http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Diamond is best known for being a prized gem and the hardest cutting element available, but now thanks to research being carried out at Macquarie University it is also proving to be a super efficient laser material. http://phys.org/news191137627.html Physics Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:47:37 EST news191137627 (PhysOrg.com) -- Can graphene -- a newly discovered form of pure carbon that may one day replace the silicon in computers, televisions, mobile phones and other common electronic devices -- be made to bend, twist and roll? http://phys.org/news191054841.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:00:02 EST news191054841 At present, graphene probably is the most investigated new material system worldwide. Due to its astonishing mechanical, chemical and electronic properties, it promises manifold future applications - for example in microelectronics. The electrons in graphene are particularly movable and could, therefore, replace silicon which is used today as the basic material of fast computer chips. http://phys.org/news190893404.html Nanotechnology Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:20:02 EST news190893404 To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have devised an unusual solution -- attach what amounts to a 3-D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. Using that method, the scientists say they were able to dissolve sheets containing as many as 168 carbon atoms, a first. http://phys.org/news190029313.html Nanotechnology Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:57:13 EST news190029313 The single-atom thick material graphene maintains its high thermal conductivity when supported by a substrate, a critical step to advancing the material from a laboratory phenomenon to a useful component in a range of nano-electronic devices, researchers report in the April 9 issue of the journal Science. http://phys.org/news189953748.html Nanotechnology Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:00:04 EST news189953748 A team of Swedish and American scientists has shown for the first time that carbon nanotubes can be broken down by an enzyme - myeloperoxidase (MPO) - found in white blood cells. Their discoveries are presented in Nature Nanotechnology and contradict what was previously believed, that carbon nanotubes are not broken down in the body or in nature. The scientists hope that this new understanding of how MPO converts carbon nanotubes into water and carbon dioxide can be of significance to medicine. http://phys.org/news189688332.html Nanotechnology Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:12:27 EST news189688332 (PhysOrg.com) -- By controlling the layered growth of graphene - a relatively "new" form of carbon that's just a single atom thick - researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered intriguing details about the material's superior electrical and optical properties. Their findings could help position graphene as the next-generation material for future computers, digital displays, and electronic sensors. http://phys.org/news189413854.html Nanotechnology Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:58:04 EST news189413854 A Los Alamos National Laboratory toxicologist and a multidisciplinary team of researchers have documented potential cellular damage from "fullerenes" -- soccer-ball-shaped, cage-like molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms. The team also noted that this particular type of damage might hold hope for treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or even cancer. http://phys.org/news189267382.html Nanotechnology Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:20:01 EST news189267382 (PhysOrg.com) -- When most of us hear the word 'defect', we think of a problem that has to be solved. But a team of researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) created a new defect that just might be a solution to a growing challenge in the development of future electronic devices. http://phys.org/news189245010.html Nanotechnology Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:04:16 EST news189245010 (PhysOrg.com) -- Porphyrins have received a great deal of attention in the scientific community owing to their useful application in a wide variety of areas, such as the treatment of cancer and systems that mimic photosynthesis. A common shortcoming observed in using porphyrins arises from their tendency to form stacks and aggregates, as is common for planar aromatic systems, which results in low solubility, high crystallinity, and high melting point. http://phys.org/news188576117.html Chemistry Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:15:41 EST news188576117 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists can now listen to a set of solar wind data that's usually represented visually, as numbers or graphs. University of Michigan researchers have “sonified” the data. They've created an acoustic, or musical, representation of it. http://phys.org/news186418364.html Space & Earth Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:53:00 EST news186418364 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a just-published paper in the magazine Science, IBM researchers demonstrated a radio-frequency graphene transistor with the highest cut-off frequency achieved so far for any graphene device - 100 billion cycles/second (100 GigaHertz). http://phys.org/news184604483.html Nanotechnology Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:40:01 EST news184604483 Get Steve Martin going on the science and technology of batteries and he'll reach for a sheet of graph paper. http://phys.org/news183660225.html Technology Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:50:04 EST news183660225 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers in the Electro-Optics Center (EOC) Materials Division at Penn State have produced 100 mm diameter graphene wafers, a key milestone in the development of graphene for next generation high-power, high-frequency electronic devices. http://phys.org/news183395407.html Nanotechnology Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:11:02 EST news183395407 (PhysOrg.com) -- Faster sequencing of DNA holds enormous potential for biology and medicine, particularly for personalized diagnosis and customized treatment based on each individual's genomic makeup. At present however, sequencing technology remains cumbersome and cost prohibitive for most clinical applications, though this may be changing, thanks to a range of innovative new techniques. http://phys.org/news182010897.html Nanotechnology Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:36:39 EST news182010897 (PhysOrg.com) -- Prima donnas. Floppy chains of carbon atoms are particular about where they want to be on a titanium dioxide catalyst, according to a new study from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin. The catalyst's surface resembles corrugated cardboard: ridges of oxygen atoms run parallel to valleys of titanium atoms. Influenced by a weak attraction to the titanium, the hydrocarbon chain settles into the valleys. http://phys.org/news182009259.html Chemistry Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:08:11 EST news182009259 Faster sequencing of DNA holds enormous potential for biology and medicine, particularly for personalized diagnosis and customized treatment based on each individual's genomic makeup. At present however, sequencing technology remains cumbersome and cost prohibitive for most clinical applications, though this may be changing, thanks to a range of innovative new techniques. http://phys.org/news181466707.html Nanotechnology Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:42:28 EST news181466707 Fujitsu Laboratories today announced, as a world first, the development of a novel technology for forming graphene transistors directly on the entire surface of large-scale insulating substrates at low temperatures while employing chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) techniques which are in widespread use in semiconductor manufacturing. http://phys.org/news178552799.html Technology Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:00:59 EST news178552799 (PhysOrg.com) -- First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire. http://phys.org/news177689867.html Nanotechnology Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:22:12 EST news177689867 (PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer. http://phys.org/news177062908.html Nanotechnology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:10:01 EST news177062908 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals. http://phys.org/news175440723.html Chemistry Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:32:49 EST news175440723 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero has won a 2009 David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, an award he will use to study a new class of materials that could have applications in the semiconductor industry and quantum computing. http://phys.org/news174894793.html Physics Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:40:02 EST news174894793 Rutgers researchers have discovered novel electronic properties in two-dimensional sheets of carbon atoms called graphene that could one day be the heart of speedy and powerful electronic devices. http://phys.org/news174745964.html Nanotechnology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:33:58 EST news174745964 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have investigated the purest graphene to date, and have found that the material possesses unprecedented high electronic quality. The discovery has raised the bar for this relatively new material, and challenges scientists to find out just how perfect graphene can be. http://phys.org/news174654627.html Nanotechnology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:11:02 EST news174654627 Researchers of Eindhoven University of Technology and the Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands show for the first time why ordinary graphite is a permanent magnet at room temperature. The results are promising for new applications in nanotechnology, such as sensors and detectors. In particular graphite could be a promising candidate for a biosensor material. The results will appear online on 4 October in Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news173881546.html Nanotechnology Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:26:35 EST news173881546 Mercury pollution is a persistent problem in the environment. Human activity has lead to increasingly large accumulations of the toxic chemical, especially in waterways, where fish and shellfish tend to act as sponges for the heavy metal. http://phys.org/news173616421.html Chemistry Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:49:31 EST news173616421 (PhysOrg.com) -- New work by chemists at UC Davis shows that ethylene, a gas that is important both as a hormone that controls fruit ripening and as a raw material in industrial chemistry, can bind reversibly to tin atoms. The research, published Sept. 25 in the journal Science, could have implications for understanding catalytic processes. http://phys.org/news173464165.html Chemistry Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:29:46 EST news173464165 (PhysOrg.com) -- A sensitive new Stanford-developed disposable chip detects low concentrations of the explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT) and a close chemical cousin of the dreaded toxic nerve agent sarin in water samples. The research appears online this week in the journal ACS Nano. http://phys.org/news173035243.html Nanotechnology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:10:01 EST news173035243 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biomedical researchers suspect graphene, a novel nanomaterial made of sheets of single carbon atoms, would be useful in a variety of applications. But no one had studied the interaction between graphene and DNA, the building block of all living things. To learn more, PNNL's Zhiwen Tang, Yuehe Lin and colleagues from both PNNL and Princeton University built nanostructures of graphene and DNA. http://phys.org/news172896200.html Nanotechnology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:43:56 EST news172896200 (PhysOrg.com) -- Diamonds, it has long been said, are a girl's best friend. But a research team including a physicist from the National Institute of Standards and Technology has recently found that the gems might turn out to be a patient's best friend as well. http://phys.org/news172862154.html Physics Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:16:51 EST news172862154