/ 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. When two organisms live together so closely that they merge into a functional unit, this is known as symbiosis. In the "1+1=1" project, an international, interdisciplinary research team is investigating how synthetic symbiosis between microorganisms can be created in a targeted manner—and what this reveals about the formation of complex cell structures. /news/2025-05-paramecium-cyanobacterium.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Mon, 12 May 2025 10:45:09 EDT news666265504 Today, most of us carry a fairly powerful computer in our hand—a smartphone. But computers weren't always so portable. Since the 1980s, they have become smaller, lighter, and better equipped to store and process vast troves of data. Yet the silicon chips that power computers can only get so small. /news/2025-05-unique-molecule-smaller-efficient.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 01 May 2025 17:04:04 EDT news665337841 New research has uncovered how a simple circadian clock network demonstrates advanced noise-filtering capabilities, enhancing our understanding of how biological circuits maintain accuracy in dynamic natural environments. /news/2025-04-circadian-clocks-robustness-environments.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 15 Apr 2025 15:22:04 EDT news663949321 Rapidly increasing data traffic is placing ever greater demands on the capacity of communication systems. In an article titled "Ultra-broadband optical amplification using nonlinear integrated waveguides" published in Nature, a research team from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, introduce a new amplifier that enables the transmission of 10 times more data per second than those of current fiber-optic systems. /news/2025-04-amplifier-bandwidth-super-lasers.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:00:28 EDT news663406261 It has long been thought that only nerve and heart cells use electric impulses to communicate, while epithelial cells—which compose the linings of our skin, organs and body cavities—are mute, serving mostly as protective barriers that can absorb and secrete various substances. /news/2025-03-silent-epithelial-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:00:07 EDT news661419001 Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have invented an entirely new field of microscopy called nuclear spin microscopy. The team can visualize magnetic signals of nuclear magnetic resonance with a microscope. Quantum sensors convert the signals into light, enabling extremely high-resolution optical imaging. /news/2025-02-microscopy-based-quantum-sensors.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:28:03 EST news659708881 At Texas A&M University, one research lab is changing the game of droplet microfluidics, a technique that involves conducting experiments in nanoscale droplets of liquid in a controlled environment. The team has developed a system that makes droplet microfluidics faster, lower cost, and more accurate. /news/2025-01-droplet-microfluidics-advance-key-generation.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:43:06 EST news657391382 Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania researchers, and scientists from Japan have developed a unique nanolaser. Although the dimensions of this laser are so small that its structure can only be seen through a powerful microscope, its potential is vast. With applications in early medical diagnostics, data communication, and security technologies, this invention could also become a key tool for the study of light and matter interactions. /news/2024-12-silver-nanocubes-enable-nanolaser-generation.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 10 Dec 2024 09:35:29 EST news653045719 Researchers have developed a highly sensitive detector for identifying molecules via their infrared vibrational "fingerprint." This innovative detector converts incident infrared light into ultra-confined "nanolight" in the form of phonon polaritons within the detector´s active area. /news/2024-11-chip-device-exotic-rays-2d.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 18 Nov 2024 09:34:13 EST news651144841 In a new study in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters, scientists have demonstrated a method to control artificial microswimmers using electric fields and fluid flow. These microscopic droplets could pave the way for targeted drug delivery and microrobotics. /news/2024-10-scientists-precise-artificial-microswimmers-electric.html Soft Matter Tue, 29 Oct 2024 08:00:01 EDT news649353436 Step aside hard, rigid materials. There is a new soft, sustainable electroactive material in town—and it's poised to open new possibilities for medical devices, wearable technology and human-computer interfaces. /news/2024-10-peptides-plastics-combine-energy-efficient.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:00:01 EDT news647686220 As phones and computers shrink in size, our need for data storage and transfer is growing. Electronic devices have been powered by semiconductors for decades, but as the push to miniaturize continues, there's a limit to how small semiconductors can be made. /news/2024-10-materials-techniques-microelectronics-quantum-technologies.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 02 Oct 2024 14:44:32 EDT news647099067 Spatial transcriptomics has emerged as a powerful tool for in situ analysis of gene expression within tissues. However, current technologies still face several challenges, including high costs, limited field of view, and low throughput, significantly hindering their application in large-scale tissue research and the analysis of complex biological processes. /news/2024-09-custom-microfluidic-chip-reshapes-framework.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 13 Sep 2024 09:41:03 EDT news645439261 Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University report that they were able to successfully put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor state using donepezil (DNP), a drug approved by the FDA to treat Alzheimer's. /news/2024-08-alzheimer-drug-state-animation.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:24:05 EDT news643548242 Researchers at Purdue University have trapped alkali atoms (cesium) on an integrated photonic circuit, which behaves like a transistor for photons (the smallest energy unit of light) similar to electronic transistors. These trapped atoms demonstrate the potential to build a quantum network based on cold-atom integrated nanophotonic circuits. /news/2024-07-atoms-photonic-transistors.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 29 Jul 2024 15:53:23 EDT news641487195 Silicon computer chips have served us well for more than half a century. The tiniest features on chips currently sold are approximately 3 nanometers—a startlingly small size given that a human hair is roughly 80,000 nanometers wide. Reducing the size of features on chips will help us meet our endless need for more memory and processing power in the palm of our hand. But the limit of what can be achieved with standard materials and processes is near. /news/2024-07-defects-tomorrow-technology-candidate-generation.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 09 Jul 2024 11:05:03 EDT news639741901 Advanced materials, including two-dimensional or "atomically thin" materials just a few atoms thick, are essential for the future of microelectronics technology. Now a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a way to directly measure such materials' thermal expansion coefficient, the rate at which the material expands as it heats. /news/2024-06-atom-thin-material.html Nanomaterials Fri, 28 Jun 2024 07:29:27 EDT news638778562 Filamentous cyanobacteria buckle at a certain length when they encounter an obstacle. This was discovered by the research group of Stefan Karpitschka, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and professor at the University of Konstanz. The results, appearing in eLife, provide an important basis for the use of cyanobacteria in modern biotechnology. /news/2024-06-bacteria-buckling-propulsion-based-adhesion.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:06:03 EDT news637833962 Life has transformed our world over billions of years, turning a dead rock into the lush, fertile planet we know today. But human activity is currently transforming Earth again, this time by releasing greenhouse gases that are driving dramatic changes in our climate. /news/2024-05-climate-life.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 May 2024 11:42:04 EDT news634473718 Nature consistently inspires engineering applications. Recently, a group of researchers from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) drew new inspiration from the vascular network and developed a new type of fluidic system named VasFluidics. /news/2024-05-fluidic-advances-artificial-blood-vessels.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 May 2024 10:05:52 EDT news634467945 Some molecules respond to external light pulses by changing their structure and holding certain states that can be switched from one to another. These are commonly referred to as photoswitches and usually have two possible states. Recently, however, scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) have developed a molecule that takes the possibilities of photoswitches a step further. /news/2024-03-limits-molecular-memory-door-chips.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 26 Mar 2024 13:19:19 EDT news630677956 Stanford researchers have unveiled a new type of frequency comb, a high-precision measurement device, that is innovatively small, ultra-energy efficient, and exceptionally accurate. With continued development, this breakthrough "microcomb"—which is detailed in a study published March 7 in Nature—could be the basis for mass-market adoption of the devices in everyday electronics. /news/2024-03-ruler-enable-personal-devices.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942539 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have engineered a new micro total analysis system that quantifies a target chemical in a microfluidic chip without pumps, tubes, and expensive detectors. The compound reacts with other chemicals to produce a gas, pushing ink in a connected chamber along a channel. Built-in light detectors help measure the flow speed, allowing measurement of the original chemical. The portability of the new device enables bedside, quantitative clinical analysis. /news/2024-02-scientists-portable-total-chemical-analysis.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:04:44 EST news628167879 Newly published research on indoor air quality from Colorado State University shows wildfire smoke may linger in homes long after the initial blaze has been put out or winds have shifted. /news/2023-10-wildfire-linger-homes-blaze.html Environment Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:00:02 EDT news616404379 Conventional manufacturing methods such as soft lithography and hot embossing processes can be used to bioengineer microfluidic chips, albeit with limitations, including difficulty in preparing multilayered structures, cost- and labor-consuming fabrication processes as well as low productivity. /news/2023-09-modern-digital-technology-3d-microfluidic.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:30:53 EDT news614251749 What if we had tiny devices in our bodies that could constantly monitor damaged arteries, accelerate bone regeneration and wound healing, or facilitate drug delivery for cancer treatment? This could open up remarkable opportunities for the treatment of human diseases and the enhancement of our capabilities beyond the limits of biology. /news/2023-08-scientists-resorbable-biomaterials-implantable-medical.html Materials Science Thu, 10 Aug 2023 07:03:47 EDT news610869815 The next generation of 2D semiconductor materials doesn't like what it sees when it looks in the mirror. Current synthesizing approaches to make single-layer nanosheets of semiconducting material for atomically thin electronics develop a peculiar "mirror twin" defect when the material is deposited on single-crystal substrates like sapphire. The synthesized nanosheet contains grain boundaries that act as a mirror, with the arrangement of atoms on each side organized in reflected opposition to one another. /news/2023-08-mirror-twins-defect-plaguing-generation.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 04 Aug 2023 08:08:42 EDT news610355318 Researchers have created a unique microscopic toolkit of "green" tunable electrical components, paving the way for a new generation of bioelectronic devices and sensors. /news/2023-07-era-environment-friendly-programmable-bioelectronics.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 25 Jul 2023 10:03:22 EDT news609498199 Researchers have demonstrated a new material for single-molecule electronic switches, which can effectively vary current at the nanoscale in response to external stimuli. The material for this molecular switch has a unique structure created by locking a linear molecular backbone into a ladder-type structure. A new study finds that the ladder-type molecular structure greatly enhances the stability of the material, making it highly promising for use in single-molecule electronics applications. /news/2023-06-single-molecule-electronic-ladder-like-molecules.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 30 Jun 2023 13:12:03 EDT news607349521 In a new report now published in npj Microgravity, Zachary Estlack and a research team in mechanical engineering and space sciences at the University of Utah and the University of California, Berkeley, developed a microfluidic organic analyzer to detect life signatures beyond Earth and to clinically monitor astronaut health. The team performed extensive environmental tests across diverse gravitational atmospheres to confirm the functionality of the analyzer and its level of technology readiness. /news/2023-06-microfluidics-space-extraterrestrial-life-signatures.html Space Exploration Astrobiology Thu, 15 Jun 2023 11:30:01 EDT news606040770