The lightweight skeletons of organisms such as sea sponges display a strength that far exceeds that of manmade products constructed from similar materials. Scientists have long suspected that the difference has to do with the hierarchical architecture of the biological materials - the way the silica-based skeletons are built up from different structural elements, some of which are measured on the scale of nanometers. Now engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have mimicked such a structure by creating nanostructured, hollow ceramic scaffolds, and have found that the small building blocks, or unit cells, do indeed display remarkable strength and resistance to failure despite being more than 85 percent air.
Sep 5th, 2013
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Having a pure population of cardiac muscle cells is essential for avoiding tumor formation after transplantation, but has been technically challenging. Researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have developed a method for purifying cardiac muscle cells from stem cell cultures using molecular beacons.
Sep 5th, 2013
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A Kansas State University chemical engineer has discovered that a new member of the ultrathin materials family has great potential to improve electronic and thermal devices.
Sep 5th, 2013
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NanoDoc is an online game that allows bioengineers and the general public to design new nanoparticle strategies towards the treatment of cancer.
Sep 5th, 2013
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To illustrate the various possibilities and highlight recent research performed with the FluidFM, Nanosurf invites you to join them for the first FluidFM webinar.
Sep 5th, 2013
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Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, will honor professors from Stanford University and University of Texas at Austin with awards for chip-related research and education at SRC's annual TECHCON conference Sept. 9-10.
Sep 5th, 2013
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Researchers demonstrate solution-phase synthesized ultrathin gold nanowires incorporated carbon nanotube hybrids as both NIR photoacoustic imaging and efficient electrochemical sensing agents.
Sep 5th, 2013
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Researchers demonstrate the ability to observe very weak molecular absorption lines using heavily doped semiconductor nanoantennas at their scattering resonance and have been able to resolve the presence of nanoscale volumes of material via ultraweak absorption resonances in the material.
Sep 5th, 2013
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Researchers in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University have made a significant advance in the function of metal-insulator-metal, or MIM diodes, a technology premised on the assumption that the speed of electrons moving through silicon is simply too slow.
Sep 4th, 2013
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Scientists at Rice University are placing bismuth in nanotubes to tag stem cells for efficient tracking with CT scanners.
Sep 4th, 2013
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A consortium of European and Russian scientists has developed a new generation of ultra-sensitive sensors for the detection of toxic chemicals. Since some of these chemicals are so dangerous, it is vital to know their concentration in the air, especially in industrial and populated areas.
Sep 4th, 2013
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An international team of engineers, led by scientists from Drexel University's College of Engineering, have developed a way to measure electron band offset in nanodevices using laser spectroscopy.
Sep 4th, 2013
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Arizona State University researchers Karl Sieradzki and Qing Chen have been experimenting with dealloying lithium-tin alloys, and seeing the potential for the nanostructures they are producing to spark advances in lithium-ion batteries, as well as in expanding the range of methods for creating new nanoporous materials using the dealloying process.
Sep 4th, 2013
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Thousands of microscopy professionals from around the world convened at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana for the Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 meeting from August 4-8, 2013. The meeting had a record high attendance, with 1554 scientific attendees and 1186 exhibitor personnel, for a total of 2740 participants.
Sep 4th, 2013
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Researchers report new nanoparticle clusters that open up access to a new dimension of optically active materials. Clusters with highly orientation-independent optical properties, such as tetrahedra and icosahedra, could enable polarization-independent and nondirectional negative index media like fluids, free-form solids, and isotropic films.
Sep 4th, 2013
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Together with national and international industry partners, scientists at the University of Stuttgart have started the development of very robust and extremely lightweight displays within the research project LiCRA. Instead of common glass substrates these displays are based on plastic foils what makes them flexible.
Sep 4th, 2013
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