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. Scientists have experimentally verified a theory suggesting that hot electrons could double the output of solar cells. The researchers, from Boston College, have built solar cells that successfully use hot electrons to increase the cells' power ouput. Although the power increase is small, the concept could lead to solar cells that break conventional efficiency limits. http://www.physorg.com/news180365359.html Nanotechnology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:44:26 EST news180365359 (PhysOrg.com) -- European researchers have developed state-of-the-art nanowire 'growing' technology, opening the way for faster, smaller microchips and creating a promising new avenue of research and industrial development in Europe. http://www.physorg.com/news180169791.html Nanotechnology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:40:01 EST news180169791 (PhysOrg.com) -- Microchip manufacturers have long faced challenges miniaturizing transistors, the key active components in nearly every modern electronic device, which are used to amplify or switch electronic signals. http://www.physorg.com/news179590555.html Nanotechnology Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:16:53 EST news179590555 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper. http://www.physorg.com/news179427849.html Nanotechnology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:04:51 EST news179427849 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles. http://www.physorg.com/news178459486.html Nanotechnology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:00:05 EST news178459486 Silicon nanowires are attracting significant attention from the electronics industry due to the drive for ever-smaller electronic devices, from cell phones to computers. The operation of these future devices, and a wide array of additional applications, will depend on the mechanical properties of these nanowires. New research from North Carolina State University shows that silicon nanowires are far more resilient than their larger counterparts, a finding that could pave the way for smaller, sturdier nanoelectronics, nanosensors, light-emitting diodes and other applications. http://www.physorg.com/news177171851.html Nanotechnology Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:24:43 EST news177171851 Very tiny wires, called nanowires, made from such metals as silver and gold, may play a crucial role as electrical or mechanical switches in the development of future-generation ultrasmall nanodevices. http://www.physorg.com/news176047225.html Nanotechnology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:00:02 EST news176047225 (PhysOrg.com) -- To power a very small device like a pacemaker or a transistor, you need an even smaller generator. The components that operate the generator are smaller yet, and the efficiency of those foundational components is critical to the performance of the overall device. http://www.physorg.com/news175444804.html Nanotechnology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:52:12 EST news175444804 The biological safety of nanotechnology, in other words, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving the injection of so-called 'nanowires.' http://www.physorg.com/news175425344.html Nanotechnology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:30:01 EST news175425344 (PhysOrg.com) -- Taking nanomaterials to a new level of structural complexity, scientists have determined how to introduce kinks into arrow-straight nanowires, transforming them into zigzagging two- and three-dimensional structures with correspondingly advanced functions. http://www.physorg.com/news175339313.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:23:16 EST news175339313 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have conducted a basic chemistry experiment in what is perhaps the world's smallest test tube, measuring a thousandth the diameter of a human hair. http://www.physorg.com/news174837506.html Nanotechnology Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:50:01 EST news174837506 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new portable device can detect bacteria and help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. This new tool takes from 15 minutes to 2 hours to diagnose a patient for infectious diseases and can be used in hospitals, doctor's office and at home. http://www.physorg.com/news173966720.html Nanotechnology Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:06:05 EST news173966720 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in efforts to use tiny structures called carbon nanotubes to create a new class of electronics that would be faster and smaller than conventional silicon-based transistors. http://www.physorg.com/news173626785.html Nanotechnology Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:40:28 EST news173626785 Bacteria that generate significant amounts of electricity could be used in microbial fuel cells to provide power in remote environments or to convert waste to electricity. Professor Derek Lovley from the University of Massachusetts, USA isolated bacteria with large numbers of tiny projections called pili which were more efficient at transferring electrons to generate power in fuel cells than bacteria with a smooth surface. The team's findings were reported at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, today (7 September). http://www.physorg.com/news171518983.html Biology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:10:13 EST news171518983 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford researchers have developed a method of stacking and purifying crystal layers that may pave the way for three-dimensional microchips. http://www.physorg.com/news170527247.html Nanotechnology Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:41:21 EST news170527247 Nanochemists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nano-Science Center, Department of Chemistry at University of Copenhagen have developed nanoscale electric contacts out of organic and inorganic nanowires. In the contact they have crossed the wires like Mikado sticks and coupled several contacts together in an electric circuit. In this way they have produced prototype computer electronics on the nanoscale. http://www.physorg.com/news169727773.html Nanotechnology Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:10:02 EST news169727773 (PhysOrg.com) -- A century after German physicist Gustav Mie derived the math to explain why the colors in some stained glass windows look especially resplendent in the sunlight, a team of Stanford engineers has built upon his work to potentially improve a means of harvesting energy from the sun. http://www.physorg.com/news166207278.html Nanotechnology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:42:06 EST news166207278 Members of a USC-led research team say they've made a big improvement in a new breed of electronic detectors for viruses and other biological materials - one that may be a valuable addition to the battle against epidemics. http://www.physorg.com/news162814488.html Nanotechnology Fri, 29 May 2009 11:15:18 EST news162814488 A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to "tunnel" as a pack from a state with a higher electrical current to one with a notably lower current, providing more evidence of the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling. http://www.physorg.com/news162650639.html Nanotechnology Wed, 27 May 2009 13:48:12 EST news162650639 Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in collaboration with researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), have demonstrated, for the first time, that the activation energy of impurities in semiconductor nanowires is affected by the surrounding dielectric and can be modified by the choice of the nanowire embedding medium. http://www.physorg.com/news160754028.html Nanotechnology Tue, 05 May 2009 14:54:34 EST news160754028 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Illinois have found a new way to make transistors smaller and faster. The technique uses self-assembled, self-aligned, and defect-free nanowire channels made of gallium arsenide. http://www.physorg.com/news159453806.html Nanotechnology Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:43:49 EST news159453806 (PhysOrg.com) -- Our modern age has become accustomed to regular improvements in information technology, says Slava Rotkin, but these advances do not come without a cost. http://www.physorg.com/news158838657.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:51:40 EST news158838657 That sinking feeling when your hard disk starts screeching and you haven't backed up your holiday photos is a step closer to becoming a thing of the past thanks to research into a new kind of computer memory. http://www.physorg.com/news157976129.html Physics Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:16:32 EST news157976129 For the first time, MIT researchers have shown they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery. http://www.physorg.com/news157900776.html Nanotechnology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:19:56 EST news157900776 (PhysOrg.com) -- Semiconductor nanowires -- tiny wires with a diameter as small as a few billionths of a meter - hold promise for devices of the future, both in technology like light-emitting diodes and in new versions of transistors and circuits for next generation of electronics. But in order to utilize the novel properties of nanowires, their composition must be precisely controlled, and researchers must better understand just exactly how the composition is determined by the synthesis conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news157894016.html Nanotechnology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:27:29 EST news157894016 Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again. http://www.physorg.com/news157287591.html Nanotechnology Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:00:36 EST news157287591 (PhysOrg.com) -- The creation of long platinum nanowires at the University of Rochester could soon lead to the development of commercially viable fuel cells. http://www.physorg.com/news156003211.html Nanotechnology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:14:29 EST news156003211 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Pittsburgh researchers have created a nanoscale one-stop shop, a single platform for creating electronics at a nearly single-atom scale that could yield advanced forms of such technologically important devices as high-density memory devices and -most importantly -transistors and computer processors. This multitude of uses stems from a technique previously developed by the same team to fashion rewritable nanostructures at the interface between two insulating materials. In the Feb. 20 edition of Science, the researchers demonstrate this process' various applications. http://www.physorg.com/news154277470.html Nanotechnology Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:53:29 EST news154277470 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have found a way to incorporate silicon into the structure of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power a wide variety of portable electronic devices, including digital cameras and cell phones. The group's method, using a nanowire form of silicon, overcomes the roadblocks that have prevented the use of silicon and may help extend the batteries' lifetimes. http://www.physorg.com/news151667477.html Nanotechnology Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:52:51 EST news151667477 (PhysOrg.com) -- A handheld, ultra-portable device that can recognize and immediately report on a wide variety of environmental or medical compounds may eventually be possible, using a method that incorporates a mixture of biologically tagged nanowires onto integrated circuit chips, according to Penn State researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news151252040.html Nanotechnology Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:27:20 EST news151252040