Science

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Something Flare-y This Way Comes: The mini-Halloween Storms of 2013

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Blood-red auroras over Maryland on Halloween 2003.

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Galaxy Growth Examined Like Rings of a Tree

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New evidence from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) missions provide support for the "inside-out" theory of galaxy evolution, which holds that star formation starts at the core of the galaxy and spreads outward.

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Columbia Engineers Develop New Device Architecture for 2D Materials, Making Electrical Contact from the 1D Edge: New Approach Produces Cleanest Graphene Yet, with Previously Unrealized Performance

Columbia Engineering researchers have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to electrically contact an atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) material only along its one-dimensional (1D) edge, rather than contacting it from the top, which has been the conventional approach. With this new contact architecture, they have developed a new assembly technique for layered materials that prevents contamination at the interfaces, and, using graphene as the model 2D material, show that these two methods in combination result in the cleanest graphene yet realized.

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Significant Improvement in Weld Mechanical Properties Using Nanoparticles

Weld mechanical properties of cellulose welding electrodes were improved significantly by the Iranian researchers by adding titanium dioxide nanoparticles to the coating of the electrode.

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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Approaches 'Cooperstown'

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The low ridge that appears as a dark band below the horizon in the center of this scene is a Martian outcrop called "Cooperstown," a possible site for contact inspection with tools on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The ridge extends roughly 100 feet (about 30 meters) from left to right, and it is about 260 feet (about 80 meters) away from the location from which Curiosity captured this view.

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'Molecular Velcro' may lead to cost-effective alternatives to natural antibodies: Berkeley Lab researchers take cues from nature in designing a programmable nanomaterial for biosensing

Taking inspiration from the human immune system, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created a new material that can be programmed to identify an endless variety of molecules. The new material resembles tiny sheets of Velcro, each just one-hundred nanometers across. But instead of securing your sneakers, this molecular Velcro mimics the way natural antibodies recognize viruses and toxins, and could lead to a new class of biosensors.

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Long organic molecules called peptoids self-assemble into a molecular film on the surface of a water solution. As this film gets folded into a nanosheet, segments of the peptoid get pushed out into loops, which eventually decorate the surface of the nanosheet.

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