#New way to store information uses ions to save data and electrons to read data Scientists from Kiel University
and the Ruhr Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed a new way to store information that uses ions to save data
and electrons to read data. This could enable the size of storage cells to be reduced to atomic dimensions.
But that is not the only advantage of the new technology, as the researchers reported in the journal Scientific Reports("A double barrier memristive device").
""Six plus seven makes three-plus one carried over",calculated Professor Hermann Kohlstedt, Head of the Nanoelectronic group at Kiel University.
Modern computers use this principle in practically Every bit (unit of measurement for the digital information content) and the almost unbelievable increase in performance over the last decade was based on a very simple rule:
faster processors and more storage space. Standard memory devices are based on electrons which are displaced by applying voltage.
The development of ever smaller and more energy-efficient storage devices according to this principle, however, is increasingly approaching its limits:
because there is not just one storage device in our computers, but several optimised ones, depending on the task."
"Moving data between individual storage devices has begun now to take a not inconsiderable amount of time. Put simply:
more is moved backwards and forwards than is calculated",said Kohlstedt. That is why industrial companies and research institutes around the world are working on a more efficient, universal storage device that combines the advantages of all storage devices and moves as little data as possible back and forth.
In order to do so, researchers want to move away from charge-based storage and towards the type
It consists of two metallic electrodes that are separated by a so-called solid ion conductor usually a transition metal oxide.
If a voltage is applied then, the ohmic resistance of the storage cell changes. This is caused by oxidation
and reduction processes on the electrodes, as well as ions within the layer between being displaced. The advantage is that cells that are constructed in this way are easy to produce
which was only a few nanometres (a millionth of a millimetre) thin to utilise quantum-mechanical effects for the flow through the storage cells."
"The tunnel effect enables us to move electrons through the ultra-thin layer with very little energy,
This way, ions can be used specifically for storing and electrons specifically for reading data. The researchers also reported that their research had another very interesting element.
The new resistance-based storage devices could even simulate brain structures. Rapid pattern recognition and a low energy consumption in connection with enormous parallel data processing would enable revolutionary computer architectures."
"This opens up a massive area for innovations in combination with terms like Industry 4. 0, in which autonomous robots work,
or cars which drive themselves and are out on our roads, "said Professor Hermann Kohlstedt and his colleague from Bochum,
Dr Thomas Mussenbrock to describe the research results. They are both working on developing artificial neural networks in the'FOR 2093'researcher group u
#Graphene-coated'e textile'detects noxious gases Scientists in Korea have developed wearable, graphene-coated fabrics that can detect dangerous gases present in the air,
alerting the wearer by turning on an LED light("Ultrasensitive and Highly Selective Graphene-Based Single Yarn for Use in Wearable Gas Sensor").
"The researchers, from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and Konkuk University in the Republic of korea, coated cotton and polyester yarn with a nanoglue called bovine serum albumin (BSA.
and is known for its excellent conductive properties of heat and electricity. The graphene sheets stuck very well to the nanoglueo much
a pollutant gas commonly found in vehicle exhaust that also results from fossil fuel combustion. Prolonged exposure to nitrogen dioxide can be dangerous to human health,
Exposure of these specially-treated fabrics to nitrogen dioxide led to a change in the electrical resistance of the reduced graphene oxide.
The fabrics were three times as sensitive to nitrogen dioxide in air compared to another reduced graphene oxide sensor previously prepared on a flat material.
and filter harmful gas from air. his sensor can bring a significant change to our daily life
since it was developed with flexible and widely used fibers, unlike the gas sensors invariably developed with the existing solid substrates,
says Dr. Hyung-Kun Lee, who led this research initiative
#Toward clearer, cheaper imaging of ultrafast phenomena Many mysteries of nature are locked up in the world of the very small and the very fast.
By setting up a detector and analyzing the wave interference pattern, scientists can determine information like the distance between atoms.
Conventional electron pulse technology uses a static magnetic field to compress the electrons transversely. However, the static field can interfere with the electron source and the sample and lead to temporal distortion of the electron pulses--both
To ensure that the electron pulse arrives at the sample or detector with the desired properties in spite of inter-electron repulsion
Conventional methods typically employ static-field elements such as solenoids, which are coils of wire that create uniform magnetic fields, to focus the electron beams.
The use of static field elements can lead to the undesirable presence of static magnetic fields on the electron source (cathode)
and the sample and can also cause temporal distortions when transporting ultrashort electron pulses. To solve these problems,
which in turn has a wide range of applications from biomedical imaging to airport security. The next step for the research team is to present a proof-of-concept experimental realization of this scheme e
#Researchers grow nanocircuitry with semiconducting graphene nanoribbons In a development that could revolutionize electronic ciruitry, a research team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW)
and the U s. Department of energy's Argonne National Laboratory has confirmed a new way to control the growth paths of graphene nanoribbons on the surface of a germainum crystal (Nature Communications,"Direct oriented growth of armchair graphene nanoribbons on germanium").
"Germanium is a semiconductor and this method provides a straightforward way to make semiconducting nanoscale circuits from graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick.
The method was discovered by UW scientists and confirmed in tests at Argonne.""Some researchers have wanted to make transistors out of carbon nanotubes
but the problem is that they grow in all sorts of directions, "said Brian Kiraly of Argonne."
"The innovation here is that you can grow these along circuit paths that works for your tech."
"UW researchers used chemical vapor deposition to grow graphene nanoribbons on germanium crystals. This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen and argon gases into a tube furnace.
it naturally forms nanoribbons with these very smooth, armchair edges,"said Michael Arnold, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison."
"The widths can be very, very narrow and the lengths of the ribbons can be very long,
This high mobility makes the material an ideal candidate for faster, more energy-efficient electronics. However, the semiconductor industry wants to make circuits start
and stop electrons at will via bandgaps, as they do in computer chips. As a semimetal, graphene naturally has no bandgaps,
making it a challenge for widespread industry adoption. Until now. To confirm these findings, UW researchers went to Argonne staff scientists Brian Kiraly and Nathan Guisinger at the Center for Nanoscale Materials,
a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Argonne.""We have some very unique capabilities here at the Center for Nanoscale Materials,
"said Guisinger.""Not only are designed our facilities to work with all different sorts of materials from metals to oxides,
we can also characterize, grow and synthesize materials.""Using scanning tunneling microscopy, a technique using electrons (instead of light
or the eyes) to see the characteristics of a sample, researchers confirmed the presence of graphene nanoribbons growing on the germanium.
Data gathered from the electron signatures allowed the researchers to create images of the material's dimensions and orientation.
In addition, they were able to determine its band structure and extent to which electrons scattered throughout the material."
"We're looking at fundamental physical properties to verify that it is, in fact, graphene and it shows some characteristic electronic properties,
"What's even more interesting is that these nanoribbons can be made to grow in certain directions on one side of the germanium crystal,
"For use in electronic devices, the semiconductor industry is interested primarily in three faces of a germanium crystal.
where single atoms connect to each other in a diamond-like grid structure, each face of a crystal (1, 1,
1) will have axes that differ from one (1, 1, 0) to the other (1, 0,
Scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical center designed a new delivery system for these drugs that,
when coupled with a drug developed at the University of Rochester School of medicine and Dentistry, rid immune cells of HIV and kept the virus in check for long periods.
The results appear in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. While current HIV treatments involve pills that are taken daily,
the new regimenslong-lasting effects suggest that HIV treatment could be administered perhaps once or twice per year.
and makes it into a crystal, like an ice cube does to water. Next, the crystal drug is placed into a fat and protein coat, similar to
thereby prolonging its therapeutic effect.""The chemical marriage between URMC-099 and antiretroviral drug nanoformulations could increase drug longevity,
improve patient compliance, and reduce general toxicities, said Gendelman, lead study author and professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at Nebraska,
who has collaborated with Gelbard for 24 years. e are excited about pursing this research for the treatment and eradication of HIV infections."
"The two therapies were tested together in laboratory experiments using human immune cells and in mice that were engineered to have a human immune system.
Gendelman and Gelbard believe that the nanoformulation technology helps keep the protease inhibitor in white blood cells longer
and that URMC-099 extends its lifespan even more. Gelbard, director of UR Center for Neural development and Disease, developed URMC-099 to treat HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders or HAND,
the memory loss and overall mental fog that affects half of all patients living with HIV.
as any patient prescribed URMC-099 would also be taking antiretroviral therapy. The goal was to determine
Much to Gelbard and Gendelman surprise, URMC-099 increased the effectiveness of the nanoformulated drug. ur ultimate hope is that wee able to create a therapy that could be given much less frequently than the daily therapy that is required today,
reduce side effects and help people manage the disease, because they won have to think about taking medication every day. a
#Super-slick material makes steel better, stronger, cleaner Steel is ubiquitous in our daily lives.
We cook in stainless steel skillets, ride steel subway cars over steel rails to our offices in steel-framed building.
Steel screws hold together broken bones, steel braces straighten crooked teeth, steel scalpels remove tumors.
Most of the goods we consume are delivered by ships and trucks mostly built of steel.
While various grades of steel have been developed over the past 50 years, steel surfaces have remained largely unchanged--and unimproved.
The steel of today is as prone as ever to the corrosive effects of water and salt and abrasive materials such as sand.
Steel surgical tools can still carry microorganisms that cause deadly infections. Now researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a way to make steel stronger, safer and more durable.
Their new surface coating, made from rough nanoporous tungsten oxide, is the most durable antifouling and anti-corrosive material to date,
capable of repelling any kind of liquid even after sustaining intense structural abuse. The new material joins the portfolio of other nonstick,
antifouling materials developed in the lab of Joanna Aizenberg, the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials science and core faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard university.
Aizenberg's team developed Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces in 2011 and since then has demonstrated a broad range of applications for the super-slick coating, known as SLIPS.
The new SLIPS-enhanced steel is described in Nature Communications("Extremely durable biofouling-resistant metallic surfaces based on electrodeposited nanoporous tungstite films on steel"."
""Our slippery steel is orders of magnitude more durable than any antifouling material that has been developed before,
"said Aizenberg.""So far, these two concepts-mechanical durability and antifouling-were at odds with each other.
We need surfaces to be textured and porous to impart fouling resistance but rough nanostructured coatings are intrinsically weaker than their bulk analogs.
This research shows that careful surface engineering allows the design of a material capable of performing multiple, even conflicting, functions, without performance degradation."
and avenues for commercialization, including non-fouling medical tools and devices, such as implants and scalpels, nozzles for 3d printing and, potentially, larger-scale applications for buildings and marine vessels.
The biggest challenge in the development of this surface was to figure out how to structure steel to ensure its antifouling capability without mechanical degradation.
The team solved this by using an electrochemical technique to grow an ultrathin film of hundreds of thousands of small and rough tungsten-oxide islands directly onto a steel surface."
"Electrochemical deposition is already a widely used technique in steel manufacturing, said Aizenberg.""I don't want to create another line that would cost millions
and millions of dollars and that no one would adopt, "Aizenberg said. The goal, she said,
The team tested the material by scratching it with stainless steel tweezers, screwdrivers, diamond-tipped scribers,
biological fluids containing bacteria and blood. Not only did the material repel all the liquid and show anti-biofouling behavior but the tungsten oxide actually made the steel stronger than steel without the coating.
Medical steel devices are one of the material's most promising applications, said Philseok Kim,
co-author of the paper and cofounder and vice president of technology AT SEAS spin-off SLIPS Technologies Inc."Because we show that this material successfully repels bacteria and blood, small medical implants,
tools and surgical instruments like scalpels and needles that require both significant mechanical strength and antifouling property are high value-added products we are exploring for application
and commercialization,"said Kim. Another avenue for application is functional 3d printing and microarray devices, especially in printing highly viscous and sticky biological and polymeric materials where friction and contamination are major obstacles.
U s. Navy spends tens of millions of dollars each year dealing with the ramifications of biofouling on hulls.
Organisms such as barnacles and algae create drag and increased energy expenditure, not to mention the costs of cleaning
and reapplying current antifouling paints, most of which are harmful to the environment. If scaled-up, this material could provide a cleaner, more cost-efficient alternative."
"This research is an example of hard core, classic material science,"said Aizenberg.""We took a material that changed the world
and asked, how can we make it better
#Solving 80-year-old mystery, chemist discovers way to isolate single-crystal ice surfaces A Tufts University chemist has discovered a way to select specific surfaces of single-crystal ice for study,
a long-sought breakthrough that could help researchers answer essential questions about climate and the environment.
The discovery is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition,
which pollutants attach themselves to ice crystals, and why no two snowflakes are alike.""Ice crystals are ubiquitous
and could hold the answer to some very important, fundamental questions about our environment, but until now we haven't had the tools to reliably reproduce ice crystal faces in a lab for study,
"said Mary jane Shultz, Ph d.,professor of chemistry in the School of arts and Sciences at Tufts University."
"This new process will open the door to areas of research that have been closed to us previously."
which pollutants attach themselves to ice crystals and why no two snowflakes are said alike Shultz, principal investigator of the Laboratory for Water and Surface Analysis. Those answers could have implications for important issues such as seeding rain clouds and protecting the environment.
Scientists have been pursuing a reliable way to prepare ice crystal surfaces in the laboratory since at least the 1930s, according to Shultz,
and she began trying more than 15 years ago.""I thought I'd grow a piece of ice
and challenging to work with. Previous methods of growing and preparing crystals were not reliable
and yielded results that were not reproducible.""These limitations hindered scientists'ability to examine the molecular-level structure and dynamics of ice.
That has left gaps in our understanding of the important role that ice plays in the environment,
Shultz credits her most recent breakthrough to simple geometry and trigonometry. The most common type of ice
called Ih or"ice one h,"is made up of water molecules in a hexagonal crystal shape in an orderly,
she could determine the crystal's lattice orientation as it relates to a surface and use that orientation to make precise cuts of any of the crystal's faces.
The ability to select a desired face is important because it allows researchers to examine molecular-level dynamics
and structure and the way in which other molecules bind to the specific faces of the crystal,
University of Wisconsin-Madison electrical engineers have created the fastest, most responsive flexible silicon phototransistor ever made.
night-vision goggles and smoke detectors to surveillance systems and satellites--that rely on electronic light sensors. Integrated into a digital camera lens, for example, it could reduce bulkiness and boost both the acquisition speed and quality of video or still photos.
Developed by UW-Madison collaborators Zhenqiang"Jack"Ma, professor of electrical and computer engineering and research scientist Jung-Hun Seo, the high-performance phototransistor far and away exceeds all previous flexible phototransistor parameters,
and 0s that create the digital image. While many phototransistors are fabricated on rigid surfaces, and therefore are flat,
At that point, a reflective metal layer is on the bottom.""In this structure--unlike other photodetectors--light absorption in an ultrathin silicon layer can be much more efficient
The researchers also placed electrodes under the phototransistor's ultrathin silicon nanomembrane layer--and the metal layer and electrodes each act as reflectors
and improve light absorption without the need for an external amplifier.""There's a built-in capability to sense weak light,
whose work was supported by the U s. Air force.""It shows the capabilities of high-sensitivity photodetection and stable performance under bending conditions,
Scientists and engineers from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T), headquartered at the University of New south wales (UNSW),
and favoured by the trillion-dollar computing and microelectronics industry. Teams led by UNSW researchers have demonstrated already a unique fabrication strategy for realising atomic-scale devices
Quantum bits-or qubits-are the fundamental data components of quantum computers. One of the final hurdles to scaling up to an operational quantum computer is the architecture.
Now, the CQC2T collaboration, involving theoretical and experimental researchers from the University of Melbourne and UNSW, has designed such a device.
"says UNSW Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons, study co-author and Director of the CQC2T.""The great thing about this work,
and architecture, is that it gives us an endpoint. We now know exactly what we need to do in the international race to get there."
This qubit layer is sandwiched"in a three-dimensional architecture, between two layers of wires arranged in a grid.
"says University of Melbourne Professor Lloyd Hollenberg, Deputy Director of the CQC2T who led the work with colleague Dr Charles Hill."
"However, to scale up to a full operational quantum computer we need more than just many of these qubits-we need to be able to control
""In our work, we've developed a blueprint that is unique to our system of qubits in silicon,
They have modelled also the required voltages applied to the grid wires, needed to address individual qubits,
and make the processor work.""This architecture gives us the dense packing and parallel operation essential for scaling up the size of the quantum processor,"says Scientia Professor Sven Rogge, Head of the UNSW School of Physics."
"Ultimately, the structure is scalable to millions of qubits, required for a full-scale quantum processor."
"Background In classical computers, data is rendered as binary bits, which are always in one of two states:
0 or 1. However, a qubit can exist in both of these states at once, a condition known as a superposition.
A qubit operation exploits this quantum weirdness by allowing many computations to be performed in parallel (a two-qubit system performs the operation on 4 values, a three-qubit system on 8, and so on.
As a result, quantum computers will exceed far today's most powerful super computers, and offer enormous advantages for a range of complex problems,
such as rapidly scouring vast databases, modelling financial markets, optimising huge metropolitan transport networks, and modelling complex biological molecules s
#Buildings producing their own energy prepared for tomorrow's cities An innovative façade, able to turn solar energy into heat for residentsuse,
will be installed next year in a building in Merida, Spain. The complex insulation system has passed all the tests
and will prove its capabilities in real-life conditions The worldwide energy consumption of buildings is expected to grow by 45%from 2002 to 2025,
To reduce energy demand in old buildings across Europe, a consortium of researchers has designed an industrialised façade system for use in retrofitting works.
The system brings an imaginative technological solution that can be applied to different types of building
and façade orientations his system provides the tools for producing energy as well as insulating the building better:
two major issues of the coming years in Europe, explained Julen Larraz Astudillo, architect at the Sustainable Construction Division of the TECNALIA research centre, located in San sebastian, Spain.
The insulation technology is ready now for full-scale implementation in a real building in Merida, a city in the south of Spain.
which checked its fire, water, wind, impact, acoustic and permeability resistance. The fire test was the most demanding. e had many concerns about it,
due to the new composite materials the façade is made of (glass fibres and an organic binder) and to the complexity of the units.
A particular unit of the façade, called Advanced Passive solar Collector and Ventilation Unit, was required to pass special tests, like acoustic and permeability tests.
and the exterior sides of the building through holes made in the original façade of the construction. hese connections could weaken the sound insulation of the original façade
or could let the air pass into the building, affecting its heating quality, explains Julen Astudillo.
this means that the whole demonstration using such an innovative façade can be insured by insurance companies in the whole Spain,
for the future use on any other Spanish building, says Serge Galant, C e o. of Technofi,
He is defining an insurance policy for the field trial of the Meefs innovation in Spain. However, the system needs to meet cost effectiveness requirements in order to penetrate the competitive construction market. he full-scale demonstration of the Meefs façade technology fits in with a new business trend
already used by energy service companies (ESCOS), explains Galant. ESCOS are more often companies that belong to large energy utility groups.
They offer long-term contracts, of 20 years or more, where they cover the risk of a full refurbishment against the payment by the owners of a fixed yearly energy bill
which corresponds to the reduced energy needs of the refurbished buildings. The project researchers admit that their system is neither simple, nor cheap.
Yet Julen Astudillo is optimistic about the possibilities of the façade having a good return on investment.
Poorly insulated buildings from the 1950s to the 1990s are the focus of the European Meefs project.
It is developing innovative façades with integrated modular technologies to either cool ventilate or heat the building wrapped within o
#Researchers build nanoscale autonomous walking machine from DNA Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a nanoscale machine made of DNA that can randomly walk in any direction across bumpy surfaces.
Future applications of such a DNA walker might include a cancer detector that could roam the human body searching for cancerous cells
and tagging them for medical imaging or drug targeting. The study by researchers Cheulhee Jung, Peter B. Allen and Andrew Ellington, published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology("A stochastic DNA walker that traverses a microparticle surface),
"developed DNA machines that were able to walk, unprogrammed and in different directions, over a DNA-coated surface.
Previously, nanoparticle walkers were only able to walk on precise and programmed one-and two-dimensional paths.
This walker was able to move 36 steps, and its movement in a random fashion is different from movement seen in other studies."
"This is an important step forward in developing nanoscale nucleic acid machines that can autonomously act under a variety of conditions,
"said Ellington, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and member of the UT Center for Systems and Synthetic biology."
"DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY is especially interesting because it explores the world of'matter computers, 'where computations (including walking) are carried out by physical objects, rather than by electronic or magnetic shuttles.
DNA walkers may eventually allow protective cells to walk the surface of organs, constantly computing whether a cancer is present."
"More immediate practical applications may include deploying the DNA walker in the body so that it can amplify signals from cancer cells to make them more easily identified
and targeted by doctors. There also may be implications for future delivery of nanoscale therapeutics. Although it may be a long march from diagnosing cancer to curing it,
"All breakthroughs begin with baby steps. Only in this case, they are the steps of a DNA walker,
"said co-author Jung. The walker is made from a single piece of DNA with two legs connected by a torso.
Like a human it moves by putting one leg forward, then lifting the other leg
The study demonstrated that as the nanoscale machine walked, it did not go over the same area twice e
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