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Category: nanotechnology

Flash heating upcycles waste glass into SiC nanowires in seconds

Engineering silicon carbide (SiC) with tailored morphologies for electronics and structural reinforcement materials has always been a costly and time-consuming affair, but scientists can now do it in a flash. A new study shows how discarded glass and silicon-rich coal waste can be turned into valuable SiC nanowires in seconds using a process known as Fluorine-Assisted Flash (FAF) Joule heating, where a quick pulse of electricity instantly heats up the reaction mixture to extremely high temperatures.

In FAF, the fluorine additives trigger the catalytic materials, such as the iron oxides found naturally in waste glass, to act as seeds that drive selective growth of one-dimensional nanowires in under a minute and with an impressive yield of 96%. When used as a reinforcement material in composites, SiC nanowires emerged as clear winners over SiC powders in providing hardness and wear resistance. The findings are published in Matter.

Compact vacuum ultraviolet laser may improve nanotechnology and power nuclear clocks

Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have demonstrated a new kind of vacuum ultraviolet laser that is 100 to 1,000 times more efficient than existing technologies of its kind. The researchers say the device could one day allow scientists to observe phenomena currently out of reach for even the most powerful microscopes—such as following fuel molecules in real time as they undergo combustion, spotting incredibly small defects in nanoelectronics and more.

The new laser might also allow for practical, ultraprecise nuclear clocks that rely on an energy transition in the nuclei of thorium atoms. These long sought-after devices could, theoretically, allow researchers to robustly track time with unprecedented precision.

The group is led by physicists Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane, fellows of JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Jeremy Thurston, who earned his doctorate in physics from CU Boulder in 2024, spearheaded work on the new laser.

Heavy water expands energy potential of carbon nanotube yarns

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have developed a new electrolyte system that significantly boosts the energy-harvesting performance of twistrons, which are carbon nanotube yarns that generate electricity when repeatedly stretched. The findings could aid in the manufacturing of intelligent textiles, such as fabrics used to make spacesuits, that would power wearable electronic devices or sensors by harvesting energy from human motion.

In a study published in ACS Nano, the UT Dallas scientists and their collaborators reported that replacing conventional water with heavy water in the neutral electrolyte solution that bathes the twistrons significantly increased energy output from the yarns.

Normal water comprises hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In heavy water, the hydrogen is replaced with deuterium, a form of hydrogen that contains an added neutron in its nucleus.

DNA barcoding reveals which gene-therapy nanoparticles reach targets in vivo

Drug delivery researchers have vastly improved the potential of genetic therapies by overcoming the challenge of consistently getting genes and gene-editing tools where they need to be within cells. Findings of the study spearheaded by Oregon State University College of Pharmacy graduate student Antony Jozić are published in Nature Biotechnology.

When gene therapies enter a cell, they are often sent to lysosomes, the cell’s trash and recycling centers, where therapeutic genetic material is broken down before it can work. For gene therapies to succeed, they must avoid disposal and reach the part of the cell where they can function.

Robotic microfluidic platform brings AI to lipid nanoparticle design

AI has designed candidate drugs for antibiotic-resistant infections and genetic diseases. But efforts to incorporate AI into the design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the revolutionary delivery vehicles behind mRNA therapies like the COVID-19 vaccines, have been much more limited.

Designing LNPs is especially challenging: Each formulation combines multiple lipid components whose ratios influence how the particle delivers genetic instructions inside cells. Scientists still lack a clear map connecting those chemical inputs to biological outcomes.

The reason? There simply isn’t enough data.

Mapping 3D-super-enhancers with machine learning to pinpoint regulators of cell identity

Scientists usually study the molecular machinery that controls gene expression from the perspective of a linear, two-dimensional genome—even though DNA and its bound proteins function in three dimensions (3D). To better understand how key components of this machinery, such as super-enhancers, regulate genes in this 3D reality, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have developed a new algorithm called BOUQUET.

Using machine learning, BOUQUET reveals that sets of genes and their regulatory elements can interact within protein condensates, high-density membraneless droplets, in cells’ nuclei. The findings, which provide new insight into how cells regulate the genes that control their specialized identities, were published today in Nucleic Acids Research.

Cells express certain sets of genes to carry out specific functions; for example, a blood cell and a brain cell express different context-specific genes. There are 3 billion base pairs of human DNA, and the genes involved in cell identity are scattered throughout. Even more challenging, enhancers, DNA elements that activate gene expression, can be thousands of DNA bases away from their target genes.

Ultrafast light pulses make molecules rotate on quantum materials

Researchers from Germany, Japan and India, led by scientists from DESY and the Universities of Kiel and Hamburg, have found a way to collectively make molecules on a flat surface rotate by exposing them to light using ultrafast light pulses from DESY’s free-electron laser FLASH and a high-harmonic generation source. However, making those molecules dance is not the ultimate goal: this result could have an impact on next-generation quantum and energy materials for electronics, data storage and energy conversion.

Molecules sitting on a material surface usually do just that—they sit on the surface without changing. If you send energy their way, however—for example, in the form of light—they can become dynamic and move. If this movement could be controlled, it could have a massive influence on all sorts of nanomaterials that are being investigated for a variety of applications from health to data storage.

DESY scientist Markus Scholz, leader of a study now published in Nature Communications, points out that this is particularly interesting in hybrid systems where organic molecules are placed on atomically thin, two-dimensional quantum materials. Examples of these hybrid systems are molecular electronics or energy-driven functional surfaces.

Why simulating an entire cell cycle took years, multiple GPUs and six days per run

By simulating the life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell—from DNA replication to protein translation to metabolism and cell division—scientists have opened a new frontier of computer vision into the essential processes of life. The researchers, led by chemistry professor Zan Luthey-Schulten at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, present their findings in the journal Cell.

The team simulated a living cell at nanoscale resolution and recapitulated how every molecule within that cell behaved over the course of a full cell cycle. The work took many years: vast computer resources, large experimental datasets, a suite of experimental and computational techniques and an understanding of the roles, behaviors and physical interactions of thousands of molecular players.

The researchers had to account for every gene, protein, RNA molecule and chemical reaction occurring within the cell to recreate the timing of cellular events. For example, their model had to accurately reflect the processes that allow the cell to double in size prior to cell division.

One-hour saliva test spots biomarker linked to several cancers

QUT researchers have developed a simple one-hour saliva test for a protein biomarker that has been linked with oral, colon and pancreatic cancers. The findings are published in the journal Talanta.

The paper is titled “Label free paper sensor and light driven material for the rapid screening of S100P cancer biomarker in saliva.” Corresponding author, Associate Professor Emad Kiriakous, from QUT’s School of Chemistry and Physics, said this technology could pave the way for simple, low-cost, point-of-care screening tools to help identify and treat cancer early.

Professor Kiriakous said the QUT team developed a rapid testing technique of saliva using paper coated in gold and silver nanoparticles to create a highly sensitive sensor that records the Raman spectrum (or SERS, the process by which a substance scatters laser light which is used to identify molecules) of saliva samples.

This new blood test could detect cancer before it shows up on scans

A new CRISPR-powered light sensor can detect the faintest molecular signs of cancer in a drop of blood. A new light-based sensor can spot incredibly tiny amounts of cancer biomarkers in blood, raising the possibility of earlier and simpler cancer detection. The technology merges DNAnanotechnology, CRISPR, and quantumdots to generate a clear signal from just a few molecules. In lung cancer tests, it worked even in real patient serum samples. Researchers hope it could eventually power portable blood tests for cancer and other diseases.

Scientists have designed a powerful light based sensor capable of detecting extremely small amounts of cancer biomarkers in blood. The innovation could eventually allow doctors to identify early warning signs of cancer and other diseases through a routine blood draw.

Biomarkers such as proteins, fragments of DNA, and other molecules can signal whether cancer is present, how it is progressing, or a person’s risk of developing it. The difficulty is that in the earliest stages of disease, these markers exist in extremely low concentrations, making them hard to measure with conventional tools.

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