Applied scientists at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers from the German universities of Jena, Gottingen, and Bremen, have developed a new technique for fabricating nanowire photonic and electronic integrated circuits that may one day be suitable for high-volume commercial production. Read more ...

Transistors, lasers and solar-energy conversion devices may be easier to manipulate because of recent research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists. The researchers defined the role high pressure plays in precisely tuning the fundamental properties of nanomaterials and, in particular, nanoparticle assemblies that are important for device applications. Read more ...

Oxford chemists have found a way of using carbon nanotubes to judge the heat of chilli sauces. The technology might soon be available commercially as a cheap, disposable sensor for use in the food industry. Read more ...

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body’s immune defense system and—like tiny anti-cancer missiles—home in on tumors. Read more ...

Carbon nanotubes’ potential as a super material is blighted by the fact that when first made they often take the form of an unprepossessing pile of sooty black mess in the bottom of a test tube. Now researchers in the University of Warwick’s Department of Chemistry have found a way of producing carbon nanotubes in which they instantly form a highly sensitive ready made electric circuit. Read more ...

As microchips shrink, even tiny defects in the lines, dots and other shapes etched on them become major barriers to performance. Princeton engineers have now found a way to literally melt away such defects, using a process that could dramatically improve chip quality without increasing fabrication cost. Read more ...

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have demonstrated a one-step technique for producing a class of magnetic nanoparticles that could be used in everything from biomedical applications to data storage. Consisting of an iron and cobalt core with a gold shell, the nanoparticle’s unique, and potentially very useful, magnetic properties were characterized at the NSLS. Read more ...

The Holy Grail for transistor designers has been the requirement to be able to get high performance at reduced costs over very large substrate areas. Transistors on cheap and flexible substrates like glass and plastics are currently unable to deliver such performance and therefore do not lend themselves to seamless monolithic integration of increased electronic functions on human interface devices (displays and sensors).  Read more ...

The fate of carbon-based nanoparticles spilled into groundwater – and the ability of municipal filtration systems to remove the nanoparticles from drinking water – depend on subtle differences in the solution properties of the water carrying the particles, a new study has found. Read more ...

More than 50 years ago, a graduate student in Japan conceived the “Parametron,” an electrical circuit that could form the basis for digital computers. The concept ultimately fell flat, but recently a pair of scientists gave new life to the idea, and their work could be a first step toward a nanomechanical computer that is based on mechanical rather than electrical operations. Read more ...