News tagged with optical tweezers

We need to talk: How cells communicate to activate notch

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Light touch keeps a grip on delicate nanoparticles

(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 ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tailored optical material from DNA: Nano spiral staircases modify light

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 ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Optical nanoantennas enable efficient multipurpose particle manipulation

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 ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Manipulating single molecules to unravel secrets of protein folding

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 ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 27, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Next-generation' optical tweezers trap tightly without overheating (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers at Harvard have created a device that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses.

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Previously unaccounted mechanism proposed for cell phone radiation damage

(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 Laborato ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 29, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 24 | with audio podcast report

Want to silence a gene? Pull here

(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.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Optical tweezers software now available for the iPad

Optics researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Bristol have developed an iPad application for accurate, easy and intuitive use of optical tweezers.

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 04, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Dynamic systems in living cells break the rules

There is considerable interest in understanding transport and information pathways in living cells. It is crucial for both the transport of, for example, medicine into cells, the regulation of cell life processes ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 9

Controlled heating of gold nanoparticles

Tiny gold particles are good for transferring heat and could be a promising tool for creating localized heating in, for example, a living cell. In new experiments, German researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jan 17, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists isolate, hold, photograph individual Rubidium 85 atom

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a major physics breakthrough, University of Otago scientists have developed a technique to consistently isolate and capture a fast-moving neutral atom - and have also seen and photographed ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 01, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (44) | comments 26 | with audio podcast

Tractor beams come to life

Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 08, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (47) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

A pinch of light: Laser 'tweezers' for medicine, communications and harvesting energy

Star Trek fans will remember "tractor beams," lasers that allowed the Starship Enterprise to trap and move objects. Tel Aviv University is now turning this science fiction into science fact -- on a nano scale.

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 06, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Intracellular express -- why transport protein molecules have brakes

Every single one of our cells contains so-called motor proteins that transport important substances from one location to another. However, very little is known about how exactly these transport processes occur. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 21, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast