The Omicron BA.5 subvariant is no longer the dominant cause of Covid-19 infections in the United States, according to estimates released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, a host of new sublineages – offshoots of BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 – are now responsible for the majority of new infections in this [...]
Scientists have shown that they can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air by using a nanotechnology-packed bubble that spills its chemical contents like a broken piñata when encountering the virus. Such a detector could be positioned on a wall or ceiling, or in an air duct, where there's constant air [...]
The next generation of phones and wireless devices are going to need new antennae to access higher and higher frequency ranges. One way to make antennae that work at tens of gigahertz — the frequencies needed for 5G and higher devices — is to braid filaments about 1 micrometer in diameter. But today’s [...]
One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures exhibit distinct properties that vary from those of bulk materials. They provide significant benefits in designing next-generation batteries due to facile electronic and ionic transport and strong tolerance to stress changes. Thus, contributing to the high performance of energy storage systems. A review article published in Advanced Functional Materials systematically reviewed the latest [...]
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are scaling up the production of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) that could revolutionize diverse commercial products ranging from rechargeable batteries, automotive parts and sporting goods to boat hulls and water filters. The research appears in the journal Carbon ("Synthesis of wafer-scale SWCNT forests with remarkably invariant structural properties in a [...]
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have in a new study used cellular reprogramming to create human three-dimensional brain models and infected these models with SARS-CoV-2. In infected models, the brain immune cells excessively eliminated synapses and acquired a gene expression pattern mimicking what has been observed in neurodegenerative disorders. The findings could help to identify [...]
Together with colleagues, a group of scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University synthesized nanostructures of gold and iron oxides that have improved magnetic and optical properties because of their unique star shape. The particles obtained are safe for healthy human cells and can be used in tumor therapy. The results of the [...]
Nanoplastics derived from plastic waste are increasingly accumulating in agricultural farmlands. The absorption and deposition of plastic particles by crops pollute the food supply and pose unanticipated health concerns to human beings. However, the effects of nanoplastics on crop grains cultivated in polluted soil remain relatively unknown. A recent study published in the journal Advanced Science tackles [...]
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin believe our brains could use quantum computation. Their discovery comes after they adapted an idea developed to prove the existence of quantum gravity to explore the human brain and its workings. The brain functions measured were also correlated to short-term memory performance and conscious awareness, suggesting quantum processes are also [...]
Scientists at RMIT University say their new research advances the potential of nanomedicine to cure conditions that are currently incurable, such as dementia and motor neurone disease. Their work explores how nanoparticles would interact with cells in humans and provides fundamental knowledge to help improve nanomedicine and develop the next generation of personalised biomedical [...]
