The atoms that make up metallic glasses lack the orderly lattice structure present in most other crystalline solids. Researchers have now shown that within randomly packed clusters of atoms, a fractal pattern emerges at the scale of two atomic diameters.

Researchers around the globe are on a quest for materials capable of capturing and storing greenhouse gases. This shared goal led researchers to team up to explore the feasibility of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes to trap and store two greenhouse gases in particular: carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

Physicists unveil a project known as Gecko Hamaker, a new computational and modeling software tool plus an open science database to aid those who design nano-scale materials.

Chemists have used DNA molecules to developed rapid, inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform. Their findings may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for quick medical diagnosis of various diseases ranging from cancer to allergies, autoimmune diseases, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and many others. The new technology may also drastically impact global health, due to its low cost and easiness of use, according to the research team. The rapid and easy-to-use diagnostic tests are made of DNA and use one of the simplest force in chemistry, steric effects – a repulsion force that arises when atoms are brought too close together – to detect a wide array of protein markers that are linked to various diseases.

Semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, are tiny, nanometer-sized particles with the ability to absorb light and re-emit it with well-defined colors. With low-cost fabrication, long-term stability and a wide palette of colors, they have become a building blocks of the display technology, improving the image quality of TV-sets, tablets, and mobile phones. Exciting quantum dot applications are also emerging in the fields of green energy, optical sensing, and bio-imaging.

Warm dense matter displays characteristics of all other physical states at the same time, in apparent contradiction. Scientists have now developed a new simulation technique which overcomes the inaccuracies of existing theoretical models in describing this state of matter.

Whether triggered by cats, bees, pollen or mites, allergies are on the rise. And the bad news doesn’t stop there. The only current therapy that treats their causes is allergen-specific immunotherapy — or allergy shots — which can cause severe side effects. Now, researchers report the development of a potentially better allergy shot that uses nanocarriers to address these unwanted issues.

A new article discusses how DNA molecules can be assembled into tailored and complex nanostructures, and further, how these structures can find uses in therapeutics and bionanotechnological applications. The researchers outline the superior properties of DNA nanostructures. Moreover, these DNA nanostructures provide new applications in molecular medicine, such as novel approaches in tackling cancer. Tailored DNA structures could find targeted cells and release their molecular payload selectively into the cells.

A detailed nano-mechanical study of mechanical degradation processes in silicon structures containing varying levels of lithium ions offers good news for researchers attempting to develop reliable next-generation rechargeable batteries using silicon-based electrodes.

With fossil-fuel sources dwindling, better biofuel cell design is a strong candidate in the energy field. In a new study, researchers and external collaborators synthesized and characterized a new DNA-templated gold nanocluster (AuNC) that could resolve a critical methodological barrier for efficient biofuel cell design.