http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. It's been used to dye the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day. It's been used to find latent blood stains at crime scenes. And now researchers at Northwestern University have used it to examine the thinnest material in the world. http://www.physorg.com/news180789864.html Nanotechnology Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:24:48 EST news180789864 At Berkeley Lab's National Center for Electron Microscopy it was revealed that single-stranded DNA can disperse bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes into individual tubes and serve as guideposts for synthesizing platinum nanoparticles onto these tubes. http://www.physorg.com/news180644226.html Nanotechnology Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:10:01 EST news180644226 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 1996, when scientists examined a meteorite from Mars previously uncovered in Antarctica, they were intrigued by what looked like microscopic fossils of ancient Martian life forms. Now, using new technology that wasn't available 13 years ago, NASA scientists have found further evidence that the materials and structures in the meteorite are likely signs of ancient life, rather than the results of inorganic processes. http://www.physorg.com/news180264793.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:33:52 EST news180264793 Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a new way to introduce magnetic impurities in a semiconductor crystal by prodding it with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Detailed in a recent paper, this technique will enable researchers to selectively implant atoms in a crystal one at a time to learn about its electrical and magnetic properties on the atomic scale. http://www.physorg.com/news178978543.html Nanotechnology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:16:57 EST news178978543 (PhysOrg.com) -- A whole microcosm of various bizarrely shaped life forms opens up when you look at diatoms, the primary component of ocean plankton, under a microscope. The regularly structured silica shells of these tiny individual life forms have attracted scientists because they are particularly interesting examples of natural hybrid materials and also demonstrate unusual mechanistic and optical properties. The mechanisms of the underlying biomineralization process are not yet fully understood, but the silica shells often provide inspiration for the synthesis of man-made nanostructures. http://www.physorg.com/news178901054.html Chemistry Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:51:39 EST news178901054 The performance of modern electronics increases steadily on a fast pace thanks to the ongoing miniaturization of the utilized components. However, se-vere problems arise due to quantum-mechanical phenomena when conven-tional structures are simply made smaller and reach the nanometer scale. Therefore current research focuses on the so-called bottom-up approach: the engineering of functional structures with the smallest possible building blocks - single atoms and molecules. http://www.physorg.com/news177249897.html Nanotechnology Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:09:44 EST news177249897 (PhysOrg.com) -- Big things often come in small packages. That's certainly the case with the potential created by recent successes in hydrogen research at Idaho National Laboratory. http://www.physorg.com/news177096285.html Technology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:25:39 EST news177096285 Collaborative users from the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory, working with the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group, have found a controllable way to modify the surfaces of pristine Nb-doped SrTiO3 (Nb:STO) at the nanoscale. http://www.physorg.com/news176573506.html Nanotechnology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:03 EST news176573506 (PhysOrg.com) -- By building a tiny microscope small enough to be carried around on a rats' head, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have found a way to study the complex activity of many brain cells simultaneously while animals are free to move around. http://www.physorg.com/news176455156.html Biology Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:20:01 EST news176455156 It has long been known that acids can erode tooth enamel but a new Swedish study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that strong alkaline substances can damage teeth too - substances with high pH values can destroy parts of the organic content of the tooth, leaving the enamel more vulnerable. http://www.physorg.com/news175867898.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:50:03 EST news175867898 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research examining microscopic marks on the teeth of the "Lucy" species Australopithecus afarensis suggests that the ancient hominid ate a different diet than the tooth enamel, size and shape suggest, say a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues. http://www.physorg.com/news175415022.html Other Sciences Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:00:01 EST news175415022 (PhysOrg.com) -- While not the smallest lettering ever created, the tiny initials "LCLS" have been written with what may be the world's most potent pen. Etched into boron carbide, a super-hard substance used in accelerator shielding and body armor, the lettering has helped researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explore the capabilities of the world's first hard X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. http://www.physorg.com/news175283137.html Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:10:03 EST news175283137 (PhysOrg.com) -- Silicon, the most important semiconductor material of all, is usually considered to be as brittle and breakable as window glass. On the nanometer scale, however, the substance exhibits very different properties, as Empa researchers from Switzerland have shown by creating minute silicon pillars. If the diameters of the columns are made small enough, then under load they do not simply break off, as large pieces of silicon would, but they yield to the pressure and undergo plastic deformation, as a metal would. This discovery opens the way for completely new design techniques from a materials point of view for mechanical microsystems and in the watch industry. http://www.physorg.com/news174765743.html Nanotechnology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:04:45 EST news174765743 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group (Argonne National Laboratory) and at Politecnico di Milano in Italy explored the limits of antiferromagnetism in a nanostructured material for the first time, measuring the temperature required to support antiferromagnetic order in atomic monolayers of manganese on tungsten as the dimensions of the structures are reduced. http://www.physorg.com/news174313334.html Nanotechnology Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:30:07 EST news174313334 (PhysOrg.com) -- On this day in 1989, IBM Fellow Don Eigler became the first person in history to move and control an individual atom. Shortly thereafter, on November 11 of that year, Eigler and his team used a custom-built microscope to spell out the letters IBM with 35 xenon atoms. This unprecedented ability to manipulate individual atoms signaled a quantum leap forward in in nanoscience experimentation and heralded in the age of nanotechnology. http://www.physorg.com/news173344987.html Nanotechnology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:23:35 EST news173344987