News tagged with tiny structures

Scientists Create Light-Bending Nanoparticles

(PhysOrg.com) -- Metallic nanoparticles and other structures can manipulate light in ways that are not possible with conventional optical materials. In a recent example of this, Rice University researchers ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 03, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (21) | comments 2 feature

New 3-D photonic crystal has both electronic, optical properties

In an advance that could open new avenues for solar cells, lasers, metamaterials and more, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated the first optoelectronically active 3-D photonic crystal.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jul 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (15) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Tiny generators turn waste heat into power

The second law of thermodynamics is a big hit with the beret-wearing college crowd because of its implicit existential crunch. The tendency of a closed systems to become increasingly disordered if no energy is added or removed ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Deep-sea rocks point to early oxygen on Earth

Red jasper cored from layers 3.46 billion years old suggests that not only did the oceans contain abundant oxygen then, but that the atmosphere was as oxygen rich as it is today, according to geologists.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 24, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 1

Safer nanoparticles spotlight tumors, deliver drugs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Small is promising when it comes to illuminating tiny tumors or precisely delivering drugs, but many worry about the safety of nano-scale materials. Now a team of scientists has created miniscule ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 22, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Beaming new light on life: From beetles to aircraft, nanoparticles aid microscope views

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Utah physicists and chemists developed a new method that uses a mirror of tiny silver "nanoparticles" so microscopes can reveal the internal structure of nearly opaque biological ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 05, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Synthetic nano-waste does not disappear

(Phys.org) -- Tiny particles of cerium oxide do not burn or change in the heat of a waste incineration plant. They remain intact on combustion residues or in the incineration system, as a new study by Swiss ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Creating nanostructures from the bottom up

Microscopic particles are being coaxed by Duke University engineers to assemble themselves into larger crystalline structures by the use of varying concentrations of microscopic particles and magnetic fields.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

3D-printer with nano-precision

Printing three dimensional objects with incredibly fine details is now possible using "two-photon lithography". With this technology, tiny structures on a nanometer scale can be fabricated. Researchers at ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (29) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

New microtweezers may build tiny 'MEMS' structures

Researchers have created new "microtweezers" capable of manipulating objects to build tiny structures, print coatings to make advanced sensors, and grab and position live stem cell spheres for research.

Technology / Engineering

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Trapping butterfly wings' qualities

Butterflies have inspired humans since the time of ancient Egypt, but now they're also inspiring researchers to look toward nature to help create the next generation of waterproof materials for electronics ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 04, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface

Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A faster, cheaper method for making transistors and chips

(PhysOrg.com) -- It may soon be possible manufacture the miniscule structures that make up transistors and silicon chips rapidly and inexpensively. Swiss scientists are currently investigating the use of dynamic ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Microspiders: Polymerization reaction drives micromotors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though it seems like science fiction, microscopic "factories" in which nanomachines produce tiny structures for miniaturized components or nanorobots that destroy tumor cells within the body ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team develops method for creating 3D photonic crystals

Dutch researchers at the University of Twente's MESA+ research institute, together with ASML, TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and TU/e (Eindhoven University of Technology) ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 5