Just as cilia lining the lungs help keep passages clear by moving particles along the tips of the tiny hair-structures, man-made miniscule bristles known as nano-brushes can help reduce friction along surfaces at the molecular level, among other things. In their latest series of experiments, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach to synthesize these nano-brushes, which could improve their versatility in the future. These polymer brushes are currently being used in biologic sensors and microscopic devices, such as microcantilevers, and they will play an important role in the future drive to miniaturization, the researchers said.

In a step toward more efficient, smaller and higher-definition display screens, a University of Michigan professor has developed a new type of color filter made of nano-thin sheets of metal with precisely spaced gratings. The gratings, sliced into metal-dielectric-metal stacks, act as resonators. They trap and transmit light of a particular color, or wavelength. Simply by changing the space between the slits, the researchers can generate different colors. Through nanostructuring, they can render white light any color.

If a drug can be guided to the right place in the body, the treatment is more effective and there are fewer side-effects. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now developed magnetic nanoparticles that can be directed to metallic implants such as artificial knee joints, hip joints and stents in the coronary arteries. The team has shown that the principle works in animal experiments. They have succeeded in attaching a clot-dissolving drug to the nanoparticles and, with the help of magnets, have directed the particles to a blood clot in a stent in the heart to dissolve it. Thus the nanoparticles have been able to stop an incipient heart attack.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed extremely small microneedles that can be used to deliver medically-relevant nanoscale dyes called quantum dots into skin – an advance that opens the door to new techniques for diagnosing and treating a variety of medical conditions, including skin cancer.

Using a cutting edge nanotechnology, researchers at MIT have created a robotic prototype that could autonomously navigate the surface of the ocean to collect surface oil and process it on site. The system, called Seaswarm, is a fleet of vehicles that may make cleaning up future oil spills both less expensive and more efficient than current skimming methods.

NanoEngineers at the University of California, San Diego are designing new types of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that could be used in a variety of NASA space exploration projects – and in a wide range of transportation and consumer applications. The nearly $600,000 program builds upon expertise in the UC San Diego Department of NanoEngineering in modeling new nanocomposite structures for next generation electrode materials, and NEI’s capability to reproducibly synthesize electrode materials at the nanoscale.

Nanocorrosion causes implants to fail. Extra-hard coatings made from diamond-like carbon (DLC) extend the operating lifetime of tools and components. In artificial joints, however, these coatings often fail because they detach. Empa researchers found out why – and developed methods to both make the interface between the DLC layer and the metal underneath corrosion-resistant and to predict the lifetime of the implants.

Ultra- or supercapacitors are emerging as a key enabling storage technology for use in fuel-efficient transport as well as in renewable energy. Engineers hope that supercapacitors can bridge the gap between batteries and electrolytic capacitors, but contemporary devices have a lower specific energy than Li-ion batteries and are orders of magnitude slower than electrolytic capacitors. Researchers have now shown that by moving from porous carbon with a network of pores inside particles as electrode material to exposed surfaces of nanostructured carbon onions of 6-7 nm diameter, it is possible to reach the discharge rate (power) of electrolytic capacitors, but with volumetric capacitance about four orders of magnitude higher.

Clinical trials using patients’ own immune cells to target tumors have yielded promising results. However, this approach usually works only if the patients also receive large doses of drugs designed to help immune cells multiply rapidly, and those drugs have life-threatening side effects. Now a team of MIT engineers has devised a way to deliver the necessary drugs by smuggling them on the backs of the cells sent in to fight the tumor. That way, the drugs reach only their intended targets, greatly reducing the risk to the patient.

As semiconductor manufacturers build ever smaller components, circuits and chips at the nano scale become less reliable and more expensive to produce. The variability in their behavior from device to device and over their lifetimes – due to manufacturing, aging-related wear-out, and varying operating environments – is largely ignored by today’s mainstream computer systems. Now a visionary team of computer scientists and electrical engineers from six universities is proposing to deal with the downside of nanoscale computer components by re-thinking and enhancing the role that software can play in a new class of computing machines that are adaptive and highly energy efficient.

Chemists and engineers at Harvard University have fashioned nanowires into a new type of V-shaped transistor small enough to be used for sensitive probing of the interior of cells. The new device is smaller than many viruses and about one-hundredth the width of the probes now used to take cellular measurements, which can be nearly as large as the cells themselves. Its slenderness is a marked improvement over these bulkier probes, which can damage cells upon insertion, reducing the accuracy or reliability of any data gained.

Under the microscope, the bacteria start dividing normally, two cells become four and then eight and so on. But then individual cells begin “popping,” like circus balloons being struck by darts. This phenomenon, which surprised the Duke University bioengineers who captured it on video, turns out to be an example of a more generalized occurrence that must be considered by scientists creating living, synthetic circuits out of bacteria. Even when given the same orders, no two cells will behave the same. The researchers believe this accidental finding of a circuit they call “ePop” can help increase the efficiency and power of future synthetic biology circuits.

A new test for oral cancer, which a dentist could perform by simply using a brush to collect cells from a patient´s mouth, is set to be developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The nano-bio-chips are disposable and slotted like a credit card into a battery-powered analyser.

Researchers at Ohio State University have demonstrated the first plastic computer memory device that utilizes the spin of electrons to read and write data. An alternative to traditional microelectronics, so-called “spintronics” could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power.

Researchers have taken one more step toward understanding the unique and often unexpected properties of graphene, a two-dimensional carbon material that has attracted interest because of its potential applications in future generations of electronic devices. They describe for the first time how the orbits of electrons are distributed spatially by magnetic fields applied to layers of epitaxial graphene.

It turns out that watching paint dry might not be as boring as the old adage claims. A team led by Yale University researchers has come up with a new technique to study the mechanics of coatings as they dry and peel, and has discovered that the process is far from mundane. They present a new way to image and analyze the mechanical stress that causes colloidal coatings – those in which microscopic particles of one substance are dispersed throughout another – to peel off of surfaces.

A “smart” nanomaterial recently developed at the University of Dayton Research Institute for multi-purpose use in aircraft coatings, wind turbines and other large-scale commercial applications may also lead to a significant breakthrough in glaucoma treatment. Nicknamed “fuzzy fiber”, the tailored carbon material is expected to improve the lives of glaucoma sufferers by reducing the number of medical procedures needed to treat the disease.

Nanoparticle-coated pavement that cleans the air: The concentrations of toxic nitrogen oxide that are present in German cities regularly exceed the maximum permitted levels. That’s now about to change, as innovative paving slabs that will help protect the environment are being introduced. Coated in titanium dioxide nanoparticles, they reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air.

A newly discovered nanomaterial – silicon nanoneedles with modulated porosity – could improve healthcare devices by increasing energy storage, help realize implantable microchips or make better drugs. The nanoporous needles are flexible, semiconductors, biodegradable and have a surface one hundred times larger that of solid nanowires. These unique properties of the nanowires will provide a higher energy density when used as large surface anodes in lithium batteries, constitute the active elements of bioresorbable, flexible microchips for subcutaneous implants or protect drugs while in the body and release them in a controlled manner to improve their therapeutic effect.

In an innovation critical to improved DNA sequencing, a markedly slower transmission of DNA through nanopores has been achieved. Solid-state nanopores sculpted from silicon dioxide are generally straight. They are used as sensors to detect and characterize DNA, RNA and proteins. But these materials shoot through such holes so rapidly that sequencing the DNA passing through them is a problem. Researchers now report using self-assembly techniques to fabricate equally tiny but kinked nanopores which achieve a fivefold slowdown in the voltage-driven translocation speeds critically needed in DNA sequencing.

For the first time ever, scientists watch an atom’s electrons moving in real time. The researchers used ultrashort flashes of laser light to directly observe the movement of an atom’s outer electrons for the first time. Through a process called attosecond absorption spectroscopy, researchers were able to time the oscillations between simultaneously produced quantum states of valence electrons with great precision. These oscillations drive electron motion.

While most most polymer solar cells are manufactured through a spin-coating process – a technology very useful for fabricating very thin and homogeneous film and for controlling the film thickness – spin-coating has several drawbacks with regard to its application to mass production: scale-up is problematic and the process is not continuous; it is impossible to fabricate flexible devices; the process is not only expensive and wasteful but the cost increases exponentially as the substrate size increases. To overcome these problems, researchers have now introduced a highly efficient polymer solar cell fabrication method by a novel coating process – roller painting.

Imagine a device the size of – and nearly as cheap as – a grain of sand which is capable of analyzing the environment around it, recognize its chemical composition, and report it to a monitoring system. Researchers have now demonstrated a method to design prospective simple sensing arrays – so-called electronic noses – which, in principle, might be scaled down to the size of few micrometers and thus become the smallest analytical instrument.

First step towards electronic DNA sequencing: Translocation through graphene nanopores. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new, carbon-based nanoscale platform to electrically detect single DNA molecules. Using electric fields, the tiny DNA strands are pushed through nanoscale-sized, atomically thin pores in a graphene nanopore platform that ultimately may be important for fast electronic sequencing of the four chemical bases of DNA based on their unique electrical signature.

Using chemical “nanoblasts” that punch tiny holes in the protective membranes of cells, researchers have demonstrated a new technique for getting therapeutic small molecules, proteins and DNA directly into living cells.

Numerous pathogens can cause bloodstream infections (sepsis) and the most straightforward cure is to remove the disease-causing factors from a patient’s blood as quickly as possible. By using metal nanomagnets carrying target-specific ligands, researchers at ETH Zurich have shown that blood purification at a nano- to pico-molar scale is possible.

Researchers report the creation of pseudo-magnetic fields far stronger than the strongest magnetic fields ever sustained in a laboratory – just by putting the right kind of strain onto a patch of graphene. They show that when graphene is stretched to form nanobubbles on a platinum substrate, electrons behave as if they were subject to magnetic fields in excess of 300 tesla, even though no magnetic field has actually been applied.

Gene-silencing nanoparticles may put end to mosquito pest. Research conducted by a Kansas State University team may help solve a problem that scientists and pest controllers have been itching to for years. The team investigated using nanoparticles to deliver double-stranded ribonucleic acid, dsRNA – a molecule capable of specifically triggering gene silencing – into mosquito larvae through their food. By silencing particular genes, the dsRNA may kill the developing mosquitoes or make them more susceptible to pesticides.

A new vaccine-delivery patch based on hundreds of microscopic needles that dissolve into the skin could allow persons without medical training to painlessly administer vaccines — while providing improved immunization against diseases such as influenza. Patches containing micron-scale needles that carry vaccine with them as they dissolve into the skin could simplify immunization programs by eliminating the use of hypodermic needles – and their “sharps” disposal and re-use concerns. Applied easily to the skin, the microneedle patches could allow self-administration of vaccine during pandemics and simplify large-scale immunization programs in developing nations.

By imaging the cell walls of a zinnia leaf down to the nanometer scale, energy researchers have a better idea about how to turn plants into biofuels. Using different microscopy methods, the team was able to visualize single cells in detail, cellular substructures, fine-scale organization of the cell wall, and even chemical composition of single zinnia cells, indicating that they contain an abundance of lignocellulose.

To trap and hold tiny microparticles, engineers at Harvard have “put a ring on it,” using a silicon-based circular resonator to confine particles stably for up to several minutes. The advance could one day lead to the ability to direct, deliver, and store nanoparticles and biomolecules on all-optical chips.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have constructed molecular ‘knots’ with dimensions of around two nanometer. Most molecules are held together by chemical bonds between atoms – ‘nano-knots’ are instead mechanically bonded by interpenetrating loops. This is an unusual example of ’self-assembly’, a process which underpins biology and allows complex structures to assemble from more simple building blocks.

ETH Zurich researchers have built a transistor whose crucial element is a carbon nanotube, suspended between two contacts, with outstanding electronic properties. A novel fabrication approach allowed the scientists to construct a transistor with no gate hysteresis. This opens up new ways to manufacture nano-sensors and components that consume particularly little energy.

Engineers at Oregon State University have made a significant advance toward producing electricity from sewage, by the use of new coatings on the anodes of microbial electrochemical cells that increased the electricity production about 20 times. The findings bring the researchers one step closer to technology that could clean biowaste at the same time it produces useful levels of electricity – a promising new innovation in wastewater treatment and renewable energy.

Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered carbon molecules, known as “buckyballs,” in space for the first time. The fukkerenes were found in a planetary nebula named Tc 1. Planetary nebulas are the remains of stars, like the sun, that shed their outer layers of gas and dust as they age. A compact, hot star, or white dwarf, at the center of the nebula illuminates and heats these clouds of material that has been shed. The buckyballs were found in these clouds, perhaps reflecting a short stage in the star’s life, when it sloughs off a puff of material rich in carbon.

A team of researchers from Delft University of Technology announces a new type of nanopore device that may significantly impact the way we screen DNA molecules, for example to read off their sequence. They report a novel technique to fabricate tiny holes in a layer of graphene (a carbon layer with a thickness of only 1 atom) and they managed to detect the motion of individual DNA molecules that travel through such a hole.

Adding a bit of graphene to battery materials could dramatically cut the time it takes to recharge electronics. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have demonstrated that small quantities of graphene — an ultra-thin sheet of carbon atoms — can dramatically improve the power and cycling stability of lithium-ion batteries, while maintaining high energy storage capacity. The pioneering work could lead to the development of batteries that store larger amounts of energy and recharge quickly.

New solar-powered process removes CO2 from the air and stores it as solid carbon. Researchers have now presented the first experimental evidence of a new solar conversion process, combining electronic and chemical pathways, for carbon dioxide capture in what could become a revolutionary approach to remove and recycle CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale. Rather than trying to sequester or hide away excess carbon dioxide, this new method allows it to be stored as solid carbon or converted in useful products ranging from plastics to synthetic jet fuel.

Rice University scientists have found the “ultimate” solvent for all kinds of carbon nanotubes, a breakthrough that brings the creation of a highly conductive quantum nanowire ever closer. Nanotubes have the frustrating habit of bundling, making them less useful than when they’re separated in a solution. The researchers have found that chlorosulfonic acid can dissolve half-millimeter-long nanotubes in solution, a critical step in spinning fibers from ultralong nanotubes.

New research confirms that a revolutionary technology developed at Wake Forest University will slash years off the time it takes to develop drugs – bringing vital new treatments to patients much more quickly. Lab-on-Bead uses nanoscopic beads studded with “pins” that match a drug to a disease marker in a single step, so researchers can test an infinite number of possibilities for treatments all at once. When Lab-on-Bead makes a match, it has found a viable treatment for a specific disease – speeding up drug discovery by as much as 10,000 times and cutting out years of testing and re-testing in the laboratory.

While those wonderful light sabers in the Star Wars films remain the figment of George Lucas’ fertile imagination, light mills – rotary motors driven by light – that can power objects thousands of times greater in size are now fact. Researchers have created the first nano-sized light mill motor whose rotational speed and direction can be controlled by tuning the frequency of the incident light waves.

Researchers have demonstrated how they can adjust process conditions to influence the properties of novel plasma polymer coatings containing silver nanoparticles. Tailor-made films can be generated through a one-step plasma process. The scientists developed these new coatings, which kill bacteria while having no negative effect on human tissue.

At first, nanoshocks may seem like something to describe the millions of aftershocks of a large earthquake. But physicists are using an ultra-fast laser-based technique they dubbed “nanoshocks” for something entirely different. In fact, the “nanoshocks” have such a small spatial scale that scientists can use them to study shock behavior in tiny samples such as thin films or other systems with microscopic dimensions (a few tens of micrometers). In particular they have used the technique to shock materials under high static pressure in a diamond anvil cell.

Researchers are using nanotechnology to develop a medical dressing which will detect and treat infection in wounds. The dressing will work by releasing antibiotics from nanocapsules triggered by the presence of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, which will target treatment before the infection takes hold. The dressing will also change colour when the antibiotic is released, alerting healthcare professionals that there is infection in the wound.

The tunable fluorescent nanoparticles known as quantum dots make ideal tools for distinguishing and identifying rare cancer cells in tissue biopsies. New research describes how multicolor quantum dots linked to antibodies can distinguish the Reed-Sternberg cells that are characteristic of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Metallic carbon nanotubes show great promise for applications from microelectronics to power lines because of their ballistic transmission of electrons. But who knew magnets could stop those electrons in their tracks? Researchers came to the unexpected conclusion that magnetic fields can turn highly conductive nanotubes into semiconductors.

Biomechanical energy is one of the main energy components in biological systems. Developing an effective technique that can convert biomechanical energy into electricity is important for the future of in vivo implantable biosensors and other nanomedical devices. Researchers have already shown the conversion of biomechanical energy into electricity by a muscle-movement-driven nanogenerator to harvest mechanical energy from body movement under in vitro conditions. In a first demonstration of using nanotechnology to convert tiny physical motion into electricity in an in vivo environment, the same team has now reported the implanting of a nanogenerator in a live rat to harvest energy generated by its breath and heartbeat.

Molecules typically found in blue jean and ink dyes may lead to more efficient solar cells: Cornell University researchers have discovered a simple process for building an organic framework that could lead to economical, flexible and versatile solar cells.

Scientific results from the world’s most powerful hard X-ray laser show its unique ability to control the behaviors of individual electrons within simple atoms and molecules by stripping them away, one by one—in some cases creating hollow atoms. These results describe in great detail how the Linac Coherent Light Source’s intense pulses of X-ray light change the very atoms and molecules they are designed to image. Controlling those changes will be critical to achieving the atomic-scale images of biological molecules and movies of chemical processes that the LCLS is designed to produce.

Using a unique hybrid nanostructure, University of Maryland researchers have shown a new type of light-matter interaction and also demonstrated the first full quantum control of qubit spin within very tiny colloidal nanostructures (a few nanometers), thus taking a key step forward in efforts to create a quantum computer.

Irregular pores, low flow rates: The plastic membrane filters used in sterile filtration do not always ensure that conditions are really sterile. Filter membranes of aluminum oxide are more reliable – the size of the nanopores can be determined with precision. Even the smallest viruses cannot pass through the membrane.

Since its discovery, graphene—an unusual and versatile substance composed of a single-layer crystal lattice of carbon atoms—has caused much excitement in the scientific community. Now, Nongjian Tao, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University has hit on a new way of making graphene.

Carbon nanotubes turn glass fibers into multifunctional sensors. Researchers in Germany have now demonstrated a simple approach to deposit multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) networks onto glass fiber surfaces, thereby achieving semiconductive MWCNT–glass fibers.

And finally something fun for the weekend: Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world.

For the first time, physicists at Harvard University have tracked individual atoms in a gas cooled to extreme temperatures as the particles reorganized into a crystal, a process driven by quantum mechanics. The research opens new possibilities for particle-by-particle study and engineering of artificial quantum materials.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a simple new method for producing large quantities of the promising nanomaterial graphene. The new technique works at room temperature, needs little processing, and paves the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene.

By emulating nature’s design principles, a research team has created nanodevices made of DNA that self-assemble and can be programmed to move and change shape on demand. In contrast to existing nanotechnologies, these programmable nanodevices are highly suitable for medical applications because DNA is both biocompatible and biodegradable.

Scientists can detect the movements of single molecules by using fluorescent tags or by pulling them in delicate force measurements, but only for a few minutes. A new technique by Rice University researchers will allow them to track single molecules without modifying them — and it works over longer timescales. The team has shown that the plasmonic properties of nanoparticles can “light up” molecular interactions at the single-molecule limit in ways that will be useful to scientists.

Organic semiconductors are very promising candidates as starting materials for the manufacture of cheap, large area and flexible electronic components such as transistors, diodes and sensors on a scale ranging from micro to nano. A condition for success in achieving this goal is the ability to join components together with electrically conducting links – in other words, to create an electronic circuit. Empa scientists have developed a new method which allows them to create simple networks of organic nanowires.

Silicon breakthrough brings quantum computer one step closer. The remarkable ability of an electron to exist in two places at once has been controlled in the most common electronic material – silicon – for the first time. The research findings marks a significant step towards the making of an affordable quantum computer. The scientists have created a simple version of Schrodinger’s cat – which is paradoxically simultaneously both dead and alive – in the cheap and simple material out of which ordinary computer chips are made.