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. (PhysOrg.com) -- Duke University engineers have created a new generation of lens that could greatly improve the capabilities of telecommunications or radar systems to provide a wide field of view and greater detail. http://www.physorg.com/news180530510.html Physics Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:00:18 EST news180530510 A University of Pittsburgh team overcame a major hurdle plaguing the development of nanomaterials such as those that could lead to more efficient catalysts used to produce hydrogen and render car exhaust less toxic. The researchers reported Nov. 29 in Nature Materials the first demonstration of high-temperature stability in metallic nanoparticles, the vaunted next-generation materials hampered by a vulnerability to extreme heat. http://www.physorg.com/news178810410.html Nanotechnology Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:34:21 EST news178810410 Tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a metre in diameter could be used to used to kill cancer cells, according to a study published on Sunday. http://www.physorg.com/news178725200.html Nanotechnology Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:59:24 EST news178725200 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a polymer-coated gold nanocage that not only opens in response to light to release a small amount of a drug payload, but then closes when the light is turned off, leaving this nanodevice ready to deliver another dose of drug on command. Releasing carefully titrated amounts of a drug only near the tissue that is the drug's intended target, this delivery system has the potential to maximize a drug's beneficial effects while minimizing its side effects. http://www.physorg.com/news177875527.html Nanotechnology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:40:01 EST news177875527 (PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic devices can't work well unless all of the transistors, or switches, within them allow electrical current to flow easily when they are turned on. A team of engineers has determined why some transistors made of organic crystals don't perform well, yielding ideas about how to make them work better. http://www.physorg.com/news177103252.html Nanotechnology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:37:05 EST news177103252 Johns Hopkins materials scientists have found a new use for a chemical compound that has traditionally been viewed as an electrical conductor, a substance that allows electricity to flow through it. By orienting the compound in a different way, the researchers have turned it into a thin film insulator, which instead blocks the flow of electricity, but can induce large electric currents elsewhere. The material, called solution-deposited beta-alumina, could have important applications in transistor technology and in devices such as electronic books. http://www.physorg.com/news176994899.html Nanotechnology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:19:47 EST news176994899 In campy old movies, Lucretia Borgia swans around emptying powder from her ring into wine glasses carelessly left unattended. The poison ring is usually a confection of gold filigree holding a cabochon or faceted gemstone that can be broken to empty the ring's contents. It is invariably enormous - so large it is rather odd nobody seems to notice it. http://www.physorg.com/news176306859.html Nanotechnology Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:08:21 EST news176306859 (PhysOrg.com) -- Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news176196750.html Nanotechnology Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:41:11 EST news176196750 Ultrasound and underwater sonar devices could "see" a big improvement thanks to development of the world's first acoustic hyperlens. Created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the acoustic hyperlens provides an eightfold boost in the magnification power of sound-based imaging technologies. Clever physical manipulation of the imaging sound waves enables the hyperlens to resolve details smaller than one sixth the length of the waves themselves, bringing into view much smaller objects and features than can be detected using today's technologies. http://www.physorg.com/news175702307.html Physics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:12:53 EST news175702307 (PhysOrg.com) -- If the promise of nanotechnology is to be fulfilled, nanoparticles will have to be able to make something of themselves. An important advance towards this goal has been achieved by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who have found a simple and yet powerfully robust way to induce nanoparticles to assemble themselves into complex arrays. http://www.physorg.com/news175450958.html Nanotechnology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:23:20 EST news175450958 Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed cell differentiation include therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news175093297.html Chemistry Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:02:07 EST news175093297 Researchers at Oregon State University and other institutions have developed a new "plasmonic nanorod metamaterial" using extraordinarily tiny rods of gold that will have important applications in medical, biological and chemical sensors. http://www.physorg.com/news174651275.html Nanotechnology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:16:09 EST news174651275 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research at MIT has uncovered new information about how nanoscale patterns on the surface of a material can produce significant changes in the way it interacts with liquids. The discovery could be significant in understanding interactions that affect a wide variety of biological processes in living cells, as well as many manufacturing or energy storage systems. http://www.physorg.com/news173004362.html Nanotechnology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:20:01 EST news173004362 Researchers from Northwestern University and Boise State University have figured out how to produce a less expensive shape-shifting "memory" foam, which could lead to more widespread applications of the material, such as in surgical positioning tools and valve mechanisms. http://www.physorg.com/news173002757.html Chemistry Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:19:54 EST news173002757 Irregularities in industrial catalysts can inhibit the conversion of crude oil, Utrecht University chemists have concluded. They were the first to provide a detailed blueprint of the interior of a commercially used catalyst for e.g. the production of transportation fuels from crude oil. They discovered a large number of dead ends. Their findings can contribute to the development of new and improved catalytic materials for the chemical industry. The study has been online published in the scientific journal Nature Materials. http://www.physorg.com/news172857931.html Chemistry Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:30:08 EST news172857931 (PhysOrg.com) -- Brookhaven Lab scientists have developed a new scanning electron microscope capable of selectively imaging single atoms on a surface while simultaneously probing atoms throughout the sample?s depth. The development could greatly expand scientists? ability to understand and control chemical reactions, such as those in energy-conversion devices. http://www.physorg.com/news172746177.html Nanotechnology Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:04:16 EST news172746177 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nanotubes and nanowires are promising building blocks for future integrated nanoelectronic and photonic circuits, nanosensors, interconnects and electro-mechanical nanodevices. But some fundamental issues remain to be resolved - among them, how to position and manipulate the tiny tubes. http://www.physorg.com/news172231468.html Nanotechnology Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:04:58 EST news172231468 (PhysOrg.com) -- Atoms have the habit of jumping through solids - a practice that physicists have recently been able to follow for the first time using a brand new method. This scientific advance was made possible thanks to the utilisation of cutting-edge X-ray sources, known as electron synchrotrons. The detailed findings of the project, backed by the Austrian Science Fund, were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Materials. The work unlocks new potential for the study of material ageing processes at the atomic level. http://www.physorg.com/news172141084.html Physics Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:01:18 EST news172141084 Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Ulm have made the first high-resolution 3D images of the inside of a polymer solar cell. This gives them important new insights in the nanoscale structure of polymer solar cells and its effect on the performance. The findings were published online in Nature Materials on Sunday 13 September. http://www.physorg.com/news172072693.html Nanotechnology Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:58:45 EST news172072693 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are closer to understanding how to grow replacement bones with stem cell technology, thanks to research published today in the journal Nature Materials. http://www.physorg.com/news167835469.html Chemistry Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:58:36 EST news167835469 Nanostructured materials have garnered great interest worldwide due to their unique size-dependent properties for chemical, electronic, structural, medical and consumer applications. http://www.physorg.com/news166722374.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:46:39 EST news166722374 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University (Sweden) are well on the way to creating the first artificial nerve cell that can communicate specifically with nerve cells in the body using neurotransmitters. The technology has been published in an article in Nature Materials. http://www.physorg.com/news166109773.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:37:27 EST news166109773 (PhysOrg.com) -- The recent explosion in the development of nanomaterials with enhanced performance characteristics for use in commercial and medical applications has increased the likelihood of people coming into direct contact with these materials. http://www.physorg.com/news164638938.html Nanotechnology Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:03:06 EST news164638938 (PhysOrg.com) -- Multiferroics are materials in which unique combinations of electric and magnetic properties can simultaneously coexist. They are potential cornerstones in future magnetic data storage and spintronic devices provided a simple and fast way can be found to turn their electric and magnetic properties on and off. In a promising new development, researchers with the DOE's Berkeley Lab working with a prototypical multiferroic have successfully demonstrated just such a switch -- electric fields. http://www.physorg.com/news162223157.html Physics Fri, 22 May 2009 15:01:46 EST news162223157 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using DNA not as a genetic material but as a structural support, Cornell researchers have created thin sheets of gold nanoparticles held together by strands of DNA. The work could prove useful for making thin transistors or other electronic devices. http://www.physorg.com/news162056919.html Nanotechnology Wed, 20 May 2009 16:49:21 EST news162056919 An NSERC-funded lab at the University Of Waterloo has laid the groundwork for a lithium battery that can store and deliver more than three times the power of conventional lithium ion batteries. http://www.physorg.com/news161863249.html Nanotechnology Mon, 18 May 2009 11:01:59 EST news161863249 CSIRO scientist, Dr Amanda Barnard, has been awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) 2009 Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news160910788.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 May 2009 10:26:48 EST news160910788 Yale researchers describe a breakthrough in safe and effective administration of potential antiviral drugs - small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules that silence genes - the first step in development of a new kind of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The work is reported May 4 as an advance online publication of Nature Materials. http://www.physorg.com/news160590617.html Nanotechnology Sun, 03 May 2009 17:30:45 EST news160590617 (PhysOrg.com) -- The great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously noted the similarities between advanced technology and magic. This summer on the big screen, the young wizard Harry Potter will once again don his magic invisibility cloak and disappear. Meanwhile, researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California Berkeley will be studying an invisibility cloak of their own that also hides objects from view. http://www.physorg.com/news160409033.html Physics Fri, 01 May 2009 15:04:33 EST news160409033