Inspired by the flexible joints of humans, the scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), of the Chinese Academy of Science, led by Prof. Wu Dong, proposed a two-in-one multi-material laser writing strategy that creates the joints from temperature-sensitive hydrogels as well as metal nanoparticles.
Poor battery life is the favorite complaint when it involves smartphones and laptops. As a wireless society, having to tether ourselves right down to power up our gadgets seems more and more a nuisance. And while researchers are looking into wireless charging, if batteries were better we might worry less.
Now, a brand new technology promises just that. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have invented a nanowire-based battery that may be recharged many thousands of times, a big leap towards a battery that doesn’t require replacing.
Flat screen TVs that incorporate quantum dots are now commercially available, but it has been more difficult to create arrays of their elongated cousins, quantum rods, for commercial devices. Quantum rods can control both the polarization and color of light, to generate 3D images for virtual reality devices.
Using scaffolds made of folded DNA, MIT engineers have come up with a new way to precisely assemble arrays of quantum rods. By depositing quantum rods onto a DNA scaffold in a highly controlled way, the researchers can regulate their orientation, which is a key factor in determining the polarization of light emitted by the array. This makes it easier to add depth and dimensionality to a virtual scene.
“One of the challenges with quantum rods is: How do you align them all at the nanoscale so they’re all pointing in the same direction?” says Mark Bathe, an MIT professor of biological engineering and the senior author of the new study. “When they’re all pointing in the same direction on a 2D surface, then they all have the same properties of how they interact with light and control its polarization.”
The innovation – which has undergone advanced pre-clinical trials – is effective against a broad range of drug-resistant bacterial cells, including ‘golden staph’, which are commonly referred to as superbugs.
Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat, causing about 700,000 deaths annually, a figure which could rise to 10 million deaths a year by 2050 without the development of new antibacterial therapies.
The new study led by RMIT University and the University of South Australia (UniSA) tested black phosphorus-based nanotechnology as an advanced infection treatment and wound healing therapeutic.
Continue reading “Ultrathin nanotech promises to help tackle antibiotic resistance” »
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a new approach to potentially detect and kill cancer cells, especially those that form a solid tumor mass. They have created hybrid nanoparticles made of gold and copper sulfide that can kill cancer cells using heat and enable their detection using sound waves, according to a study published in ACS Applied Nano Materials.
Early detection and treatment are key in the battle against cancer. Copper sulfide nanoparticles have previously received attention for their application in cancer diagnosis, while gold nanoparticles, which can be chemically modified to target cancer cells, have shown anticancer effects. In the current study, the IISc team decided to combine these two into hybrid nanoparticles.
“These particles have photothermal, oxidative stress, and photoacoustic properties,” says Jaya Prakash, Assistant Professor at the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (IAP), IISc, and one of the corresponding authors of the paper. Ph.D. students Madhavi Tripathi and Swathi Padmanabhan are co-first authors.
We could soon see more lithium-ion batteries made with recycled materials thanks to a new partnership. BASF, a battery materials producer, has announced that it’s teaming up with Nanotech Energy, a maker of graphene-based energy products, to produce lithium-ion batteries with recycled materials for customers in North America.
While BASF will create the cathode active materials using recycled metals from a Battle Creek, Michigan facility, Nanotech will use those materials to create the lithium-ion battery cells. Making the batteries with recycled metals could decrease their CO2 footprint by around 25 percent, according to BASF.
Additionally, BASF and Nanotech Energy will also work with the American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) and the Canada-based TODA Advanced Materials Inc. ABTC will recycle the materials gathered by Nanotech, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium. TODA will then use the materials to create battery precursors, which BASF will then convert into cathode active materials.
Another excellent paper from Johann G. Danzl’s research group. They develop methods that combine novel negative staining techniques, deep learning, and super-resolution STED microscopy or expansion microscopy to facilitate nanoscale-resolution imaging of brain tissue volumes. They also show semi-automated (and some fully automated) segmentation of neuron morphology and identification of synapses. Very cool work and I’m excited to see how it influences connectomics in the future! #brain #neuroscience #imaging #microscopy #neurotech
Mapping fixed brain samples with extracellular labeling and optical microscopy reveals synaptic connections.
An international research team headed by Johannes Karges, PhD, of the faculty of chemistry and biochemistry at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has developed nanoparticles that accumulate in cancer cells and eliminate them after being photoactivated. The research team also labeled them in such a way that immune cells learn to eliminate similar cells throughout the body which could even mean undetected metastases can be treated.
The researchers presented their findings in the journal Nature Communications in an article titled, “Theranostic imaging and multimodal photodynamic therapy and immunotherapy using the mTOR signaling pathway.”
“Tumor metastases are considered the leading cause of cancer-associated deaths,” the researchers wrote. “While clinically applied drugs have demonstrated to efficiently remove the primary tumor, metastases remain poorly accessible. To overcome this limitation, herein, the development of a theranostic nanomaterial by incorporating a chromophore for imaging and a photosensitizer for treatment of metastatic tumor sites is presented. The mechanism of action reveals that the nanoparticles are able to intervene by local generation of cellular damage through photodynamic therapy as well as by systemic induction of an immune response by immunotherapy upon inhibition of the mTOR signaling pathway which is of crucial importance for tumor onset, progression, and metastatic spreading.”
A new neural cell type with astrocyte characteristics and the molecular machinery for synaptic transmission has been discovered.
A group of 12 researchers at Rice University in Houston have used 3D printing to create near-bulletproof material made out of plastic. The novel materials can withstand being shot at by bullets traveling at 5.8 kilometers per second and are highly compressible without falling apart.
Tubulanes are theoretical microscopic structures comprised of crosslinked carbon nanotubes and the researchers sought to test if they would have the same properties when scaled up enough to be 3D printed. It turns out they did.
The researchers proved this by shooting a bullet traveling at 5.8 kilometers per second through two cubes. One cube was made from a solid polymer and the other from a polymer printed with a tubulane structure.
Continue reading “Researchers 3D Print Bulletproof Plastic Layered Cubes” »
