Rice University researchers have invented a device that uses fast-moving fluids to insert flexible, conductive carbon nanotube fibers into the brain, where they can help record the actions of neurons. The Rice team’s microfluidics-based technique promises to improve therapies that rely on electrodes to sense neuronal signals and trigger actions in patients [...]
Nanotechnologists are making use of DNA, the genetic material that is present in living organisms, as well as its multifunctional counterpart RNA, as the raw material in attempts to design miniscule devices that could potentially function as drug delivery vehicles, miniature nanofactories for the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, or extremely sensitive elements of optical [...]
The following article is an exclusive contribution to CoinDesk's 2017 in Review. Eva A. Kaili is a member of the European Parliament, where she chairs the Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) panel aimed at assessing AI, fintech and blockchain. From the article by Eva Kaili at coindesk.com: "The internet is once more in a [...]
Imaging at the nanoscale is important to a plethora of modern applications in materials science, physics, biology, medicine and other fields. Limitations of current techniques are, e.g. their resolution, imaging speed or the inability to look behind opaque objects with arbitrary shapes. However, imaging like this would be useful e.g. for investigating spongy electrodes, thus [...]
Around one in 3,300 children in Germany is born with Mucoviscidosis. A characteristic of this illness is that one channel albumen on the cell surface is disturbed by mutations. Thus, the amount of water of different secretions in the body is reduced which creates a tough mucus. As a consequence, inner organs malfunction. Moreover, the [...]
Researchers at Aalto University, Finland, have developed a biosensor that enables creating a range of new easy-to-use health tests similar to home pregnancy tests (Advanced Materials, "Plasmonic Metaparticles on a Blackbody Create Vivid Reflective Colors for Naked-eye Environmental- and Clinical Bio-detection"). The plasmonic biosensor can detect diseased exosomes even by the naked eye. Exosomes, important [...]
Scientists at the universities of Kent and Bristol have built a miniature scaffold inside bacteria that can be used to bolster cellular productivity, with implications for the next generation of biofuel production (Nature Chemical Biology, "Engineered synthetic scaffolds for organizing proteins within the bacterial cytoplasm"). Because there is a growing need for agricultural or renewable [...]
Silicon microelectronics and biomedical fields could benefit from a safe and cost-effective way to synthesize nanoparticles. Oil and water do not mix, but a KAUST team has exploited the distinct interfaces between these substances to make plasma generation in liquids more efficient. This approach holds promise for high-yield synthesis of nanomaterials from liquid reagents or [...]
Excitonium has a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign... well... excited! Professor of Physics Peter Abbamonte and graduate students Anshul Kogar and Mindy Rak, with input from colleagues at Illinois, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Amsterdam, have proven the existence of this enigmatic new form of matter, which has [...]
Tumor-targeting nanoparticles loaded with a drug that makes cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy's toxicity could be used to treat an aggressive and often deadly form of endometrial cancer, according to new research by the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. For the first time, researchers combined traditional chemotherapy with a relatively new cancer drug [...]
