Nanotechnology appears to be an unstoppable trend and it requires defined nanoscale building blocks and patterns. “A typical difficulty with the synthesis of nanostructures is the modification of nanoscale objects at specific positions” says Alexander Bittner, whose work with a team from the Max Planck Institute for Solid-State Research in Stuttgart and Christina Wege's research team at the University of Stuttgart has led to an important breakthrough.
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Tiny Particles Solve Big Problems
Cutting edge nanotechnology research at North Carolina State University is leading to advances in everything from revitalizing HIV drugs to creating harder, stronger nanocrystalline iron that can really take the heat.
Researchers create smallest organic light-emitters
To help light up the nanoworld, a Cornell interdisciplinary team of researchers has produced microscopic "nanolamps" -- light-emitting nanofibers about the size of a virus or the tiniest of bacteria.
Multifunctional Gold Nanoparticles Show Promise in Combination Therapy
Gold nanoparticles, which can turn light into intense heat, are showing significant promise as targeted nanoscale thermal scalpels capable of killing cancer cells without damaging healthy tissue. Two new reports now suggest that gold nanoparticles may also be able to deliver additional therapeutic payloads to provide a simultaneous two-pronged attack on malignant cells.
Researchers build tiny batteries with viruses
MIT scientists have harnessed the construction talents of tiny viruses to build ultra-small "nanowire" structures for use in very thin lithium-ion batteries. By manipulating a few genes inside these viruses, the team was able to coax the organisms to grow and self-assemble into a functional electronic device.
Detecting Single Viruses, Nanoparticles in Real-Time
Two researchers at the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, New York, have developed a method to detect and recognize single viruses and other nanoparticles in one millisecond. Co-authors Filipp V. Ignatovich, a graduate student studying towards his PhD, and Professor Lukas Novotny published their findings on a new nanoparticle sensor in
Physical Review Letters.
NEMS device detects the mass of a single DNA molecule
Some people are never satisfied. First, nanotechnology researchers at Cornell University built a device so sensitive it could detect the mass of a single bacterium--about 665 femtograms. Then they built one that could sense the presence of a single virus -- about 1.5 femtograms. Now, with a refined technique, they have detected a single DNA molecule, weighing in at 995,000 Daltons -- a shade more than 1 attogram -- and can even count the number of DNA molecules attached to a single receptor by noting the difference in mass.
Study shows nanoshells ideal as chemical nanosensors
'Nanoshells' enhance sensitivity to chemical detection by factor of 10 billion
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science finds that tailored nanoparticles known as nanoshells can enhance chemical sensing by as much as 10 billion times. That makes them about 10,000 times more effective at Raman scattering than traditional methods.
Controlling the size of nanoclusters
Melissa Patterson, a W. Burghardt Turner Fellow at Stony Brook University (SBU), will give a talk at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Philadelphia on controlling the size of nanoclusters, research she performed using a new instrument at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Built by Brookhaven Lab and SBU scientists, the instrument enables researchers to make nanoclusters of 10 to 100 atoms with atomic precision.