Science

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Highly sensitive gas sensors for volatile organic compound detection

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a group of carbon-based chemicals with low evaporation or vaporization points. Some VOCs are harmful to animal or environmental health so sensing these gasses is important for maintaining health and safety. VOCs also occur in nature and can be useful in medical diagnostics, which require highly sensitive sensors to be effective.

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(Top) Schematic representation of the SnO2 nanorod sensor for volatile organic compound detection. (Bottom) Sensor response in relation to pore size for 100 ppm ethanol gas changes by 5 orders of magnitude at 250 degrees Celsius.CREDIT Professor Tetsuya Kida

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Background suppression for super-resolution light microscopy: KIT-developed STEDD nanoscopy yields enhanced image quality for analyzing three-dimensional molecules and cell structures -- presentation in Nature Photonics

Optical microscopy is applied widely in the life sciences sector. Among others, it is used to minimally invasively examine living cells. Resolution of conventional light microscopy, however, is limited to half the wavelength of light, i.e. about 200 nm, such that finest cellular structures are blurred in the image. In the past years, various nanoscopy methods were developed which overcome the diffraction limit and produce images of highest resolution. Stefan W. Hell, Eric Betzig, and William Moerner were granted the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their nanoscopy methods in 2014. Now, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have refined the STED (Simulated Emission Depletion) nanoscopy method developed by Hell by modifying image acquisition in a way that background is suppressed efficiently. The resulting enhanced image quality is particularly advantageous for quantitative data analysis of three-dimensional, densely arranged molecules and cell structures. The new nanoscopy method named STEDD (Stimulated Emission Double Depletion) developed by the team of Professor Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus of KIT's Institute of Applied Physics (APH) and Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) is presented in Nature Photonics.

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A cancer cell under the microscope: The STED image (left) has a background of low resolution. In the STEDD image (right), background suppression results in much better visible structures.

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DNA 'barcoding' allows rapid testing of nanoparticles for therapeutic delivery

Using tiny snippets of DNA as "barcodes," researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly screening the ability of nanoparticles to selectively deliver therapeutic genes to specific organs of the body. The technique could accelerate the development and use of gene therapies for such killers as heart disease, cancer and Parkinson's disease.

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James Dahlman, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, holds a microfluidic chip used to fabricate nanoparticles that could be used to deliver therapeutic genes.

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First ever blueprint unveiled to construct a large scale quantum computer

An international team, led by a scientist from the University of Sussex, have unveiled the first practical blueprint, on 1 February 2017, for how to build a quantum computer, the most powerful computer on Earth.

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Dr Bjorn Lekitsch (left) and Prof Winfried Hensinger behind a quantum computer prototype at the University of Sussex.

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NASA Highlights Science Launching on Next SpaceX Cargo Mission

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Raven, a technology demonstration headed to the International Space Station on the next SpaceX cargo launch, scheduled for mid-February, will provide a real-time relative navigation system for future autonomous rendezvous missions.

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UCLA physicists map the atomic structure of an alloy: Researchers measured the coordinates of more than 23,000 atoms in a technologically important material

In the world of the very tiny, perfection is rare: virtually all materials have defects on the atomic level. These imperfections -- missing atoms, atoms of one type swapped for another, and misaligned atoms -- can uniquely determine a material's properties and function. Now, UCLA physicists and collaborators have mapped the coordinates of more than 23,000 individual atoms in a tiny iron-platinum nanoparticle to reveal the material's defects.

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Identification of the 3-D coordinates of 6,569 iron and 16,627 platinum atoms in an iron-platinum nanoparticle to correlate 3-D atomic arrangements with material properties at the single-atom level. CREDIT Courtesy of Colin Ophus and Florian Nickel

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Scientists Determine Precise 3-D Location and Identity of All 23,000 Atoms in a Nanoparticle

Berkeley Lab researchers help to map iron-platinum particle in unprecedented detail

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New Planet Imager Delivers First Science

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The vortex mask shown at left is made out of synthetic diamond. Viewed with an scanning electron microscope, right, the "vortex" microstructure of the mask is revealed.

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New 'needle-pulse' beam pattern packs a punch

A new beam pattern devised by University of Rochester researchers could bring unprecedented sharpness to ultrasound and radar images, burn precise holes in manufactured materials at a nano scale -- even etch new properties onto their surfaces.

These are just a few of the items on the "Christmas tree" of possible applications for the beam pattern that Miguel Alonso, professor of optics, and Kevin Parker, the William F. May Professor of Engineering, describe in a recent paper in Optics Express.

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Cosmic lenses support finding on faster than expected expansion of the Universe

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HE0435-1223, located in the centre of this wide-field image, is among the five best lensed quasars discovered to date. The foreground galaxy creates four almost evenly distributed images of the distant quasar around it.

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