Breakthrough in the search for graphene-based electronics

For 15 years, scientists have tried to exploit the "miracle material" graphene to produce nanoscale electronics. On paper, graphene should be great for just that: it is ultra-thin—only one atom thick and therefore two-dimensional, ...

Twisting light to enable high-capacity data transmission

For the first time, researchers have used tiny gears made of germanium to generate a vortex of twisted light that turns around its axis of travel much like a corkscrew. Because germanium is compatible with the silicon used ...

Making intricate images with bacterial communities

Working with light and genetically engineered bacteria, researchers from Stanford University are able to shape the growth of bacterial communities. From polka dots to stripes to circuits, they can render intricate designs ...

Abright idea for on-demand nanopatterns

Focused electron beams can simultaneously synthesize optically active nanocrystals and pattern them into intricate surface arrays

Lighting the way to switch chemical reaction pathways

Could the manufacture of the integrated circuits and chips for our everyday electronic devices be made simpler, safer and cheaper simply by being able to switch coloured light on and off?

Magnets, all the way down!

In many ways, magnets are still mysterious. They get their (often powerful) effects from the microscopic interactions of individual electrons, and from the interplay between their collective behavior at different scales. ...

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