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. Many devices used in everyday life—whether they be televisions, mobile phones or barcode scanners—are based on the manipulation of electric currents and light. At the micro- and nano-scales, however, it is typically challenging to integrate electronic components with photonic components. At these small dimensions, the wavelengths of light become long relative to the size of the device. Consequently, the light waves are barely detectable by the device, just as passing waves simply roll past thin poles in a water body. http://phys.org/news284885298.html Physics Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:00:02 EST news284885298 Modern medicine is largely based on treating patients with "small-molecule" drugs, which include pain relievers like aspirin and antibiotics such as penicillin. http://phys.org/news282208455.html Nanotechnology Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:14:28 EST news282208455 An assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering has recently received a $360,000 grant to better organize enzymes on electrodes to create nanoscale devices that more efficiently convert the chemical energy of sugars and complex carbohydrates in to electricity. http://phys.org/news281890461.html Chemistry Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:54:26 EST news281890461 The first experimental observation of a quantum mechanical phenomenon that was predicted nearly 70 years ago holds important implications for the future of graphene-based electronic devices. Working with microscopic artificial atomic nuclei fabricated on graphene, a collaboration of researchers led by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have imaged the "atomic collapse" states theorized to occur around super-large atomic nuclei. http://phys.org/news281885466.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:00:12 EST news281885466 (Phys.org)—It's relatively simple to build a device capable of detecting wireless signals if you don't mind making one that consumes lots of power. It's not so easy to design energy-efficient devices that function as well as the components they replace, or to do it at the nano scale. http://phys.org/news279480259.html Technology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:24:33 EST news279480259 A UT Arlington software engineer is refining a computer testing tool that reduces the amount of time and expense companies must spend to determine whether a new program works. http://phys.org/news279478330.html Technology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:52:20 EST news279478330 (Phys.org)—An international team of scientists has taken the next step in creating nanoscale machines by designing a multi-component molecular motor that can be moved clockwise and counterclockwise. http://phys.org/news277039446.html Nanotechnology Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:24:23 EST news277039446 By taking a "bottom-up" approach, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have observed for the first time that "size does matter" in regards "pyroelectricity"—the current/voltage developed in response to temperature fluctuations that enables technologies such as infrared sensors, night-vision, and energy conversion units, to name a few. http://phys.org/news276883005.html Nanotechnology Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:01:58 EST news276883005 (Phys.org)—Quantum scale photosynthesis in biological systems which inhabit extreme environments could hold key to new designs for solar energy and nanoscale devices. Certain biological systems living in low light environments have unique protein structures for photosynthesis that use quantum dynamics to convert 100% of absorbed light into electrical charge, displaying astonishing efficiency that could lead to new understanding of renewable solar energy, suggests research published today in the journal Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news276763164.html Physics Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:39:35 EST news276763164 The fabrication of many objects, machines, and devices around us rely on the controlled deformation of metals by industrial processes such as bending, shearing, and stamping. Is this technology transferrable to nanoscale? Can we build similarly complex devices and machines with very small dimensions? http://phys.org/news269853705.html Nanotechnology Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:50:02 EST news269853705 Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a method for building complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands of DNA. Called single-stranded tiles (SSTs), these interlocking DNA "building blocks," akin to Legos, can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters and emoticons. Further development of the technology could enable the creation of new nanoscale devices, such as those that deliver drugs directly to disease sites. http://phys.org/news257590618.html Nanotechnology Wed, 30 May 2012 13:00:04 EST news257590618 Using Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) expertise in the design and fabrication of micro- and nanoscale devices, a new strategy for engineering low-frequency noise oscillators capitalizes on the intrinsic nonlinear phenomena of micro- and nanomechanical resonators. A fundamental limitation of such resonators was addressed by a team of researchers from the Nanofabrication & Devices Group working with CNICT, Argentina. http://phys.org/news257412971.html Nanotechnology Mon, 28 May 2012 08:50:10 EST news257412971 (Phys.org) -- Researchers sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) announced that they have successfully created contact hole patterns for a wide variety of practical logic and memory devices using a next-generation directed self-assembly (DSA) process. Applying a relatively simple combination of chemical and thermal processes to create their DSA method for making circuits at 22 nanometers (nm), the research team at Stanford University projects that the nanofabrication technique will enable pattern etching for next-generation chips down to 14nm. http://phys.org/news257077565.html Technology Thu, 24 May 2012 11:27:18 EST news257077565 Trial-and-error experimentation underlies many biomedical innovations. This classic method -- define a problem, test a proposed solution, learn from failure and try again -- is the main route by which scientists discover new biomaterials and drugs today. This approach is also used to design ways of manufacturing these new materials, but the process is immensely time-consuming, producing a successful therapeutic product and its manufacturing process only after years of experiments, at considerable expense. http://phys.org/news248510776.html Other Sciences Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:30:01 EST news248510776 Expanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches. The findings, published in the January 22 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are expected to lead to further developments in the field of nanoengineering. http://phys.org/news246459452.html Nanotechnology Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:00:12 EST news246459452 (PhysOrg.com) -- The development of polymer nanostructures and nanoscale devices for a wide variety of applications could emerge from new information about the interplay between nanoscale interfaces in polymeric materials, thanks to research carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. http://phys.org/news245322343.html Nanotechnology Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:40:04 EST news245322343 By turning a common problem in chip manufacture into an advantage, MIT researchers produce structures only 30 atoms wide. http://phys.org/news234077185.html Nanotechnology Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:27:00 EST news234077185 In typical plasmonic devices, electromagnetic waves crowd into tiny metal structures, concentrating energy into nanoscale dimensions. Due to coupling of electronics and photonics in these metal nanostructures, plasmonic devices could be harnessed for high-speed data transmission or ultrafast detector arrays. However, studying plasmonic fields in nanoscale devices presents a real roadblock for scientists, as examining these structures inherently alters their behavior. http://phys.org/news215978567.html Nanotechnology Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:03:22 EST news215978567 (PhysOrg.com) -- Northwestern University researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly prototyping nanoscale devices and structures that is so inexpensive the "print head" can be thrown away when done. http://phys.org/news215270614.html Nanotechnology Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:24:31 EST news215270614 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers in Sweden have been liquidizing thousands of specimens of a common North American jellyfish to extract a protein that could be used in microscopic fuel cells. http://phys.org/news205650704.html Chemistry Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:50:01 EST news205650704 Physicists in the United States and Germany have discovered a way to use a gallium arsenide nanodevice as a signal processor at "terahertz" speeds, the first time it's been used for this purpose and an important step forward in the new world of optical communication and computing. http://phys.org/news198770161.html Physics Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:56:17 EST news198770161 Imagine creating novel devices with amazing and exotic optical properties not found in Nature -- by simply evaporating a droplet of particles on a surface. http://phys.org/news194258764.html Nanotechnology Fri, 28 May 2010 09:46:34 EST news194258764 Scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor, a sheet of four pairs of molecules less than one nanometer wide. The Ohio University-led study, published Sunday as an advance online publication in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, provides the first evidence that nanoscale molecular superconducting wires can be fabricated, which could be used for nanoscale electronic devices and energy applications. http://phys.org/news189082990.html Nanotechnology Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:03:32 EST news189082990 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a team of university and industry researchers tried a novel, foundry-style mold-filling technique to make nanoscale devices, they realized they had discovered a gem. http://phys.org/news186916551.html Nanotechnology Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:17:16 EST news186916551 A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, like those seen in pencil marks -- offers great potential for new types of nanoscale devices, if a good way can be found to mold the material into desired shapes. http://phys.org/news180256587.html Nanotechnology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:18:00 EST news180256587 (PhysOrg.com) -- By modifying a commonly used commercial infrared spectrometer to allow operation at long-wave terahertz frequencies, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology discovered an efficient new approach to measure key structural properties of nanoscale metal-oxide films used in high-speed integrated circuits. Their technique, described in a recent paper,* could become an important quality-control tool to help monitor semiconductor manufacturing processes and evaluate new insulating materials. http://phys.org/news160839248.html Physics Wed, 06 May 2009 14:35:33 EST news160839248 As electronic circuits shrink from finely etched lines in silicon wafers to nearly elusive proportions, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Columbia University are studying how electrons flow through a molecular junction—a nanometer scale circuit element that contacts gold atoms with a single molecule. Their findings reveal the electrical resistance through this junction can be turned 'on' and 'off' simply by pushing and pulling the junction—a feature that could be used as a switch in nanoscale electronic devices. http://phys.org/news155309783.html Nanotechnology Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:36:54 EST news155309783