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Laser diodes versus LEDs

Solid-state lighting based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is the most efficient source of high color quality white light. Nevertheless, they show significant performance limitations such as the "efficiency droop". Blue laser diodes operated in stimulated emission offer a potential alternative.

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Nanogrid, activated by sunlight, breaks down pollutants in water, leaving biodegradable compounds: Innovation Corps project explores how to bring technology to the field

Oil spills do untold damage to the environment--to the waters they pollute and to marine and other wildlife. The Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, for example, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, flowed unabated for three months.

Transmission electron microscopy image and related electron diffraction pattern of the nanogrids structures as manifested at the nanoparticle level. Each nanoparticle is about 20nm and it is connected to the next one forming "links" in a chain-like configuration.

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Asylum Research Introduces blueDrive™ Photothermal Excitation For Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Nanomechanics

Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments company, announces blueDrive photothermal excitation, an option available exclusively for Asylum's Cypher™ Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs). blueDrive makes tapping mode imaging remarkably simple, incredibly stable, and strikingly accurate. blueDrive replaces the conventional piezoacoustic excitation mechanism, instead using a blue laser to directly excite the AFM cantilever photothermally. This results in an ideal cantilever drive response in both air and liquids, which provides significant performance and ease of use benefits for tapping mode imaging.

blueDrive photothermal excitation produces ideal drive responses in both air and liquid. Here, the response of a small, high-frequency cantilever was measured using blueDrive. In both air and liquid, the blueDrive response almost perfectly matches the expected simple harmonic oscillator response.

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Build-A-Nanoparticle

Nanoparticles, which range from 1-100 nanometers in size, are roughly the same size as biomolecules such as proteins, antibodies, and membrane receptors. Because of this size similarity, nanoparticles can mimic biomolecules and therefore have a huge potential for application in the biomedical field.

An engineered Silicon-Silver nanoparticle of ~10 nanometers in size.

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India Launches Mars Mission

India has launched a space probe to Mars, seeking to become one of only a few nations to reach the Red Planet.

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Nanocomposites Help Researchers to Take Samples from Pollutants Released in Air

Iranian researchers from Hamedan University of Medical Sciences in association with their colleagues from Lorestan University succeeded in the production of a needle trap device for micro-extraction sampling of pollutants emitted in air by using silicate nanocomposite adsorbents and single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes as well as graphene nano-sheets.

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Synaptic transistor learns while it computes: First of its kind, brain-inspired device looks toward highly efficient and fast parallel computing

It doesn't take a Watson to realize that even the world's best supercomputers are staggeringly inefficient and energy-intensive machines.

Several prototypes of the synaptic transistor are visible on this silicon chip.

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Hubble's New Shot of Proxima Centauri, Our Nearest Neighbor

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New hydrogel from IBN and INM improves delivery of anti-cancer drug

The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and IBM Research (IBM) have developed a new non-toxic hydrogel that is capable of shrinking breast cancer tumors more rapidly than existing therapies. As described in their publication in Advanced Functional Materials1, the Vitamin E-incorporated hydrogel can be easily injected under the skin without causing any inflammatory response, and releases anti-cancer drugs in a sustained manner over several weeks. This reduces the need for frequent drug administration, paving the way for the tumors to be eradicated in fewer treatments.

Herceptin was loaded into Vitamin E gel by convenient mixing. The Herceptin-loaded hydrogel was tested in mice bearing breast cancer. Herceptin was preferably accumulated in the tumor tissues as compared to the healthy animal organs.