Tiny biomolecular chambers called nanopores that can be selectively heated may help doctors diagnose disease more effectively, according to a new research.

Researchers have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool a much larger object to extremely low temperatures. What’s more, the prototype refrigerator, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, enables researchers to place any suitable object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator.

Scientists have built a practical, high-efficiency nanostructured electron source. This new, patent-pending technology could lead to improved microwave communications and radar, and more notably to new and improved X-ray imaging systems for security and healthcare applications.

A new technique could lead to significantly more efficient solar cells. Quantum dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power — however these devices are not yet highly efficient in the infrared portion of the sun’s spectrum, which is responsible for half of the sun’s power that reaches Earth. The solution? Spectrally tuned, solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticles. These particles, researchers say, provide unprecedented control over light’s propagation and absorption.

Using cutting-edge X-ray techniques, researchers have uncovered cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears repetitive stress over time, visualizing damage at smaller scales than previously observed. Their work could offer clues into how bone fractures could be prevented.

In a step toward understanding and exploiting an exotic form of matter that has been sparking excitement for potential applications in a new genre of supercomputers, scientists are reporting the first identification of a naturally occurring “topological insulator.”

Scientists have solved an almost century-old problem that could further help downscale the size of electronic devices. The work focused on the low-frequency electronic 1/f noise, also known as pink noise and flicker noise. It is a signal or process with a power spectral density inversely proportional to the frequency. It was first discovered in vacuum tubes in 1925 and since then it has been found everywhere from fluctuations of the intensity in music recordings to human heart rates and electrical currents in materials and devices.

Inspired by patents from the 1960s audio cassette recording industry, chemists now developed a new Fischer-Tropsch catalyst. It can be used for the making of synthetic fuels from natural gas and biomass.

The new electron beam writer housed in the Nano3 cleanroom facility at the Qualcomm Institute is important for electrical engineering professor Shadi Dayeh’s two major areas of research. He is developing next-generation, nanoscale transistors for integrated electronics; and he is developing neural probes that have the capacity to extract electrical signals from individual brain cells and transmit the information to a prosthetic device or computer.

Researchers have measured for the first time light emitted by photoluminescence from a nanodiamond levitating in free space.