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Macroscopic volume and microscopy characterization of the samples before and after swelling. The parent H0.8[Ti1.2Fe0.8]O4 H2O microcrystals exhibit platelets with lateral sizes of ~15 mm×35 mm and a thickness of ~2-3 mm. The interlayer spacing is 0.89 nm; thus, the platelets are composed of ~3000 regularly stacked layers. With addition of amine solutions, the samples “ballooned” spontaneously, and the macroscopic volume of the swollen crystals changes with various DMAE solutions, which shows the maximum volume increase at DMAE/H+ = 0.5. Optical microscopy characterizations reveal extended lamellar structures. The longest swollen length is ~200-250 mm in DMAE/H+ = 0.5. At high concentrations, the swelling is somewhat suppressed, with swollen length of ~100 mm at DMAE/H+ = 10.

And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic material — DNA and RNA — in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."

This image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) flying onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.

This is a graphic representation of a 3-D atomic resolution screw dislocation in a platinum nanoparticle.