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Latest
News
News posted in 2005
| November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January |
News posted in 2004
| December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January |
News posted in 2003
| December | November
| October
| September
| August
| July |
June | May | April
| March
| February
| January
|
News posted in 2002
| December
| November
| October
| September
| August |
Earlier
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Superconductors: Wave goodbye to the "Stripes"
theory? (from inScight)
Researchers suggest "stripes" in superconductors
might be a subtle effect of overlapping quantum waves of electric
charge. (7.26.02)
- Bose-Einstein Condensates: An ultra-low density liquid (from AIP
Physics News Update)
- An ultra low-density liquid,
some 1013 times thinner than water, might form inside
Bose-Einstein condensates under the action of the "Efimov
effect". (7.26.02)
-
- MEMS: Nuclear powered MEMS (from Nature Materials)
- A speck of radioactive material
can act as a nuclear power source for a MEMS device acting as
a mechanical actuator or a sensor. Such a device could run unaided
for a hundred years or more, much longer than possible with a
regular battery source. (7.26.02)
-
- Biomaterials: Implants fight back (from Nature)
- New coatings that are hydrophilic
or anionic could help medical implants, such as hip replacements,
repel immune attack, thereby extending life of the implants.
(7.26.02)
-
- Hard Materials: Tough competition (from Nature)
- Hard Materials: Harder than nails (from Nature Materials)
- Boron suboxide could replace
cubic boron nitride as the second hardest material. (7.26.02)
-
- Archealogy: A tale of two disciplines (from Nature
Materials)
- Archealogists use materials
science tools to quantitatively define and differentiate between
two different techniques used for decorating ceramics in the
16th century during the Italian renaissance. (7.26.02)
-
- Catalysis: An emission catalyst that goes on cycling
(from ChemWeb)
- Research indicates that the
catalytic activity of a palladiumperovskite catalyst does
not deteriorate and its high precious metal dispersion is retained
during long-term use and aging. (7.22.02)
-
- Nanowires: Nanowires made easy (from ChemWeb)
- Simple synthetic method to
produce spontaneous self-assembled crystalline CdTe nanowires
from individual nanoparticles isreported. (7.22.02)
-
- Data Storage: Silicon atoms play a bit part (from PhysicsWeb)
- Scientists create memory
consisting of of self-organized gold wires that support silicon
atoms at regular distances. Each bit is encoded by the presence
or absence of a silicon atom inside a two-dimensional unit cell
of 5 x 4 atoms (7.19.02)
-
- Lasers:
Ultrashort pulses help gene therapy (from PhysicsWeb)
- Researchers use a femtosecond
Ti:sapphire laser to pierce a cell membrane and inject DNA through
the resulting hole - a process known as transfection. (7.19.02)
-
- Semiconductors: Holistic microelectronics (from Nature)
- Using electron holography
to obtain two-dimensional images of the electrostatic potential
in microelectronic devices, thereby obtaining direct quantitative
information on dopant diffusion in semiconductors. (7.19.02)
-
- Atomistic Mechanisms: Crunching defects (from Nature)
- A single mathematical expression
governing structural stability within a crystal structure is
derived. A simple criterion for defect nucleation or incipient
plasticity is now available. (7.19.02)
-
- MEMS: Pushing the second law to its limit
(from AIP
Physics News Update)
- Experiments reveal that microscopic
systems such as nano-machines, might spontaneously become more
orderly for short periods of time. This would be tantamount to
violating the second law of thermodynamics, if it happened in
a larger system. (7.19.02)
-
- Nanotubes: It Slices! It Dices! Nanotube Struts
Its Stuff (From The
New York Times)
- Popular press article about
nanotubes. (7.16.02)
-
- Single-Molecule
Transistor: Electron
spin controls transistor made from artificial atom (from Nature)
- New spintronic transistor
created using a quantum dot. (7.11.02)
-
- Hybrid Semiconductor
Devices: Organic-Inorganic
semiconductor devices - marriage of convenience (from Nature)
- Hybrid organic/inorganic
photovoltaic device created whose properties can be tuned to
maximize its response to incident light. (7.11.02)
-
- Magnetite Nanoparticles: Controlled magnetite (from ChemWeb)
- IBM Researchers report a
simple organic-phase synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles with
control over particle size (diameters of 320 nm). (7.11.02)
-
- Carbon Nanotubes: Nanotube diagnostic x-rays (from AIP
Physics News Update)
- X-ray source created using
a room temperature array of carbon nanotubes. The device is smaller
and cooler than conventional sources, and yields a more focused
x-ray pulse. (7.11.02)
-
- Catalysis: Artificial leaves (from AIP Physics News Update)
- Study shows how artificial
CO2 fixation can be made more efficient. (7.11.02)
-
- White-Light Nanosource: Light beam from water droplets (from
Physical Review
Focus)
- Femtosecond laser pulses
stimulate white light emission from 30-micron-sized water droplets
by generating an intense plasma within each droplet. (7.11.02)
-
- Spinonics: Spinonics (from AIP Physics News Update)
- New term proposed to describe
the manipulation of special chargeless parcels of spin known
as "spinons" (also called "triplet excitons"
when the value of the spin equals 1). It is predicted that a
spin current could be created and propagated over long distances
in graphite and carbon nanotubes, both of which are semi-metals.
(7.8.02)
-
- Energy Conservation: Energy savings go through the roof (from PhysicsWeb)
- New building materials and
a holistic approach to architecture significantly reduce energy
consumption. (7.8.02)
-
- Silicon:
Crystalline silicon shapes up (from PhysicsWeb)
- Researchers idetify key role
of hydrogen in the phase transformation betweem amorphous and
crystalline Si. (7.8.02)
-
- Spintronics: Spintronics advance might bolster bits
(from inScight)
- Large ballistic magnetoresistance
effect (over 3000 %) observed when moving electrons through nanosized
clusters of magnetic atoms that bridge two magnetic wires. This
is significant for data storage. (7.8.02)
-
- Adhesives: Tunable glue (from Nature)
- 1-4-Polybutadiene synthetic
rubber is treated to create a smart glue that loses its adhesive
properties when heated in metal-polymer interfaces. (7.1.02)
-
- Biomembranes: Filter gives drugs a hand (from Nature)
- A filter made from a thin
sheet of aluminium oxide, punctured by a honeycomb of pores just
a few millionths of a millimetre across, with antibody molecules
attached to the walls of each pore, is used to separate enantiomers
(left and right handed versions) of drug molecules. (7.1.02)
-
- Spintronics: Nanospintronics: A single-spin transistor
(from AIP
Physics News Update)
- Canadian scientists create
a prototype of a single-spin transistor consisting of a quantum
dot connected to spin-polarized leads. (7.1.02)
-
- Carbon Nanotubes: Splitting up Cooper pairs (from Physical Review Focus)
- A proposal to separate entangled
pairs (such as Cooper pairs of electrons in superconductors)
using a matching pair of carbon nantotubes and a voltage drop.
(7.1.02)
-
- Design: Crunch time for materials design (from
Nature)
- Danish researchers use evolutionary
algorithm to calculate optimum new alloy structures, thereby
reducing the computational time required for such calculations.
(6.21.02)
-
- Optics: Optical pea shooter (from AIP Physics News Update)
- British researchers were
able to propel 5 micron polystyrene beads through a hollow fiber
using an argon laser beam. (6.21.02)
-
- Lubrication: Thin layer lubricants (from AIP Physics News Update)
- Investigation shows that
materials that expand when frozen retain their lubricating properties
down to monolayer thicknesses. This is crucial for microfluidics.
(6.20.02)
-
- Lithography: Laser lithography makes cheaper chips (from PhysicsWeb)
- Researchers were successfully
able to imprint patterns onto silicon using quartz molds and
a helium-neon laser as a possible alternative to conventional
photolithography. (6.20.02)
-
- Optics:
Silver foils the diffraction limit (from PhysicsWeb)
- Large amounts of light have
been shown to pass through a sub-wavelength aperture in a metal
film with a periodic pattern of grooves around it, without being
diffracted. (6.20.02)
-
- Wettability: Bouncing drops with no splash (from
inScight)
- Study shows roughed-up hydrophobic
surfaces become super-water repellant. This could lead to materials
that never get wet. (6.20.02)
-
- Nanotechnology: The perfect rake (from Physical Review Focus)
- A scanning force microscope
tip was used by Swiss researchers like a rake, scratching back
and forth on a potassium bromide surface with enough force to
dislodge atoms from the crystal. On rescanning the surface in
both scratched and unscratched areas, the scientists observed
periodic order in the material piled up on the sides of the trench.
Abrasion appears to happen almost atom by atom, with ions coming
off in pairs for this crystal. (5.24.02)
-
- Blue LEDs: Cheap blue (from Nature)
Researchers are able to grow GaN on Si wafers rather than
the more expensive sapphire or silicon carbide. The 2.8 µm-thick
diode structure was grown by using a low-temperature AlN:Si seed
layer and two low-temperature AlN:Si interlayers for stress reduction.
(5.24.02)
-
- Semiconductor Nano-Islands: Islands in the semiconductor scene
(from ChemWeb)
- Researchers induce SiGe nano-islands
by depositing thin layers of Ge atoms on a silicon substrate
to form well-distributed pyramidal or rounded islands, and by
varying substrate temperature and Ge layer thickness. (5.20.02)
-
- Ceramics: Ripening ceramics (from Nature)
- Researchers discover "dynamic
ripening" in silicon nitride wherein, within a narrow temperature
window, densification and phase transformation occur very rapidly,
unlike in traditional sintering. In addition subsequent reheating
beyond this range causes rapid grain growth, allowing for overall
control of grain size and mechanical properties. (5.20.02)
-
- LEDs:
Lights switch to organic LEDs (from PhysicsWeb)
- New organic LED device incorporating
layers of dyed polymers containing phosphor particles produces
consistent and stable white-light. (5.20.02)
-
- Solid Nitrogen: New rocket fuel? (from Nature)
- By creating a new form of
nitrogen N5+N5- ,
which would be a crystalline solid, researchers suggest that
one could create a very powerful rocket propellant that would
contain twice as much energy as an equivalent volume of hydrazine
which is currently used. (5.20.02)
-
- Ultasound Cleaning: Sound cleans up water purification
(from Nature)
- High energy bubbles generated
in water using ultrasound can effectively clean ceramic membrane
filters used in municipal water treatment facilities. (5. 20.02)
-
- Nematics:
Electrons come to order (from Physical Review Focus)
- Electrons placed between
two smooth GaAs crystals in a quantum Hall state showed a preferred
conductive direction. Theorists have now come up with specific
predictions including oscillatory vibration that could be experimentally
verified. (5.15.02)
-
- Diamond: Diamond grains waft among stars (from
inScight)
- Spectral analysis in ultraviolet
light suggests that nanometer sized diamond dust is present in
large clouds of dust in interstellar space. (5.15.02)
-
- Superconductors: Silver surface boosts superconductivity (from
PhysicsWeb)
- The transition temperature
of a superconducting lead film increased when it was coated with
silver, leading to a reverse "proximity effect". (5.6.02)
-
- Terahertz Lasers: Laser vision plugs gap (from Nature)
- GaAs and AlGaAs heterostructures-based
Terahertz lasers appear very promising for numerous applications.
(5.6.02)
-
- Superconductors: Cold comfort for Chip talk (from Nature)
- Networked superconductor
chips using Niobium created. (5.6.02)
-
- Biomaterials: Shape-shifting sutures (from inScight)
- New "smart" shape-memory
biodegradable polymer fiber developed that can can knot itself
when heated. (5.6.02)
-
- Single-Photon Tunnelling: Photons crowd each other out (from
Physical Review
Focus)
- Researchers are able to control
single photons using microscopic pinholes to regulate the passage
of single photons. (5.6.02)
-
- Negative Refractive Index Materials: Left handed materials debate heats
up (from Physical
Review Focus)
- Research groups dispute recent
reports of "left-handed" materials with negative refractive
index. (5.6.02)
-
- Organic LEDs: Molecular LEDs branch out (from Nature)
- Researchers make an efficient
orgnic LED using dendrimers, from a single active layer using
the cheap and easy method of spin-coating dendrimer solutions
onto a substrate. (4.23.02)
-
- Fuel Cells: Materials for fuel cell technologies
(from Nature)
- Overview of recent progress
and research in the development of new innovative fuel cell materials.
(4.23.02)
-
- Moly Nanoclusters: Nano the hedgehog (from ChemWeb)
- German chemists synthesize
a Molybdenum super structure, which is a Molybdenum oxide based
nanocluster with 368 Mo atoms and with a spiky profile. (4.22.02)
-
- Membranes: Paradoxical membranes (from inScight)
- Spiking a conventional polymer
membrane material with fumed silica, a fine-grained sand, yields
a membrane with wide-open holes that, paradoxically, appears
to allow large molecules through far more readily than smaller
ones. (4.22.02)
-
- Spintronics: Molecules take electronics for a spin
(from Nature)
- In a confluence of molecular
electronics and spintronics, researchers create a prototype spintronics
device called a spin valve in which electrical current passes
from one terminal to another via individual carbon based molecules.
The spin valve lets through electrons with one spin orientation
but blocks those with the opposite spin orientation (4.22.02)
-
- Photonic Fibers: Photonic fibers weave smart fabric (from PhysicsWeb)
- Poly ether sulfone fibers
coated with arsenic triselenide glass developed, that can be
woven into fabrics. (4.22.02)
-
- Osmium Compressibility: Osmium is stiffer than Diamond (from
Physical Review
Focus)
- In a diamond anvil, Osmium
yields a higher bulk modulus than diamond. This could pave the
path to superhard compounds. (4.16.02)
-
- Molecular Electronics: Molecular conductivity takes shape
(from Physical
Review Focus)
- German researchers show that
an aymmetrical molecule conducts differently depending upon which
direction the current flows (4.16.02)
-
- Imaging Macromolecules: Atomic Force Microscopy yields 3D protein
structure (from AIP Physics News Update)
New technique combines AFM, genome information,TEM and sphisticated
image processing to guess 3D protein structure (4.16.02)
-
- Metallic Hydrogen: Hydrogen metal on the horizon (from PhysicsWeb)
- Experimental evidence suggests
hydrogen becomes metallic at a pressure of 450 GPa. In addition,
it also becomes opaque. (4.16.02)
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