Sci-Fi Tips

MIT researchers have developed a process to manufacture and integrate “artificial atoms,” created by atomic-scale defects in microscopically thin slices of diamond, with photonic circuitry, producing the largest quantum chip of its type. The accomplishment “marks a turning point” in the field of scalable quantum processors, says Dirk Englund, an associate professor in MIT’s Department

IMAGE: Peptide nanoparticles glow in different colors of the rainbow; each row shows the colors emitted for a series of three related peptides. view more  Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c08259 The discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is made by a jellyfish, transformed cell biology. It allowed scientists to

IMAGE: A solar steam generator has an upper layer (black) of light-absorbing carbon nanotubes, a middle layer (grey) of heat-insulating glass bubbles, and a bottom layer (brown) of water-transporting wood…. view more  Credit: Adapted from Nano Letters 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01088 According to the United Nations, about one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas where water

AURORA, Colo. (July 8, 2020) – In an effort to combat a growing worldwide epidemic of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), scientists have discovered a new target and a new therapy that has shown promising results in preclinical mouse models, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “NAFLD is a major

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A unique nanoparticle to deliver a localized cancer treatment inhibits tumor growth in mice, according to a team of Penn State researchers. The nanoparticles, developed by Daniel Hayes, associate professor of biomedical engineering, have a specific chemistry that allows a microRNA (miRNA) to attach to it. A miRNA is a molecule

IMAGE: An illustration of the boron nitride photocatalysis that destroys the pollutant PFOA in water. view more  Credit: Image courtesy of M. Wong/Rice University HOUSTON — (July 7, 2020) — Rice University chemical engineers found an efficient catalyst for destroying PFAS “forever” chemicals where they least expected. “It was the control,” said Rice Professor Michael Wong,

IMAGE: Caption: from left to right: Dr. Xiaobo Lu, Ipsita Das, Dr. Petr Stepanov, and Prof. Dmitri Efetov in the lab at ICFO. view more  Credit: ©ICFO If you stack two layers of graphene one on top of the other, and rotate them at an angle of 1.1º (no more and no less) from each other

A world-leading materials expert from The University of Manchester is helping to launch a new global task force to drive innovation in digital health to combat pandemics like COVID-19 – and ambitious outputs could eventually include building ‘smart cities’ that feature anti-virus defences. Professor Henry Yi Li, Chair of Textile Science and Engineering at The

The development of metasurfaces opened a horizon for the advance of planar optics. Among various metadevices, the metalens has attracted widespread attention for practical applications in imaging and spectroscopy, where it allows multifunctional wavefront manipulations for improved focus. As part of the trend of miniaturization and integration of photonic systems, metalenses are replacing the traditional

IMAGE: Top: Photo of a sample inside the scanning probe module showing the eight electrical contacts to a plate containing the sample to be studied. In the center the probe tip… view more  Credit: NIST It images single atoms. It maps atomic-scale hills and valleys on metal and insulating surfaces. And it records the flow of

IMAGE: Schematic illustration of manipulation and tracking of native nuclear nano-pores from colon cancer cells and mouse organoids. Live tracking of single bio-filament conformations inside the nuclear pore presented as a… view more  Credit: Kanazawa University In human cells, the nucleus is enclosed by a structure called the nuclear pore complex (NPC). It acts as a

IMAGE: Novel material nanoarchitecture enables the development of new-generation high-energy batteries beyond Li-ion chemistry view more  Credit: Supplied by University of Technology Sydney The rapid development of renewable energy resources has triggered tremendous demands in large-scale, cost-efficient and high-energy-density stationary energy storage systems. Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have many advantages but there are much more abundant

IMAGE: Abrikosov lattice at moderate vortex velocities (left); ultra-fast moving Abrikosov-Josephson “vortex rivers ” (right) view more  Credit: © Oleksandr Dobrovolskiy, University of Vienna Superconductivity is a physical phenomenon occurring at low temperatures in many materials which manifests itself through a vanishing electrical resistance and the expulsion of magnetic fields from the material’s interior. Superconductors are