Over the past decade, teams of engineers, chemists and biologists have analyzed the physical and chemical properties of cicada wings, hoping to unlock the secret of their ability to kill microbes on contact. If this function ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 18, 2023
0
1372
Compact and lightweight metasurfaces—which use specifically designed and patterned nanostructures on a flat surface to focus, shape and control light—are a promising technology for wearable applications, especially virtual ...
Optics & Photonics
May 17, 2022
0
196
As robotic devices such as artificial prosthetics and human-computer interfaces are increasingly integrated into society, researchers have been looking more deeply into the sensitivity of the devices that serve the same function ...
Nanomaterials
Dec 3, 2021
0
87
By shining white light on a glass slide stippled with millions of tiny titanium dioxide pillars, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have reproduced with astonishing ...
Nanophysics
Sep 4, 2020
1
369
Biological structures sometimes have unique features that engineers would like to copy. For example, many types of insect wings shed water, kill microbes, reflect light in unusual ways and are self-cleaning. While researchers ...
Materials Science
Apr 14, 2020
0
223
Some insect wings such as cicada and dragonfly possess nanopillar structures that kill bacteria upon contact. However, to date, the precise mechanisms that cause bacterial death have been unknown.
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 6, 2020
1
32
Light and electricity dance a complicated tango in devices like LEDs, solar cells and sensors. A new anti-reflection coating developed by engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, in collaboration with ...
Nanophysics
Dec 9, 2015
0
14
An outline of Marilyn Monroe's iconic face appeared on the clear, plastic film when a researcher fogs it with her breath.
Materials Science
Aug 6, 2014
0
0
Silicon is readily available, easy to process, highly stable and non-toxic. It is also one of the best materials for making solar cells. The high quality and purity of silicon needed for fabricating the most efficient silicon-based ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 5, 2011
5
0
By turning a common problem in chip manufacture into an advantage, MIT researchers produce structures only 30 atoms wide.
Nanophysics
Sep 1, 2011
3
0
