Nanobots aren’t just microscopic machines—they could come in countless shapes and sizes, each designed for a unique purpose. From medical nanobots that repair cells to swarming micro-robots that build structures at the atomic level, the future of nanotechnology is limitless. Could these tiny machines revolutionize medicine, industry, and even space exploration? #Nanotech #Nanobots #FutureTech #Science #Innovation …
Category: nanotechnology – Page 14
Hybrid surface combines hydrophobic nanowires and hydrophilic channels to prevent condensation flooding
Condensation is critical for applications like power generation, water harvesting, and cooling systems. However, traditional surfaces suffer from a drop in performance under high subcooling, when the surface temperature is much lower than the surrounding vapor. This leads to water flooding and reduced heat transfer.
To tackle this long-standing challenge, researchers at National Taiwan University and National Chung Hsing University have developed a novel three-dimensional (3D) hybrid surface that significantly enhances condensation performance and avoids flooding, even at high subcooling. The paper is published in Small Structures.
The new surface integrates short hydrophobic nanowires and hydrophilic microchannels in a structured pattern. This combination helps guide water droplets efficiently off the surface, preventing the accumulation of water that typically hampers heat transfer.
It’s a quantum zoo out there, and scientists just found a dozen new ‘species’
There are a seemingly endless number of quantum states that describe quantum matter and the strange phenomena that emerge when large numbers of electrons interact. For decades, many of these states have been theoretical: mathematical and computational predictions potentially hiding among real-life materials—a zoo, as many scientists are coming to refer to it, with new “species” just waiting to be discovered and described.
In a new study published on April 3 in Nature, researchers added over a dozen states to the growing quantum zoo.
“Some of these states have never been seen before,” said lead author Xiaoyang Zhu, Howard Family Professor of Nanoscience at Columbia. “And we didn’t expect to see so many either.”
Unlocking the secrets of salt crystal formation at the nanoscale
In nature and technology, crystallization plays a pivotal role, from forming snowflakes and pharmaceuticals to creating advanced batteries and desalination membranes. Despite its importance, crystallization at the nanoscale is poorly understood, mainly because observing the process directly at this scale is exceptionally challenging. My research overcame this hurdle by employing state-of-the-art computational methods, allowing them to visualize atomic interactions in unprecedented detail.
Published in Chemical Science, my research has uncovered new details about how salt crystals form in tiny nanometer-sized spaces, which could pave the way for advanced materials and improved electrochemical technologies.
This research used sophisticated molecular dynamics simulations enhanced by cutting-edge machine learning techniques to study how sodium chloride (NaCl), common table salt, crystallizes when confined between two graphene sheets separated by just a few billionths of a meter. These extreme conditions, known as nano-confinement, drastically alter how molecules behave compared to bulk, everyday conditions.
Detecting nanoplastics in body fluids: New method combines optofluidic force and Raman spectroscopy
Microplastics and much smaller nanoplastics enter the human body in various ways, for example through food or the air we breathe. A large proportion is excreted, but a certain amount remains in organs, blood, and other body fluids.
In the FFG bridge project Nano-VISION, which was launched two years ago together with the start-up BRAVE Analytics, a team led by Harald Fitzek from the Institute of Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and an ophthalmologist from Graz addressed the question of whether nanoplastics also play a role in ophthalmology.
The project partners have now been able to develop a method for detecting and quantifying nanoplastics in transparent body fluids and determining their chemical composition. The research is published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Solar cell efficiency record achieved with tin halide perovskite
University of Queensland researchers have set a world record for solar cell efficiency with eco-friendly perovskite technology. A team led by Professor Lianzhou Wang has unveiled a tin halide perovskite (THP) solar cell capable of converting sunlight to electricity at a certified record efficiency of 16.65%. The research is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Working across UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the School of Chemical Engineering, Professor Wang said the certified reading achieved by his lab was nearly one percentage point higher than the previous best for THP solar cells.
“It might not seem like much, but this is a giant leap in a field that is renowned for delicate and incremental progress,” Professor Wang said.
Throwing a ‘spanner in the works’ of our cells’ machinery could help fight cancer, fatty liver disease… and hair loss
Fifty years since its discovery, scientists have finally worked out how a molecular machine found in mitochondria allows us to make the fuel we need from sugars, a process vital to all life on Earth.
Scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge, have worked out the structure of this machine and shown how it operates like the lock on a canal to transport pyruvate—a molecule generated in the body from the breakdown of sugars—into our mitochondria.
Known as the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, this molecular machine was first proposed to exist in 1971, but it has taken until now for scientists to visualize its structure at the atomic scale using cryo-electron microscopy, a technique used to magnify an image of an object to around 165,000 times its real size. Details are published in Science Advances.
Precision Self-assembly of 3D DNA Crystals Using MicrofluidicsClick to copy article linkArticle link copied!
Controlling the uniformity in size and quantity of macroscopic three-dimensional (3D) DNA crystals is essential for their integration into complex systems and broader applications. However, achieving such control remains a major challenge in DNA nanotechnology. Here, we present a novel strategy for synthesizing monodisperse 3D DNA single crystals using microfluidic double-emulsion droplets as nanoliter-scale microreactors. These uniformly sized droplets can shrink and swell without leaking their inner contents, allowing the concentration of the DNA solution inside to be adjusted. The confined volume ensures that, once a crystal seed forms, it rapidly consumes the available DNA material, preventing the formation of additional crystals within the same droplet. This approach enables precise control over crystal growth, resulting in a yield of one DNA single crystal per droplet, with a success rate of up to 98.6% ± 0.9%. The resulting DNA crystals exhibit controlled sizes, ranging from 19.3 ± 0.9 μm to 56.8 ± 2.6 μm. Moreover, this method can be applied to the controlled growth of various types of DNA crystals. Our study provides a new pathway for DNA crystal self-assembly and microengineering.
This Tiny Cellular Gate Could Be the Key to Curing Cancer — And Regrowing Hair
After more than five decades of mystery, scientists have finally unveiled the detailed structure and function of a long-theorized molecular machine in our mitochondria — the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier.
This microscopic gatekeeper controls how cells fuel themselves by transporting pyruvate, a key energy source, across mitochondrial membranes. Now visualized using cryo-electron microscopy, the carrier’s lock-like mechanism could be the key to tackling diseases like cancer, diabetes, and even hair loss. By blocking or modifying this gateway, researchers believe we could reroute how cells generate energy and develop powerful, targeted treatments.
Unlocking a Mitochondrial Mystery.