/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Inspired by the ancient East Asian method of constructing wooden structures using a "tongue and groove" technique, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have developed a new approach to fabricating advanced ceramic microparticles, just slightly bigger than the width of a human hair. /news/2024-10-scientists-ancient-methods-fabricate-modern.html Materials Science Tue, 15 Oct 2024 11:17:07 EDT news648209822 Just a few years ago, researchers discovered that changing the angle between two layers of graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon, also changed the material's electronic and optical properties. They then learned that a "twist" of 1.1 degrees—dubbed the "magic" angle—could transform this metallic material into an insulator or a superconductor, a finding that ignited excitement about a possible pathway to new quantum technologies. /news/2024-08-world-micromachine-2d-materials.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 22 Aug 2024 10:00:03 EDT news643539601 Researchers have created tiny, vehiclelike structures that can be maneuvered by microscopic algae. The algae are caught in baskets attached to the micromachines, which have been carefully designed to allow them enough room to continue swimming. /news/2024-07-microscopic-vehicles-propelled-green-algae.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:05:03 EDT news639655501 At first glance, Rabih O. Al-Kaysi's molecular motors look like the microscopic worms you'd see in a drop of pond water. But these wriggling ribbons are not alive; they're devices made from crystallized molecules that perform coordinated movements when exposed to light. With continued development, Al-Kaysi and colleagues say, their tiny machines could be used by physicians as drug-delivery robots or engineered into arrays that direct the flow of water around submarines. /news/2024-03-molecular-crystal-motors-microbes-exposed.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:00:01 EDT news629996207 The integration of mechanical memory in the form of springs has for hundreds of years proven to be a key enabling technology for mechanical devices (such as clocks), achieving advanced functionality through complex autonomous movements. Currently, the integration of springs in silicon-based microtechnology has opened the world of planar mass-producible mechatronic devices from which we all benefit, via air-bag sensors for example. /news/2024-01-soft-microrobots-super-compliant-picoforce.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Thu, 04 Jan 2024 09:07:03 EST news623581621 Quantum memory that depends on quantum-band integration is a key building block used to develop quantum networks that are compatible with fiber communication infrastructures. Quantum engineers and IT specialists have yet to create such a network with large capacity to form an integrated multimode photonic quantum memory at telecom band. /news/2023-07-telecom-band-integrated-multimode-photonic-quantum-memory.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 31 Jul 2023 13:10:54 EDT news610027848 Researchers have developed a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on integrated photonics that can transmit secure keys at unprecedented speeds. The proof-of-principle experiments represent an important step toward real-world application of this highly secure communication method. /news/2023-05-chip-based-quantum-key-higher-transmission.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 25 May 2023 16:09:55 EDT news604249793 Prof. Peng Chenhui's team from the School of Â鶹ÒùÔºics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), realized the collective transfer and reconfigurable self-assembly of colloidal particles by combining the light-driven molecular motors with liquid crystal (LC) molecules in the nematic phase whose orientations are programmed with topological patterns and disclination networks. /news/2023-04-scientists-light-driven-programmable-colloidal-self-assembly.html Nanophysics Fri, 21 Apr 2023 10:31:58 EDT news601291914 In his famous letter to the Royal Society dated Oct. 9, 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek described a single-celled eukaryote (Vorticella) and its fascinating ultrafast cell contraction. This kind of ultrafast cell contraction triggered by a Ca2+-dependent mechanism is distinct from the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent mechanisms found in actin-myosin and dynein/kinesin-tubulin systems. /news/2023-02-giant-proteins-cell-molecular-basis.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:00:03 EST news596278782 Researchers have developed a new way to use femtosecond laser pulses to fabricate the high-precision ultrathin mirrors required for high-performance X-ray telescopes. The technique could help improve the space-based X-ray telescopes used to capture high-energy cosmic events involved in forming new stars and supermassive black holes. /news/2022-10-telescope-mirrors-sharpen-view-universe.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 20 Oct 2022 14:02:03 EDT news585493321 One big stumbling block in the field of photonics is that of color control. Until now, to control color, i.e. the wavelength of light emission, researchers would have to alter the chemical structure of the emitter or the concentration of the solvent—all of which require direct contact, greatly limiting their application. /news/2022-02-optical-tweezers-luminescent-pressure.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Feb 2022 10:20:02 EST news565264647 Is it possible to drive nanoparticles to orbit below the light diffraction limit using a Gaussian beam? A recent joint research project reported in Nature Communications says yes. /news/2021-06-scientists-ultra-fast-optical-orbiting-nanoparticles.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 17 Jun 2021 12:28:33 EDT news543151711 Researchers from CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have demonstrated on-demand storage of photonic qubits in an integrated solid-state quantum memory for the first time. This work was published in Â鶹ÒùÔºics Review Letters. /news/2021-01-on-demand-storage-solid-state-quantum-memory.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 08 Jan 2021 07:18:59 EST news529312735 Using the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) facility, the research team of Professor François Légaré of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has pushed back the boundaries of high-energy pulse propagation in a nonlinear medium through the observation of high-energy multidimensional solitary states. This breakthrough allows the direct generation of extremely short and intense, laser pulses that are highly-stable in time and space. The results of this work were published in Nature Photonics. /news/2020-11-team-boundaries-high-energy-laser-pulses.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 19 Nov 2020 07:01:06 EST news524991660 Researchers have developed a tiny fiber optic force sensor that can measure extremely slight forces exerted by small objects. The new light-based sensor overcomes the limitations of force sensors based on micro-electro-mechanical sensors (MEMS) and could be useful for applications from medical systems to manufacturing. /news/2020-09-tiny-complex-fiber-optic-sensor.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:13:16 EDT news518800386 In a recent report, Xiaolei Peng and a team of scientists in materials science and engineering at the University of Texas, U.S., and the Tsinghua University, China, developed opto-thermoelectric microswimmers bioinspired by the motion behaviors of Escherichia coli (E. coli). They engineered the microswimmers using dielectric gold Janus particles driven by a self-sustained electric field arising from the optothermal response of the particles. When they illuminated the constructs with a laser beam, the Janus particles showed an optically generated temperature gradient along the particle surfaces, forming an opto-thermoelectrical field to propel themselves along. /news/2020-09-opto-thermoelectric-microswimmers.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Optics & Photonics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 13:10:01 EDT news518442238 A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person's sweat has been developed by Penn State and Xiangtan University researchers, according to Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State. /news/2020-06-simple-device-health.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:34:51 EDT news512148887 If you heat a solid material enough, the thermal energy (latent heat) causes the material's molecules begin to break apart, forming a liquid. One of the most familiar examples of this phase transition from a well-ordered solid to less-ordered liquid state is ice turning into water. /news/2020-03-gold-limbo-solid-states.html Condensed Matter Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:04:56 EST news502376632 There's an interesting fluid dynamics phenomenon that happens every morning in millions of cereal bowls. When there are just a few bits of cereal left floating on top of the milk, they tend to cluster together in the middle or around the edges of the bowl, rather than dispersing across the surface. /news/2019-12-cheerios-effect.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 19 Dec 2019 14:02:02 EST news495986518 The dream of tissue engineering is a computer-controlled manufacturing of complex and functional human tissue for potential organ regeneration or replacement. /news/2019-12-bioprinter-potential-tissue.html Biotechnology Fri, 06 Dec 2019 09:08:53 EST news494845726 Bendable light beams have significant applications in optical manipulation, optical imaging, routing, micromachining and nonlinear optics. Researchers have long explored curved light beams in place of traditional Gaussian beams for line-of-sight light communications. In a recent study now published on Scientific Reports, Long Zhu and a team of researchers in Optical and Electronic information, in China, proposed and developed free-space, data-carrying bendable light communication systems between arbitrary targets for potential multifunctionality. The researchers employed a 32-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (32-QAM) based discrete multitone (DMT) signal to demonstrate free-space bendable light intensity modulated direct detection (IM-DD) communication in the presence of three curved light paths. They characterized (tested) multiple functions of free-space bendable light communication to reveal that they allowed optical communications to be more flexible, robust and multifunctional. The work will open a new direction to explore special light beams enabled, advanced free-space light communications. /news/2019-10-free-space-data-carrying-bendable.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 23 Oct 2019 07:49:17 EDT news491035733 Field-directed and self-propelled colloidal assembly can be used to build micromachines to perform complex motions and functions, although their integration as heterogenous components with specified structures, dynamics and functions within micromachines is challenging. In a recent study on Nature Materials, Yunus Alapan and co-workers at the departments of physical intelligence and complex materials in Germany and Switzerland described the dynamic self-assembly of mobile micromachines with desired configurations using preprogrammed physical interactions between structural and motor units. /news/2019-07-shape-encoded-dynamic-mobile-micromachines.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:30:01 EDT news482394491 Nanoparticles (NPs) are a promising platform for drug delivery to treat a variety of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammation. Yet the efficiency of NP transfer to the diseased tissue of interest is limited due to an assortment of physiological barriers. One significant hurdle is the transport of NPs to precisely reach the target tissue of interest. In a recent study, S. Schuerle and a team of interdisciplinary researchers at the departments of Translational Medicine, Biophysics, Engineering Robotics, Nanomedicine and Electronics, in Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. developed two distinct microrobot-based micro-propellers to address the challenge. /news/2019-05-synthetic-micropropellers-convection-enhanced-nanoparticle.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 07 May 2019 08:28:32 EDT news476436485 Your chances of getting a nasty migraine increase following a spinal cord injury, thanks to a chemical messenger in the brain that spikes to toxic levels, past studies have suggested. /news/2019-03-implant-track-brain-chemical-rogue.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:04:03 EDT news472910631 Complex, three-dimensional (3-D) structures are regularly constructed using a reliable commercial method of 3-D laser micro- and nanoprinting. In a recent study, Frederik Mayer and co-workers in Germany and Australia have presented a new system in which a microfluidic chamber could be integrated on a laser 3-D lithography device to construct multimaterial structures using more than one constituent material. The new method can eliminate the existing need to transfer between lithography techniques and chemistry labs for a streamlined manufacturing process. /news/2019-02-multimaterial-d-laser-microprinting-microfluidic.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 13 Feb 2019 07:08:11 EST news469264079 Human tissues experience a variety of mechanical stimuli that can affect their ability to carry out their physiological functions, such as protecting organs from injury. The controlled application of such stimuli to living tissues in vivo and in vitro has now proven instrumental to studying the conditions that lead to disease. /news/2019-02-gummy-like-robots-disease.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Fri, 08 Feb 2019 06:43:52 EST news468830515 Mitochondria are dynamic, bioenergetic intracellular organelles, responsible for energy production via ATP production during respiration. They are involved in key cellular metabolic tasks that regulate vital physiological responses of cells, including cell signaling, cell differentiation and cell death. Defective mitochondria are linked to several critical human genetic diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders, cancer and cardiovascular disease. /news/2019-01-functional-mitochondria-microfluidics-devices.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Wed, 16 Jan 2019 09:30:04 EST news466757341 Newton's third law dictates that forces between interacting particles are equal and opposite for closed systems. In a non-equilibrium environment, the third law can be defied, giving rise to "nonreciprocal" forces. Theoretically, this was shown when dissimilar, optically trapped particles were mediated by an external field. In a recent study, Yuval Yifat and colleagues measured the net nonreciprocal forces in electrodynamically interacting, asymmetric nanoparticle dimers and nanoparticle aggregates. In the experiments, the nanoparticle structures were confined to pseudo one-dimensional geometries and illuminated by plane waves. The observed motion was due to the conservation of total momentum for particles and fields with broken mirror symmetry (represented by a changed direction of motion). The results are now published on Light: Science & Applications. /news/2018-12-reactive-optical-light-induced-motion.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 28 Dec 2018 07:16:45 EST news465203796 A team of researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Harvard University and Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology has developed a way to make batteries in almost any shape that can be imagined. In their paper published in the journal ACS Nano, the researchers describe the process used to make the batteries and the device they created to prove the concept sound. /news/2018-11-batteries-desired.html Nanomaterials Fri, 16 Nov 2018 09:06:26 EST news461581569 Lasers play roles in many manufacturing processes, from welding car parts to crafting engine components with 3D printers. To control these tasks, manufacturers must ensure that their lasers fire at the correct power.  /news/2018-09-chip-sized-device-laser-power-real.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:40:02 EDT news456478126