A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Applied Physics Assistant Professor Nanfang Yu, has invented a method to control light propagating in confined pathways, or waveguides, with high efficiency by using nano-antennas. To demonstrate this technique, they built photonic integrated devices that not only had record-small footprints but were also able to maintain optimal [...]
From a article by Milla Bengtsson: A new platform offers a fast and more efficient way to target and program mammalian cells as genetic circuits, even complex ones. Wilson Wong, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, explains: “The problem synthetic biologists are trying to solve is how we ask cells to make decisions and [...]
Increase in orbital traffic from thousands of communications satellites could lead to 50% rise in catastrophic crashes, says study. Plans to launch “mega constellations” of thousands of communications satellites to allow for global wireless internet could lead to a rise in collisions and build-up of dangerous space junk in Earth’s orbit, a study warns. Google, [...]
From an article by Jon Fingas, @jonfingas: You can already find flexible displays in your phone or smartwatch, but there's a good reason you don't find them everywhere: the transparent electrodes in many OLED screens are too fragile to take a lot of abuse. That might change in the long run, though. South Korean researchers [...]
As the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere, nitrogen has been an attractive option as a source of renewable energy. But nitrogen gas—which consists of two nitrogen atoms held together by a strong, triple covalent bond—doesn’t break apart under normal conditions, presenting a challenge to scientists who want to transfer the chemical energy of the [...]
From an article by Dan Modano at reliawire.com: The specific genes that than enable the parasite called Wolbachia to infect insects by hijacking their reproduction have been identified by teams of biologists from Vanderbilt and Yale Universities. Wolbachia is the world most successful parasite, but most people have never heard of it. That’s because because [...]
A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed nanowires that can record the electrical activity of neurons in fine detail. The new nanowire technology could one day serve as a platform to screen drugs for neurological diseases and could enable researchers to better understand how single cells communicate in [...]
From an article by Benedette Cuffari at Azonano.com: In October 2004, University of Manchester’s Andre Geim, along with his colleague Kostya Novoselov, published their discovery that when a block of graphite is broken down to just 10 or 100 layers thick, a material known as graphene emerges1. With substantial material properties involving its superior strength [...]
From an article written by Nick Whigham: The mysterious force known as dark energy is thought to be responsible for the runaway expansion of the universe but a new study suggests it could just be an illusion. The still unexplained force is believed to make up about 68 per cent of the universe and has [...]
A UK-based team of researchers has created a graphene-based sieve capable of removing salt from seawater. The sought-after development could aid the millions of people without ready access to clean drinking water. The promising graphene oxide sieve could be highly efficient at filtering salts, and will now be tested against existing desalination membranes. It has [...]
