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Category: nanotechnology – Page 28

Glass nanostructures reflect nearly all visible light, challenging photonics assumptions

A research team led by SUTD has created nanoscale glass structures with near-perfect reflectance, overturning long-held assumptions about what low-index materials can do in photonics.

For decades, glass has been a reliable workhorse of optical systems, valued for its transparency and stability. But when it comes to manipulating light at the nanoscale, especially for high-performance optical devices, glass has traditionally taken a backseat to higher refractive index materials. Now, a research team led by Professor Joel Yang from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is reshaping this narrative.

With findings published in Science Advances, the team has developed a new method to 3D-print glass structures with nanoscale precision and achieve nearly 100% reflectance in the . This level of performance is rare for low-refractive-index materials like silica, and it opens up a broader role for glass in nanophotonics, including in wearable optics, integrated displays, and sensors.

Light-as-a-feather nanomaterial extracts drinking water from air

An international scientific collaboration has developed a novel nanomaterial to efficiently harvest clean drinking water from water vapor in the air. The nanomaterial can hold more than three times its weight in water and can achieve this far quicker than existing commercial technologies, features that enable its potential in direct applications for producing potable water from the air.

The collaboration is led by the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation (ARC COE-CSI) UNSW Associate Professor Rakesh Joshi and Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov. Prof Joshi is based at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Prof Novoselov is based at the National University of Singapore.

A United Nations report estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water.

Phonon-mediated heat transport across materials visualized at the atomic level

Gao Peng’s research group at the International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, has developed a breakthrough method for visualizing interfacial phonon transport with sub-nanometer resolution. Leveraging fast electron inelastic scattering in electron microscopy, the team directly measured temperature fields and thermal resistance across interfaces, unveiling the microscopic mechanism of phonon-mediated heat transport at the nanoscale.

The study is published in Nature under the title “Probing transport dynamics across an interface by .”

Phonons are central to heat conduction, electrical transport, and light interactions. In modern semiconductor devices, phonon mismatches at material interfaces create significant thermal resistance, limiting performance. Yet, existing methods lack the spatial resolution needed for today’s sub-10 nm technologies.

Startup’s biosensor makes drug development and manufacturing cheaper

In the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, ELISA tests provide critical quality control during drug development and manufacturing. The tests can precisely quantify protein levels, but they also require hours of work by trained technicians and specialized equipment. That makes them prohibitively expensive, driving up the costs of drugs and putting research testing out of reach for many.

Now the Advanced Silicon Group (ASG), founded by Marcie Black ’94, MEng ’95, PhD ’03 and Bill Rever, is commercializing a new technology that could dramatically lower the time and costs associated with protein sensing. ASG’s proprietary sensor combines silicon nanowires with antibodies that can bind to different proteins to create a highly sensitive measurement of their concentration in a given solution.

The tests can measure the concentration of many different proteins and other molecules at once, with results typically available in less than 15 minutes. Users simply place a tiny amount of solution on the sensor, rinse the sensor, and then insert it into ASG’s handheld testing system.

“We’re making it 15 times faster and 15 times lower cost to test for proteins,” Black says. “That’s on the drug development side. This could also make the manufacturing of drugs significantly faster and more cost-effective. It could revolutionize how we create drugs in this country and around the world.”

Advanced Silicon Group, founded by MIT alumna Marcie Black, developed a protein sensor that could make drug development and manufacturing much faster and less expensive.

Gene-editing nanoparticle system targets multiple organs simultaneously

A gene-editing delivery system developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers simultaneously targeted the liver and lungs of a preclinical model of a rare genetic disease known as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), significantly improving symptoms for months after a single treatment, a new study shows. The findings, published in Nature Biotechnology, could lead to new therapies for a variety of genetic diseases that affect multiple organs.

“Multi-organ diseases may need to be treated in more than one place. The development of multi-organ-targeted therapeutics opens the door to realizing those opportunities for this and other diseases,” said study leader Daniel Siegwart, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Gene editing—a group of technologies designed to correct disease-causing mutations in the genome—has the potential to revolutionize medicine, Dr. Siegwart explained. Targeting these technologies to specific organs, tissues, or will be necessary to effectively and safely treat patients.

Passive cooling paint sweats off heat to deliver 10X cooling and 30% energy savings

A new cement-based paint can cool down the building by sweating off the heat. The cooling paint, named CCP-30, was designed by an international team of researchers and features a nanoparticle-modified porous structure composed of a calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel network.

This design enabled it to achieve superior cooling by combining both radiative, evaporative and reflective cooling mechanisms, which allowed it to reflect 88–92% of sunlight, emit 95% of the heat as , and hold about 30% of its weight in water, making it a paint ideal for keeping spaces cool throughout the day and across seasons.

As per the findings published in Science, the paint provides 10 times the cooling power of commercial cooling paints in tropical climates, resulting in electricity savings of 30 to 40%.

Electron microscopy technique captures nanoparticle organizations to forge new materials

A research team including members from the University of Michigan have unveiled a new observational technique that’s sensitive to the dynamics of the intrinsic quantum jiggles of materials, or phonons.

This work will help scientists and engineers better design metamaterials—substances that possess exotic properties that rarely exist in nature—that are reconfigurable and made from solutions containing nanoparticles that self-assemble into larger structures, the researchers said. These materials have wide-ranging applications, from shock absorption to devices that guide acoustic and optical energy in high-powered computer applications.

“This opens a new research area where nanoscale building blocks—along with their intrinsic optical, electromagnetic and —can be incorporated into mechanical metamaterials, enabling emerging technologies in multiple fields from robotics and mechanical engineering to information technology,” said Xiaoming Mao, U-M professor of physics and co-author of the new study.

Scientists Say Humans May Become Immortal by 2050 Here’s How

Will humans soon live forever? Scientists believe it’s possible — and it could happen as early as 2050.
In this video, we explore 10 shocking scientific breakthroughs that are pushing humanity closer to immortality.
From nanobots that cure disease from within, to brain uploading, cloning organs, and AI-driven consciousness — this is the future of life itself.

🧬 Get ready to discover the jaw-dropping technologies that might just make death optional.

⚠️ Don’t blink. The future is coming faster than you think.

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