens of the future. The touch-responsive technology is 100 times thinner than existing touchscreen materials and so pliable it can be rolled up like a tube. To create the new conductive sheet, an RMIT University-led Read more about Nanotechnology brings closer the future of newspaper[…]
A material that thickens when you pull on it seems to contradict the laws of physics. However, the so-called auxetic effect, which also occurs in nature, is interesting for a number of applications. A new Empa study recently published in “Nature Communications” shows how this amazing behavior can be improved – and even used to Read more about The use of auxetic membranes to regenerate human tissue after injuries[…]
Since their invention more than 60 years ago, diamond anvil cells have made it possible for scientists to recreate extreme phenomena – such as the crushing pressures deep inside the Earth’s mantle – or to enable chemical reactions that can only be triggered by intense pressure, all within the confines of a laboratory apparatus that Read more about A sensor that can withstand the crushing forces inside a diamond anvil cell[…]
A research collaboration between Rice University and the Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at Swansea University has found that old newspapers can be used as a low cost, eco-friendly material on which to grow single walled carbon nanotubes on a large scale. Carbon nanotubes are tiny molecules with incredible physical properties that can be used Read more about Newspapers provide a green, economical way to produce carbon nanotubes[…]
The challenge of building an energy future that preserves and improves the planet is a massive undertaking. But it all hinges on the charged particles moving through invisibly small materials. Scientists and politicians have recognized the need for an urgent and substantial shift in the world’s mechanisms of energy production and consumption in order to Read more about Future of nanomaterials for energy storage[…]