Nanotechnology is intimately intertwined with efforts to bring bottom-up synthetic cell research to the forefront, and only strengthening these bonds will expand the scope of what this might achieve.
A revolutionary nanomaterial with huge potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute risk to human health, research suggests. A revolutionary nanomaterial with huge potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute ri.
An innovative new chip uses light for fast, efficient AI computations, promising a leap in processing speeds and privacy.
Penn Engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves, rather than electricity, to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption.
The silicon-photonic (SiPh) chip’s design is the first to bring together Benjamin Franklin Medal Laureate and H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor Nader Engheta’s pioneering research in manipulating materials at the nanoscale to perform mathematical computations using light — the fastest possible means of communication — with the SiPh platform, which uses silicon, the cheap, abundant element used to mass-produce computer chips.
The study revealed that the use of graphene oxide had no adverse effects on lung function, blood pressure, or the majority of other biological parameters under scrutiny.
The findings of the study promise to advance our grasp of graphene’s health effects, facilitating safer incorporation into industries, notably medicine.
Researchers from RMIT University are using nanodiamonds to create smart textiles that can cool people down faster. Their study, published in the journal Polymers for Advanced Technologies, found fabric made from cotton coated with nanodiamonds, using a method called electrospinning, showed a reduction of 2–3°C during the cooling down process compared to untreated cotton.
They do this by drawing out body heat and releasing it from the fabric—a result of the incredible thermal conductivity of nanodiamonds.
Project lead and Senior Lecturer, Dr. Shadi Houshyar, said there was a big opportunity to use these insights to create new textiles for sportswear and even personal protective clothing, such as underlayers to keep fire fighters cool. The study also found nanodiamonds increased the UV protection of cotton, making it ideal for outdoor summer clothing.
Metasurfaces that use light to control currents at the nanoscale could enable ultrafast microelectronics and information science.
Chirality fundamentally determines the electrical properties of CNTs and is therefore critical for the performance of CNT electronics. This Review summarizes approaches in controlling the global chirality distribution and local chirality junctions and discusses the progress in CNT electronics.
University of Pennsylvania engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves, rather than electricity, to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption.
The silicon-photonic (SiPh) chip’s design is the first to bring together Benjamin Franklin Medal Laureate and H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor Nader Engheta’s pioneering research in manipulating materials at the nanoscale to perform mathematical computations using light—the fastest possible means of communication—with the SiPh platform, which uses silicon, the cheap, abundant element used to mass-produce computer chips.
The interaction of light waves with matter represents one possible avenue for developing computers that supersede the limitations of today’s chips, which are essentially based on the same principles as chips from the earliest days of the computing revolution in the 1960s.
A revolutionary nanomaterial with huge potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute risk to human health, research suggests. The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Carefully controlled inhalation of a specific type of graphene—the world’s thinnest, super strong and super flexible material —has no short-term adverse effects on lung or cardiovascular function, the study shows. The first controlled exposure clinical trial in people was carried out using thin, ultra-pure graphene oxide—a water-compatible form of the material.
Researchers say further work is needed to find out whether higher doses of this graphene oxide material or other forms of graphene would have a different effect. The team is also keen to establish whether longer exposure to the material, which is thousands of times thinner than a human hair, would carry additional health risks.
A tiny robot with a clutch that mimics similar mechanisms found in microorganisms could be used to trigger the internal workings of a cell.
By Alex Wilkins
