Science

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Beyond Silicon: Transistors without Semiconductors

For decades, electronic devices have been getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller. It's now possible—even routine—to place millions of transistors on a single silicon chip.

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Electrons flash across a series of gold quantum dots on boron nitride nanotubes. Michigan Tech scientists made the quantum-tunneling device, which acts like a transistor at room temperature, without using semiconducting materials.

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Hubble spots galaxies in close encounter

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Light and nanoprobes detect early signs of infection

Duke University biomedical engineers and genome researchers have developed a proof-of-principle approach using light to detect infections before patients show symptoms.

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Two-Dimensional Atomically-Flat Transistors Show Promise for Next Generation Green Electronics

UC Santa Barbara researchers demonstrate first n-type field effect transistors on monolayer tungsten diselenide with record performance

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Sound waves precisely position nanowires

The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits.

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This image shows a simulation of the electric field distribution in a two-dimensional standing surface wave field.

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A Battery Made of Wood? Wood fibers help nano-scale batteries keep their structure

A sliver of wood coated with tin could make a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery.

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Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover

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This is a reduced version of panorama from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012.

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Polymer-coated catalyst protects "artificial leaf"

Due to the fluctuating availability of solar energy, storage solutions are urgently needed. One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis, in the process yielding hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel. Researchers at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels have modified so called superstrate solar cells with their highly efficient architecture in order to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of suitable catalysts. This type of cell works something like an "artificial leaf." But the solar cell rapidly corrodes when placed in the aqueous electrolyte solution. Now, Ph.D. student Diana Stellmach has found a way to prevent corrosion by embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer and then mounting them onto the solar cell's two contact surfaces, making her the first scientist in all of Europe to have come up with this solution. As a result, the cell's sensitive contacts are sealed to prevent corrosion with a stable yield of approx. 3.7 percent sunlight.

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This complex solar cell is coated with two different catalysts and works like an "artificial leaf", using sunlight to split water and yield hydrogen gas.

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The Turbulent, High-Energy Sky Is Keeping NuSTAR Busy

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Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 33-foot (10-meter) mast that deploys after launch to separate the optics modules (right) from the detectors in the focal plane (left).

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Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates: Rice scientists apply drug-design lessons to production of industrial minerals

Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals.

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Rice University scientists have created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules (purple) that can be used to guide the growth of zeolite crystals (yellow).

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