Chronos

Chemists create novel DNA assembly line

2010-05-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Chemists at New York University and China's Nanjing University have created a DNA assembly line that has the potential to create novel materials efficiently on the nanoscale. Their work is reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

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Spiders at the nanoscale: Molecules that behave like robots

2010-05-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

From Physorg.com:

A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

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DNA could be backbone of next generation logic chips

2010-05-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

From Pysorg.com:

In a single day, a solitary grad student at a lab bench can produce more simple logic circuits than the world's entire output of silicon chips in a month.

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New probe promises to reveal brain's mysteries

2010-05-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

From Physorg.com:

Dozens of potential applications await a new neurological probing platform developed by European scientists. The new system offers the promise of new cures for neurological disease and a better understanding of how our brain works.

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Untangling the quantum entanglement behind photosynthesis

2010-05-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

From Physorg.com:

The future of clean green solar power may well hinge on scientists being able to unravel the mysteries of photosynthesis, the process by which green plants convert sunlight into electrochemical energy. To this end, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC), Berkeley have recorded the first observation and characterization of a critical physical phenomenon behind photosynthesis known as quantum entanglement.

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New technique permits development of enzyme tool kit

2010-05-10T13:30:00.001-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

An Arizona State University graduate student, Jinglin Fu, in collaboration with Biodesign Institute researchers Neal Woodbury and Stephen Albert Johnston, has pioneered a technique that improves on scientists' ability to harness and modulate enzyme activity.

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Fab new laser nano-fabrication technology

2010-05-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Laser interference lithography can produce very high-resolution nano-scale surface patterns at low cost, and now European researchers have made important breakthroughs in the area.

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New Stanford tool enables wider analyses of genome 'deep sequencing'

2010-05-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

The new Stanford-developed, web-based algorithm allows scientists to plumb the unprecedented depths of the data provided by new "deep-sequencing" techniques to reveal a pantheon of control regions for nearly any gene. The effect is like expanding a researcher's field of vision from a pencil-thin beam of light trained mainly on the regions near coding sequences to a sweeping spotlight illuminating the contributions of distant genomic regions.

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Scientists provide groundbreaking new understanding of stem cells

2010-05-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Yanes shifted though the data on stem cells and identified an unexpected pattern: stem cell metabolites had highly unsaturated structures compared with mature cells, and levels of highly unsaturated molecules decreased as the stem cells matured. Highly unsaturated molecules, which contain little hydrogen, can easily react and change into many other different types of molecules.

"The study reveals an astounding cellular strategy," commented Yanes. "The capacity of embryonic stem cells to generate a whole spectrum of cell types characteristic of different tissues (a phenomenon referred to as plasticity) is mirrored at the metabolic level."

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New research could help develop gamma ray lasers and produce fusion power

2010-04-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Positronium is a short-lived system in which an electron and its anti-particle are bound together. In 2007, physicists at the University of California, Riverside created molecular positronium, a brand-new substance, in the laboratory. Now they have succeeded in isolating for the first time a sample of spin polarized positronium atoms.

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Intracellular protein transportation governed by simple rules

2010-04-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

This is a fascinating example of how complex processes can be controlled with simple physical and chemical rules. At first glances, it would appear to be enormously challenging to identify the proteins that need to be transported to a certain location, to spot any that have been transported to the wrong place and to stop them radiating off from their ultimate destination. Yet the cell manages this in a really simple way without any additional receptors or regulatory mechanisms. Other self-organising systems, too - such as insect colonies - often work on relatively simple principles. They would otherwise be unable to handle the multitude of tasks they need to perform. "These findings represent a milestone. They will change the way research in cellular biology is done. It’s only when we as scientists understand the principles by which life works that we are truly able to understand life. Focusing on the many different signalling pathways within the cell doesn’t really help that much," says Philippe Bastiaens.

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Computing, Sudoku-style

2010-04-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Radul envisioned a new type of computer system that would handle multidirectional information flow automatically. Indeed, not only would it pass information forward and backward through stages of a multistage process, but it would pass data laterally, too: The results of one stage could be fed into, say, two others, which would attack a problem from different directions simultaneously, reconciling their answers before passing them on to the next stage. At that point, the stages of a process wouldn’t really be stages at all, but computational modules that could be arranged in parallel or in series, like elements in an electrical circuit. Programmers would simply specify how each module was connected to those around it, and the system would automatically pass information around until it found solutions that satisfied the constraints imposed by all the modules.

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Is "Dark Matter" actually "Mirror Matter" (having inverse parity to "normal" matter)?

2010-04-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

The inspiration for mirror matter came from an experiment performed in 1956 that showed that the laws of nature are not left-right symmetrical (also called parity-symmetrical, or p-symmetrical). Specifically, the experiment showed that particles in weak interactions display a preference for left-handedness, so that in a way, the Universe is left-handed. Since the other two forms of symmetry - rotational and translational - do seem to be symmetrical everywhere in nature, scientists wonder why nature doesn’t have p-symmetry as well. But if mirror matter exists, it would solve this problem by having slight right-handedness and restoring the Universe’s p-symmetry.

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Brain-like computing on an organic molecular layer

2010-04-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Information processing circuits in digital computers are static. In our brains, information processing circuits—neurons—evolve continuously to solve complex problems. Now, an international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University has created a similar process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems. This is the first time a brain-like "evolutionary circuit" has been realized.

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IBM demonstrates nonoscale 3D patterning technique

2010-04-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

IBM Research in Zurich has demonstrated a new nanoscale patterning technique that could replace electron beam lithography (EBL). The demonstration carved a 1:5 billion scale three-dimensional model of the Matterhorn, a 4,478 meter high mountain lying on the border between Italy and Switzerland, to show how their technique could be used for a number of applications, such as creating nanoscale lenses on silicon chips for carrying optical circuits at a scale so small that electronic circuits are inefficient.

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Bizarre matter could find use in quantum computers: Odd electron mix has fault-tolerant quantum registry

2010-04-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

There are enticing new findings this week in the worldwide search for materials that support fault-tolerant quantum computing. New results from Rice University and Princeton University indicate that a bizarre state of matter that acts like a particle with one-quarter electron charge also has a "quantum registry" that is immune to information loss from external perturbations.

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A Little Less Force: Making Atomic Force Microscopy Work for Cells

2010-04-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists with Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry have developed a nanowire-based imaging technique by which atomic force microscopy could be used to study biological cells and other soft materials in their natural, liquid environment without tearing apart or deforming the samples. This could provide scientists with the long coveted non-destructive means of dynamically probing soft matter.

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Scientists discover new genetic sub-code

2010-04-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In a multidisciplinary approach, Professor Yves Barral, from the Biology Department at ETH Zurich and the computer scientists Dr. Gina Cannarozzi and Professor Gaston Gonnet, from the Computer Science Department of ETH Zurich and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, joined forces to chase possible sub-codes in genomic information. The study, which will be published in today's issue of the journal Cell, led to the identification of novel sequence biases and their role in the control of genomic expression.

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Network expands to 256 times its original size to bridge the micro and macro worlds

2010-04-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Now that scientists have developed a diverse assortment of nano- and micro-sized devices and materials, one of the biggest challenges is finding a practical way to incorporate them into macroscale systems. For example, tiny sensors, actuators, and electronic devices can only live up to their full potential when they can be exploited in large systems in everyday life. In a new study, researchers have developed an effective way to bridge the micro and macro scales by designing a network of microwires and micronodes that can be expanded from a few square centimeters to one square meter at low strain levels in the material.

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Cat brain: A step toward the electronic equivalent

2010-04-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

"We are building a computer in the same way that nature builds a brain," said Lu, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "The idea is to use a completely different paradigm compared to conventional computers. The cat brain sets a realistic goal because it is much simpler than a human brain but still extremely difficult to replicate in complexity and efficiency."

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New nano-tool synthesized

2010-04-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Featured on the cover of the April 19, 2010 issue of the International Edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie, this molecule may be useful as a laboratory tool for controlling tiny reactions in the test tube, and it has potential to be developed as the basis of a new technology that could sensitively detect metals, toxins, and other pollutants in the air, water, or soil.

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Berkeley Lab Scientists Create 'Molecular Paper'

2010-04-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Berkeley Lab scientists have created "molecular paper," the largest two-dimensional polymer crystal self-assembled in water to date. This entirely new sheet material is made of peptoids, engineered polymers that can flex and fold like proteins while maintaining the robustness of synthetic materials.

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New hope for ultimate clean energy: fusion power

2010-04-12T11:05:00.001-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

An international team of researchers - led by Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, of the University of New South Wales Department of Theoretical Physics -has shown through computational studies that a special fuel ignited by brief but powerful pulses of energy from new high-energy lasers may be the key to a success that has long eluded physicists.

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Researchers harness viruses to split water: Crucial step toward turning water into hydrogen fuel

2010-04-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water and make chemical fuel to power their growth. In this case, the team used a modified virus as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

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Significant findings about protein architecture may aid in drug design, generation of nanomaterials

2010-04-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Researchers in Singapore are reporting this week that they have gleaned key insights into the architecture of a protein that controls iron levels in almost all organisms. Their study culminated in one of the first successful attempts to take apart a complex biological nanostructure and isolate the rules that govern its natural formation.

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H.P. Sees a Revolution in Memory Chip

2010-04-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

From The New York Times:

Hewlett-Packard scientists on Thursday are to report advances in the design of a new class of diminutive switches capable of replacing transistors as computer chips shrink closer to the atomic scale.

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A Grand Unified Theory of Artificial Intelligence

2010-03-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

As a research tool, Goodman has developed a computer programming language called Church — after the great American logician Alonzo Church — that, like the early AI languages, includes rules of inference. But those rules are probabilistic. Told that the cassowary is a bird, a program written in Church might conclude that cassowaries can probably fly. But if the program was then told that cassowaries can weigh almost 200 pounds, it might revise its initial probability estimate, concluding that, actually, cassowaries probably can’t fly.

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New Path To Solar Energy Via Solid-State Photovoltaics

2010-03-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new path to energy production brightens the future for photovoltaic technology by overcoming voltage limitations that plague conventional solid-state solar cells.

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Is gravity a phenomenon that emerges from the laws of thermodynamics and information theory?

2010-03-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

From Technology Review:

A few month's ago, Erik Verlinde at the the University of Amsterdam put forward one such idea which has taken the world of physics by storm. Verlinde suggested that gravity is merely a manifestation of entropy in the Universe. His idea is based on the second law of thermodynamics, that entropy always increases over time. It suggests that differences in entropy between parts of the Universe generates a force that redistributes matter in a way that maximises entropy. This is the force we call gravity.

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The world's smallest microlaser

2010-03-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

ETH-Zurich physicists (Switzerland) have developed a new kind of laser that shatters the boundaries of possibility: it is by far the smallest electrically pumped laser in the world and one day could revolutionize chip technology.

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Quivering Gizmo Ushers in Quantum Machines

2010-03-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

From Science Now:

The weird rules of quantum mechanics state that a tiny object can absorb energy only in discrete amounts, or quanta, and can literally be in two places simultaneously. Those mind-bending tenets have been amply demonstrated in experiments with electrons, photons, atoms, and molecules. Ironically, though, physicists have never observed such bizarre quantum-mechanical effects in the motion of a human-made mechanical device. Now, Andrew Cleland, John Martinis, and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have taken a key first step in that direction by fashioning a vibrating, diving board-like gizmo a few dozen micrometers long and less than a nanometer thick that makes literally the slightest movement allowed by quantum theory.

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Designer Nanomaterials On-Demand: Scientists Report Universal Method for Creating Nanoscale Composites

2010-03-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Composites are combinations of materials that produce properties inaccessible in any one material. A classic example of a composite is fiberglass - plastic fibers woven with glass to add strength to hockey sticks or the hull of a boat. Unlike the well-established techniques for producing fiberglass and other macroscale composites, however, there aren't general schemes available for making nanoscale composites.

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Researchers develop molecular 'LEGO kit' to create nano-cubes

2010-03-17T16:34:00.001-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have devised a molecular 'LEGO toolkit' which can be used to assemble a vast number of new and functional chemical compounds.

Using molecules as building blocks they have been able to construct a molecular scaffold based on tiny (nano-scale) storage cubes. This new ‘designer route’ opens the door to many new compounds that, potentially, are able to act as the ion sensors, storage devices, and catalysts of the future.

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Brain-Like Computer Closer to Realization

2010-03-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Almost since computing began, scientists and technologists have been fascinated with the idea of a computer that works similarly to the human brain. In 2008, the first "memristor" was built, a device that is designed to behave in a manner that mimics the junctions betweens the neurons in the brain. However, until recently, the memristor was just a device. Now a group at the University of Michigan, led by Wei Lu, has demonstrated that the memristor can actually be used in computing. Their findings were published in Nano Letters: "Nanoscale Memristor Device as Synapse in Neuromorphic Systems."

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1 gene lost = 1 limb regained? Scientists demonstrate mammalian regeneration through single gene deletion

2010-03-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander. In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute demonstrate that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue.

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Computational feat speeds finding of genes to milliseconds instead of years

2010-03-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Like a magician who says, "Pick a card, any card," Stanford University computer scientist Debashis Sahoo, PhD, seemed to be offering some kind of trick when he asked researchers at the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine to pick any two genes already known to be involved in stem cell development. Finding such genes can take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Sahoo was promising the skeptical stem cell scientists that, in a fraction of a second and for practically zero cost, he could find new genes involved in the same developmental pathway as the two genes provided.

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New Answer to 80-Year-Old Question Makes Computer Modeling 100,000 Times Faster

2010-03-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

From Popular Science:

A new formula allows computers to simulate how new materials behave up to 100,000 times faster than previously possible, and could drastically speed up innovation relating to electronic devices and energy-efficient cars. Princeton engineers came up with the model based on an 80-year-old quantum physics puzzle.

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Research streamlines data processing to solve problems more efficiently

2010-03-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new analytical method that opens the door to faster processing of large amounts of information, with applications in fields as diverse as the military, medical diagnostics and homeland security.

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A huge step toward mass production of graphene

2010-03-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human hair with unique electronic properties. Their study appears in ACS' Nano Letters.

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Novel material paves the way for next-generation information technology

2010-03-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

University of Queensland researchers have successfully demonstrated a futuristic semiconductor technology that will pave the way for the next generation of electrical and information technology systems.

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MIT researchers discover new way of producing electricity

2010-03-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say.

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Breakthrough reveals blood vessel cells are key to growing unlimited amounts of adult stem cells

2010-03-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In a leap toward making stem cell therapy widely available, researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that endothelial cells, the most basic building blocks of the vascular system, produce growth factors that can grow copious amounts of adult stem cells and their progeny over the course of weeks. Until now, adult stem cell cultures would die within four or five days despite best efforts to grow them.

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'Microrings' could nix wires for communications in homes, offices

2010-03-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future.

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IBM Scientists Create Ultra-Fast Device Which Uses Light for Communication between Computer Chips

2010-03-04T09:15:00.001-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

IBM scientists today unveiled a significant step towards replacing electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that communicate using pulses of light. As reported in the recent issue of the scientific journal Nature, this is an important advancement in changing the way computer chips talk to each other.

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Nanotube Thermocells Hold Promise For Converting Heat Waste To Energy

2010-03-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A study published in the American Chemical Society's journal Nano Letters reveals that thermocells based on carbon nanotube electrodes might eventually be used for generating electrical energy from heat discarded by chemical plants, automobiles and solar cell farms.

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Biochemists take a bead on gene-controlling code

2010-03-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a new technique for observing the proteins that operate by that controlling code — called the epigenome — and assembled a library of interactions between the proteins and key positions on packets of DNA.

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New device for ultrafast optical communications

2010-03-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A new device invented by engineers at UC Davis could make it much faster to convert pulses of light into electronic signals and back again. The technology could be applied to ultrafast, high-capacity communications, imaging of the Earth's surface and for encrypting secure messages.

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Researchers make graphene hybrid

2010-03-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Layers of h-BN a single atom thick have the same lattice structure as graphene, but electrically the materials are at opposite ends of the spectrum: h-BN is an insulator, whereas graphene, the single-atom-layer form of carbon, is highly conductive. The ability to assemble them into a single lattice could lead to a rich variety of 2-D structures with electric properties ranging from metallic conductor to semiconductor to insulator.

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Quantum measurement precision approaches Heisenberg limit

2010-02-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Now, using techniques from machine learning, physicists Alexander Hentschel and Barry Sanders from the University of Calgary have recently shown how to generate measurement procedures that can outperform the best previous strategy in achieving highly precise quantum measurements. The new level of precision approaches the Heisenberg limit, which is an important goal of quantum measurement. Such quantum-enhanced measurements are useful in several areas, such as atomic clocks, gravitational wave detection, and measuring the optical properties of materials.

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Mechanical devices stamped on plastic

2010-02-26T17:17:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Microelectromechanical devices -- tiny machines with moving parts -- are everywhere these days: they monitor air pressure in car tires, register the gestures of video game players, and reflect light onto screens in movie theaters. But they're manufactured the same way computer chips are, in facilities that can cost billions of dollars, and their rigidity makes them hard to wrap around curved surfaces.

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Scientists find an equation for materials innovation

2010-02-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Princeton engineers have made a breakthrough in an 80-year-old quandary in quantum physics, paving the way for the development of new materials that could make electronic devices smaller and cars more energy efficient.

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Biology May Not Be so Complex Afterall

2010-02-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Centuries ago, scientists began reducing the physics of the universe into a few, key laws described by a handful of parameters. Such simple descriptions have remained elusive for complex biological systems - until now.

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Laser adds extra dimension to lab-on-chip

2010-02-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A European research project has shown how to build optical sensors directly into the structure of labs-on-chips. The breakthrough paves the way for on-the-spot medical diagnostics.

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Quantum leap for phonon lasers

2010-02-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Physicists have taken major step forward in the development of practical phonon lasers, which emit sound in much the same way that optical lasers emit light. The development should lead to new, high-resolution imaging devices and medical applications. Just as optical lasers have been incorporated into countless, ubiquitous devices, a phonon laser is likely to be critical to a host of as yet unimaginable applications.

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Atom interferometer provides most precise test yet of Einstein's gravitational redshift

2010-02-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

While airplane and rocket experiments have proved that gravity makes clocks tick more slowly - a central prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity - a new experiment in an atom interferometer measures this slowdown 10,000 times more accurately than before, and finds it to be exactly what Einstein predicted.

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Scientists solve ageing puzzle

2010-02-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists from the University’s Institute for Ageing and Health have used state-of-the-art laboratory techniques and sophisticated mathematical modelling to help crack the problem of why cells age.

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'Bubbles' of Broken Symmetry in Quark Soup at RHIC

2010-02-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator at the U.S. DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, report the first hints of profound symmetry transformations in the hot soup of quarks, antiquarks, and gluons produced in RHIC's most energetic collisions. In particular, the new results, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, suggest that "bubbles" formed within this hot soup may internally disobey the so-called "mirror symmetry" that normally characterizes the interactions of quarks and gluons.

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Digging deep into diamonds, physicists advance quantum science and technology

2010-02-14T14:00:00.001-08:00

From >PhysOrg.com:

By creating diamond-based nanowire devices, a team at Harvard has taken another step towards making applications based on quantum science and technology possible.

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Cameras of the future: heart researchers create revolutionary photographic technique

2010-02-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed a revolutionary way of capturing a high-resolution still image alongside very high-speed video - a new technology that is attractive for science, industry and consumer sectors alike.

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Scientists turn light into electrical current using a golden nanoscale system

2010-02-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit. The system, an array of nano-sized molecules of gold, respond to electromagnetic waves by creating surface plasmons that induce and project electrical current across molecules, similar to that of photovoltaic solar cells.

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The battery's dead: Scientists invent wafer-thin plastic that can store electricity

2010-02-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

From The Daily Mail:

The battery, which has powered our lives for generations, may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.

British scientists say they have created a plastic that can store and release electricity, revolutionising the way we use phones, drive cars - and even wear clothes.

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Physicist proposes method to teleport energy

2010-02-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Using the same quantum principles that enable the teleportation of information, a new proposal shows how it may be possible to teleport energy. By exploiting the quantum energy fluctuations in entangled particles, physicists may be able to inject energy in one particle, and extract it in another particle located light-years away. The proposal could lead to new developments in energy distribution, as well as a better understanding of the relationship between quantum information and quantum energy.

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Scientist make a leap in quantum computing

2010-02-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits."

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Doctors tout NanoKnife for easy tumor removal

2010-02-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A University of Miami doctor recently removed two cancerous tumors from a patient's liver using only three needle-like probes, a computer and a powerful burst of electricity

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IBM Scientists Demonstrate World's Fastest Graphene Transistor

2010-02-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In a just-published paper in the magazine Science, IBM researchers demonstrated a radio-frequency graphene transistor with the highest cut-off frequency achieved so far for any graphene device - 100 billion cycles/second (100 GigaHertz).

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First germanium laser brings us closer to 'optical computers'

2010-02-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. It’s also the first germanium laser to operate at room temperature. Unlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips. So the result could prove an important step toward computers that move data -- and maybe even perform calculations -- using light instead of electricity. But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief, a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.

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'Quantum Logic Clock' Based on Aluminum Ion is Now World's Most Precise Clock

2010-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock based on a single aluminum atom that is now the world’s most precise clock, more than twice as precise as the previous pacesetter based on a mercury atom.

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Research may lead to new ways to transport and manipulate molecules

2010-02-02T16:40:00.001-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A group of Marshall University researchers and their colleagues in Japan are conducting research that may lead to new ways to move or position single molecules -- a necessary step if man someday hopes to build molecular machines or other devices capable of working at very small scales.

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Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything

2010-02-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.

Liquid glass spray is perhaps the most important nanotechnology product to emerge to date.

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Nonlinear thinker: Making sense of previously insoluble problems

2010-01-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Pablo Parrilo, the Finmeccanica Career Development Professor at MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, has developed a new set of techniques that make it easier to get a handle on nonlinear systems. Moreover, in many cases, his techniques provide algorithms — step-by-step instructions — for analyzing those systems, taking away much of the guesswork. “The impact he’s had has been huge. Huge,” says Russ Tedrake, a robotics researcher at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Tedrake has adapted Parrilo’s techniques to create novel control systems for walking and flying robots, and major engineering companies have used them in the design of aircraft and engines. Quantum information theorists have used them to describe the mysterious property known as entanglement — in which the states of subatomic particles become dependent on each other — and biologists have used them to make sense of the complicated chemical signaling pathways found in cells.

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Insectlike 'microids' might walk, run, work in colonies

2010-01-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A new approach in the design of miniature, insectlike robots could lead to "microids" the size of ants that move their tiny legs and mandibles using solid-state "muscles."

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Nuclear fission algorithm is created

2010-01-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

From Spacewar:

The Argonne National Laboratory scientists said the algorithm, known as the neutron transport code, enables researchers for the first time to obtain a highly detailed description of a nuclear reactor core.

"The code could prove crucial in the development of nuclear reactors that are safe, affordable and environmentally friendly," laboratory officials said in a statement.

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Dry printing of nanotube patterns to any surface could revolutionize microelectronics

2010-01-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

"A big frontier for the field of nanoscience is in finding ways to make what we can do on the nanoscale impact our everyday activities," Hauge said. "For the use of carbon nanotubes in devices that can change the way we do things, a straightforward and scalable way of patterning aligned carbon nanotubes over any surface and in any pattern is a major advance."

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European researchers make breakthrough in developing super-material graphene

2010-01-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A collaborative research project has brought the world a step closer to producing a new material on which future nanotechnology could be based. Researchers across Europe, including the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL), have demonstrated how an incredible material, graphene, could hold the key to the future of high-speed electronics, such as micro-chips and touchscreen technology.

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Robot Arm Places Atoms and Molecules With 100% Accuracy

2010-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

From HPlus Magazine:

In a 2009 article in Nature Nanotechnology, Dr. Seeman shared the results of experiments performed by his lab, along with collaborators at Nanjing University in China, in which scientists built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The device was approximately 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size — over a million could fit in a single red blood cell. Using robust error-correction mechanisms, the device can place DNA molecules with 100% accuracy. Earlier trials had yielded only 60-80% accuracy.

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Theorists Close In on Improved Atomic Property Predictions

2010-01-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Indiana University have determined the most accurate values ever for a fundamental property of the element lithium using a novel approach that may permit scientists to do the same for other atoms in the periodic table.

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Scientists crack brain's codes for noun meanings

2010-01-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Two hundred years ago, archaeologists used the Rosetta Stone to understand the ancient Egyptian scrolls. Now, a team of Carnegie Mellon University scientists has discovered the beginnings of a neural Rosetta Stone. By combining brain imaging and machine learning techniques, neuroscientists Marcel Just and Vladimir Cherkassky and computer scientists Tom Mitchell and Sandesh Aryal determined how the brain arranges noun representations. Understanding how the brain codes nouns is important for treating psychiatric and neurological illnesses.

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Nanoscience goes 'big': Discovery could lead to enhanced electronics

2010-01-07T16:36:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

One of the main applications of this research that Cha and her group are interested in is for sensing. "There is no foreseeable route to be able to build a complex array of different nanoscale sensing elements currently," said Cha, a former IBM research scientist who joined the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering faculty in 2008. "Our work is one of the first clear examples of how you can merge top down lithography with bottom up self assembly to build such an array. That means that you have a substrate that is patterned by conventional lithography, and then you need to take that pattern and merge it with something that can direct the assembly of even smaller objects, such as those having dimensions between 2 and 20 nanometers. You need an intermediate template, which is the DNA origami, which has the ability to bind to something else much smaller and direct their assembly into the desired configuration. This means we can potentially build transistors from carbon nanotubes and also possibly use nanostructures to detect certain proteins in solutions. Scientists have been talking about patterning different sets of proteins on a substrate and now we have the ability to do that."

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Rules governing RNA's anatomy revealed

2010-01-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

"With these findings, it now should be possible to predict gross features of RNA 3-D shapes based only on their secondary structure, which is far easier to determine than is 3-D structure," Al-Hashimi said. "This will make it possible to gain insights into the 3-D shapes of RNA structures that are too large or complicated to be visualized by experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. The anatomical rules also provide a blueprint for rationally manipulating the structure and thus the activity of RNA, using small molecules in drug design efforts and also for engineering RNA sensors that change structure in user-prescribed ways."

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Golden ratio discovered in a quantum world

2010-01-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB, Germany), in cooperation with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol Universities, as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. They have measured the signatures of a symmetry showing the same attributes as the golden ratio famous from art and architecture.

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Nanowires made of 'strained silicon' show how to keep increases in computer power coming

2010-01-06T12:35:00.001-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

At 2008’s International Electron Device Meeting, researchers at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories demonstrated silicon nanowires with twice the electron mobility — which indicates how easily current can be induced — of their predecessors. Now, the same group has shown that they can build chips in which up to five high-performance nanowires are stacked on top of each other. That would allow nanowire transistors to pass up to five times as much current without taking up any more area on the surface on the chip, a crucial step toward establishing the viability of silicon-nanowire transistors.

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'Nanodragster' races toward the future of molecular machines

2010-01-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists in Texas are reporting the development of a "nanodragster" that may speed the course toward development of a new generation of futuristic molecular machines. The vehicle -- only 1/50,000th the width of a human hair — resembles a hot-rod in shape and can outperform previous nano-sized vehicles. Their report is in ACS' Organic Letters, a bi-weekly journal.

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Scientists 'photograph' nano-particle self-assembly [Highly Significant]

2010-01-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have imaged the self-assembly of nano-particles, unveiling the blueprint for building designer molecular machines atom-by-atom.

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Scientists create world's first molecular transistor

2009-12-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A group of scientists has succeeded in creating the first transistor made from a single molecule. The team, which includes researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, published their findings in the December 24 issue of the journal Nature.

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Digital Quantum Battery Could Boost Energy Density Tenfold

2009-12-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Physicists theorize that quantum phenomena could provide a major boost to batteries, with the potential to increase energy density up to 10 times that of lithium ion batteries. According to a new proposal, billions of nanoscale capacitors could take advantage of quantum effects to overcome electric arcing, an electrical breakdown phenomenon which limits the amount of charge that conventional capacitors can store.

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Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

2009-12-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology -- which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale matter -- have been used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures.

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Proposed Spacetime Structure Could Provide Hints for Quantum Gravity Theory

2009-12-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Spacetime, which consists of three dimensions of space and one time dimension, is such a large, abstract concept that scientists have a very difficult time understanding and defining it. Moreover, different theories offer different, contradictory insights on spacetime’s structure. While general relativity describes spacetime as a continuous manifold, quantum field theories require spacetime to be made of discrete points. Unifying these two theories into one theory of quantum gravity is currently one of the biggest unsolved problems in physics.

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New techniques make carbon-based integrated circuits more practical

2009-12-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Stanford engineers have built what they believe is a chip with the most advanced computing and storage elements made of carbon nanotubes to date by devising a way to root out the stubborn complication of nanotubes that cause short circuits.

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Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows

2009-12-09T15:08:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.

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Toshiba develops essential technology for spintronics-based MOS field-effect transistor

2009-12-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has developed MOSFET cell based on spin transport electronics, or spintronics, an advanced semiconductor technology that makes use of the spin and magnetic moment inherent in electrons. Toshiba has fabricated a spintronics cell and verified its stable performance for the first time, and will present full details of the cell and its technologies on December 7 (EST), at the International Electronics Devices Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

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Researchers develop cheap, easy 'kitchen chemistry' to perform formerly complex synthesis

2009-12-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A team at The Scripps Research Institute has made major strides in solving a problem that has been plaguing chemists for many years: how best to break carbon-hydrogen bonds and then to create new bonds to join molecules together. This problem is of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry, which currently relies on a method to accomplish this feat that is relatively inefficient and sometimes difficult to perform.

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Spin polarization achieved in room temperature silicon

2009-11-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A group in The Netherlands has achieved a first: injection of spin-polarized electrons in silicon at room temperature. This has previously been observed only at extremely low temperatures, and the achievement brings spintronic devices using silicon as a semiconductor a step closer.

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Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics

2009-11-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

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Turning heat to electricity... efficiently

2009-11-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of that wasted heat and turn it into usable electricity.

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Scientists demonstrate 'universal' programmable quantum processor

2009-11-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics -- the rules governing the submicroscopic world -- using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today.

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Scientists develop DNA origami nanoscale breadboards for carbon nanotube circuits

2009-11-10T10:05:00.001-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In work that someday may lead to the development of novel types of nanoscale electronic devices, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology has combined DNA's talent for self-assembly with the remarkable electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, thereby suggesting a solution to the long-standing problem of organizing carbon nanotubes into nanoscale electronic circuits.

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Solving big problems with new quantum algorithm

2009-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

In a recently published paper, Aram Harrow at the University of Bristol and colleagues from MIT in the United States have discovered a quantum algorithm that solves large problems much faster than conventional computers can.

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Researchers discover key to vital DNA, protein interaction

2009-11-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

A researcher at Iowa State University has discovered how a group of proteins from plant pathogenic bacteria interact with DNA in the plant cell, opening up the possibility for what the scientist calls a "cascade of advances."

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Magnetic nanoparticles to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat

2009-11-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Whether it's magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) giving an army of 'therapeutically armed' white blood cells direction to invade a deadly tumour's territory, or the use of mNPs to target specific nerve channels and induce nerve-led behaviour (such as the life-dependant thumping of our hearts), mNPs have come a long way in the past decade.

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New Digital 'Electronics' Concept May Continue Moore's Law

2009-11-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Computers of the future could be operating not on electrons, but on tiny waves traveling through an electron "fluid," if a new proposal is successful. The new circuit design, recently introduced by Dr. Héctor J. De Los Santos, CTO of NanoMEMS Research, LLC, in Irvine, California, may be a promising candidate to replace CMOS-based circuits, and ultimately continue the circuit density growth described by Moore's Law.

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