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. A small piece of paper sticks to an electrically charged plastic ruler. The principle of this simple classroom physics experiment is applied at the microscopic scale by so-called optical tweezers to get the likes of polystyrene micro-beads and even living cells to "stick" to a laser beam, or to trap atoms at ultra-low temperatures. Physicist Fam Le Kien and his colleagues from the Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics of the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, provide a comprehensive manual with general theoretical tools, definitions, and spectroscopic data sets for calculating the energy levels of atoms, which are modified by light emanating from optical tweezers, in a study about to be published in European Physical Journal D. http://phys.org/news287228889.html Physics Wed, 08 May 2013 10:48:20 EST news287228889 (Phys.org)—Tiny molecular tweezers have a remarkable impact on bustling proteins: Three research groups from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), the Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society in Dortmund and the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim found that the molecular tweezers designed by Professor Frank Klärner at the UDE can be used to regulate protein - protein interactions by selectively trapping certain residues of the protein – and stick like a clothespin. The research groups of Thomas Schrader (UDE), Christian Ottmann (Chemical Genomics Centre) and Elsa Sanchez Garcia (MPI für Kohlenforschung) believe that this might be a promising approach for applications in medical research, as the water soluble tweezers act without inducing toxicity or explicit side effects. http://phys.org/news281085511.html Chemistry Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:30:03 EST news281085511 (Phys.org)—Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular scale, holds great promise for everything from incredibly fast computers to chemical sensors that can sniff out cancer cells. But how does one go about building a device made of parts that are one-billionth of a meter in size? http://phys.org/news277109002.html Nanotechnology Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:43:41 EST news277109002 The motor protein myosin-V, which hauls molecular cargoes around cells by ratcheting along filaments of actin, switches between two different molecular mechanisms of movement depending on the environment. This finding by a research group led by Toshio Yanagida of the RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center, Osaka, and Osaka University, could form the basis for designing energy-saving artificial nano-motors. http://phys.org/news275302603.html Biology Fri, 21 Dec 2012 09:00:13 EST news275302603 (Phys.org)—A microscale technique known as optical trapping uses beams of light as tweezers to hold and manipulate tiny particles. Stanford researchers have found a new way to trap particles smaller than 10 nanometers - and potentially down to just a few atoms in size – which until now have escaped light's grasp. http://phys.org/news273860695.html Nanotechnology Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:25:07 EST news273860695 (Phys.org)—Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland have devised a means of using a Microsoft Kinect sensing system to allow for hand control of holographic optical tweezers. They describe their results in a paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv. http://phys.org/news271331825.html Physics Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:57:28 EST news271331825 (Phys.org)—Theoretical physicists like to play with very unconventional toys. Manoel Manghi from Toulouse University in France and his colleagues have adopted a seemingly playful approach to examining what happens to a double stranded molecule of DNA when it is stretched to the breaking point, in a study about to be published in EPJ E. Instead of using optical tweezers to stretch DNA as previously done in experimental settings, the authors focused on using a theoretical model to account for the structural deformations of DNA and determine how its mechanical characteristics could explain certain biological processes. http://phys.org/news270383178.html Biology Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:27:36 EST news270383178 (Phys.org)—In a soundproofed, vibration-stabilized, temperature-controlled room, Stanford biophysicist Steven Block was watching a very small origami project. http://phys.org/news270108547.html Chemistry Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:20:06 EST news270108547 An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol and the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Sun Yat-sen and Fudan in China, have demonstrated integrated arrays of emitters of so call 'optical vortex beams' onto a silicon chip. The work is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Science magazine, published tomorrow. http://phys.org/news269781957.html Physics Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:00:09 EST news269781957 European scientists investigated the dynamic unfolding of DNA during replication by generating a tool that could subsequently be applied to screen helicase-targeting drugs for infection and oncologic applications. http://phys.org/news268556503.html Biology Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:20:02 EST news268556503 A technique that uses acoustic waves to sort cells on a chip may create miniature medical analytic devices that could make Star Trek's tricorder seem a bit bulky in comparison, according to a team of researchers. http://phys.org/news268415845.html Chemistry Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:58:32 EST news268415845 (Phys.org)—Using ultra-low input power densities, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated for the first time how low-power "optical nanotweezers" can be used to trap, manipulate, and probe nanoparticles, including fragile biological samples. http://phys.org/news267119600.html Physics Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:53:55 EST news267119600 (Phys.org)—Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico have succeeded in observing the interference of a single atom over a distance far greater than its coherence length using lasers and sequences of light pulses. As they describe in their paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, it's the first ever such direct observance and opens the door to offering evidence of the existence of non-Newtonian gravity at the micron scale. http://phys.org/news266563932.html Physics Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:50:01 EST news266563932 (Phys.org) -- University of Maryland Chemistry Professor John Fourkas and his research group have developed new materials and nanofabrication techniques for building miniaturized versions of components needed for medical diagnostics, sensors and other applications. These miniaturized components -- many impossible to make with conventional techniques -- would allow for rapid analysis at lower cost and with small sample volumes. http://phys.org/news261383264.html Nanotechnology Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:28:02 EST news261383264 A device about the size of a dime can manipulate living materials such as blood cells and entire small organisms, using sound waves, according to a team of bioengineers and biochemists from Penn State. http://phys.org/news260190332.html Physics Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:07:42 EST news260190332 By using sound waves to push and pull matter like science fiction tractor beams, scientists have developed "acoustic tweezers" that can manipulate blood cells and microscopic worms on a platform the size of a dime. http://phys.org/news259916243.html Physics Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:57:34 EST news259916243 (Phys.org) -- Laser beams can be made to form dark as well as bright intensity helices, or corkscrews of light. In a paper shortly to appear in Optics Express, Dr Ole Steuernagel, at the University of Hertfordshire's Science and Technology Research Institute, has now shown that forming dark helices can have considerable advantages over employing their commonly considered bright cousins. http://phys.org/news258699563.html Physics Tue, 12 Jun 2012 05:59:36 EST news258699563 During formation of multi-cellular organisms, cells need to talk to each other to make critical decisions as to what kind of cell to become, as well as when and where to become that cell type. The Notch signaling system allows cells to directly talk to each other to program almost every cell type in the body. http://phys.org/news257681828.html Biology Thu, 31 May 2012 12:00:09 EST news257681828 (Phys.org) -- Using a refined technique for trapping and manipulating nanoparticles, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have extended the trapped particles' useful life more than tenfold. This new approach, which one researcher likens to "attracting moths," promises to give experimenters the trapping time they need to build nanoscale structures and may open the way to working with nanoparticles inside biological cells without damaging the cells with intense laser light. http://phys.org/news255252755.html Nanotechnology Thu, 03 May 2012 08:40:02 EST news255252755 (Phys.org) -- While it is relatively straightforward to build a box on the macroscale, it is much more challenging at smaller micro- and nanometer length scales. At those sizes, three-dimensional (3-D) structures are too small to be assembled by any machine and they must be guided to assemble on their own. And now, interdisciplinary research by engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., and mathematicians at Brown University in Providence, R.I., has led to a breakthrough showing that higher order polyhedra can indeed fold up and assemble themselves. http://phys.org/news254473308.html Nanotechnology Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:40:01 EST news254473308 In the human body genetic information is encoded in double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid building blocks, the so-called DNA. Using artificial DNA molecules, an international team of scientists headed by the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich has produced nanostructured materials that can be used to modify visible light by specification. The researchers present their results in the current issue of the renowned scientific journal Nature. http://phys.org/news250952284.html Nanotechnology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:00:03 EST news250952284 University of Illinois researchers have shown that by tuning the properties of laser light illuminating arrays of metal nanoantennas, these nano-scale structures allow for dexterous optical tweezing as well as size-sorting of particles. http://phys.org/news245592339.html Physics Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:40:01 EST news245592339 (PhysOrg.com) -- Not to pick up electrons, but tweezers made of electrons. A recent paper by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Virginia (UVA) demonstrates that the beams produced by modern electron microscopes can be used not just to look at nanoscale objects, but to move them around, position them and perhaps even assemble them. http://phys.org/news240041503.html Physics Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:12:04 EST news240041503 Physicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are opening a new window into the life of biological cells, using a technique that lets them grab the ends of a single protein molecule and pull, making continuous, direct measurements as it unfolds and refolds. Their latest results, reported in the journal Science, reveal a complex network of intermediate structural and kinetic states along the way to functionally correct folded forms, including both express routes and dead ends. Better understanding of protein folding is essential because incorrectly folded proteins cause diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The experiments focused on the protein calmodulin, which is not implicated in these diseases but plays a role in many processes vital to cellular functions, and thus to human health. http://phys.org/news238940454.html Physics Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:00:16 EST news238940454 Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new and highly efficient way to characterize the structure of polymers at the nanoscale – effectively designing a routine analytical tool that could be used by industries that rely on polymer science to innovate new products, from drug delivery gels to renewable bio-materials. http://phys.org/news238227320.html Physics Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:15:31 EST news238227320 Using needle-thin solder, tweezers and a very steady hand, Anna Espinal peers through a microscope and attaches capacitors the size of large grains of sand to boards no bigger than a credit card. http://phys.org/news236933132.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:45:43 EST news236933132 (PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers at Harvard have created a device that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses. http://phys.org/news236249794.html Physics Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:20:01 EST news236249794 Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology. http://phys.org/news235212029.html Biology Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:40:51 EST news235212029 (PhysOrg.com) -- The long running debate on whether cell phones are capable of damaging human tissue and causing health problems received new fuel from a paper published at arXiv by theoretical biologist Bill Bruno from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. http://phys.org/news223304026.html Physics Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:40:01 EST news223304026 (PhysOrg.com) -- Simply stretching DNA can silence a gene, scientists at the UA have discovered. The finding could point to a previously unknown gene control mechanism. http://phys.org/news219926673.html Biology Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:44:48 EST news219926673