News Feature |
Featured
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Letter |
High-speed graphene transistors with a self-aligned nanowire gate
There is much interest in graphene for applications in ultrahigh-speed radio-frequency electronics, but conventional device fabrication processes lead to significant defects in graphene. Here a new way of fabricating high-speed graphene transistors is described. A nanowire with a metallic core and insulating shell is placed as the gate electrode on top of graphene, and source and drain electrodes are deposited through a self-alignment process, causing no appreciable damage to the graphene lattice.
- Lei Liao
- , Yung-Chen Lin
- & Xiangfeng Duan
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Research Highlights |
Nanobiotechnology: Tiny cell transistor
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Research Highlights |
Cancer therapeutics: Nano tumour killer
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Letter |
Nanoscale scanning probe ferromagnetic resonance imaging using localized modes
Advances in nanomagnetics research have brought powerful applications in magnetic sensing technology, but so far no high-resolution magnetic-imaging tool is available to characterize complex, often buried, nanoscale structures. These authors have developed a scanning probe technique in which the intense, confined magnetic field of a micromagnetic probe tip is used to localize the ferromagnetic resonance mode immediately beneath the probe, and demonstrate that they can image magnetic features at a resolution of 200 nm.
- Inhee Lee
- , Yuri Obukhov
- & P. Chris Hammel
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Letter |
Loss-free and active optical negative-index metamaterials
Metamaterials have the counterintuitive optical property of negative refraction index. They have a wide range of possible applications, including 'invisibility cloaks' and perfect lenses, but their performance is severely limited by absorption losses. These authors have incorporated an optical gain medium within a metamaterial as a way to compensate the intrinsic loss, and show that optical pumping leads to a significantly improved negative refraction index and figure of merit within the 722–738-nm visible wavelength range.
- Shumin Xiao
- , Vladimir P. Drachev
- & Vladimir M. Shalaev
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Letter |
Transmission of topological surface states through surface barriers
Topological surface states are a class of electronic states that might be of interest in quantum computing or spintronic applications. They are predicted to be robust against imperfections, but so far there has been no evidence that these states do transmit through naturally occurring surface defects. Here, scanning tunnelling microscopy has been used to show that topological surface states of antimony can be transmitted through naturally occurring barriers that block non-topological surface states of common metals.
- Jungpil Seo
- , Pedram Roushan
- & Ali Yazdani
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Research Highlights |
Nanoscience: Polymerization to order
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Photons make light work
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Letter |
Tailoring light–matter–spin interactions in colloidal hetero-nanostructures
Light–matter interactions in semiconductors hold great promise for numerous applications, but as device size is reduced such interactions typically weaken, potentially posing problems for applications at the nanoscale. Here the authors circumvent these limitations by producing colloidal particles with metallic cores and semiconducting shells, in which coupling of the plasmons in the metal to the excitons in the semiconductor is engineered to enhance light–matter interactions in the particle.
- Jiatao Zhang
- , Yun Tang
- & Min Ouyang
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Graphene touch
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News |
MRI set to win reprieve from EU ban
Directive that limits workers' electromagnetic exposure aims for a compromise.
- Alison Abbott
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Aquatic speakers
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Research Highlights |
Nanomanufacturing: Petite pottery
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Research Highlights |
Nanoscience: Shifted shells
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Correspondence |
Controls needed to reduce problem of plastic contamination
- Andrei P. Sommer
- & Noah Lotan
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Bacterial power
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Careers Q&A |
Chang-Hwan Choi
Chang-Hwan Choi, a nanoengineer at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, received a 2010 Young Investigator Program award from the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) for his design of anti-corrosion surfaces that will make Navy vessels more durable.
- Virginia Gewin
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News |
Oil cruise finds deep-sea plume
Nature reports from the research ship Pelican as scientists map the hidden extent of the Deepwater disaster.
- Mark Schrope
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News |
Glass electrode powers smallest pump
Nanodevice could be used to sample or treat single cells.
- Janet Fang
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Letter |
A proximity-based programmable DNA nanoscale assembly line
Many new functional materials and devices could be made if it were possible to rationally combine nanometre-scale particles into larger structures. An assembly line operating on the nanometre scale has now been demonstrated. It uses a DNA origami tile as a framework and track for the assembly process, three distinct DNA machines attached to the tile as programmable cargo-donating devices, and a DNA walker to generate the target product by moving along the track and collecting cargo from those devices that are switched on.
- Hongzhou Gu
- , Jie Chao
- & Nadrian C. Seeman
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Research Highlights |
Nanoelectronics: Protein transistor
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News & Views |
Molecular robots on the move
Robots have to store lots of information in order to coordinate their actions, but how can this be done for nanometre-scale robots? One answer is to program data into the robots' environment instead.
- Lloyd M. Smith
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News |
The science of dispersants
Massive use of surfactant chemicals turns Gulf of Mexico into a giant experiment.
- Daniel Cressey
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Editorial |
Up in the air
Ways to obtain more accurate data can and should be put in place to police greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Letter |
Substrate-enhanced supercooling in AuSi eutectic droplets
Supercooling is a phenomenon by which a liquid remains in its fluid phase well below its melting point. Supercooling can be inhibited by the presence of a solid surface, whereby crystalline surfaces cause adjacent atoms in the liquid to become ordered, inducing crystal nucleation of the melt. Here it is shown that a particular surface ordering of gold atoms on top of a silicon substrate can stabilize the liquid phase of a gold-silicon eutectic droplet, and thus enhance supercooling.
- T. U. Schülli
- , R. Daudin
- & A. Pasturel
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News Feature |
Toxicology: The big test for bisphenol A
After years of wrangling over the chemical's toxicity, researchers are charting a new way forwards. Brendan Borrell investigates how the debate has reshaped environmental-health studies.
- Brendan Borrell
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Research Highlights |
Physics: Monopoles on demand
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Down the tube
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Research Highlights |
Chemical sensing: Bomb detector sewn up
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Research Highlights |
Organic chemistry: An open and shut case
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Small salt superconducts
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Letter |
Atom-by-atom structural and chemical analysis by annular dark-field electron microscopy
An imaging technique that could identify all the individual atoms, including defects, in a material would be a useful tool. Here an electron-microscopy approach to the problem, based on annular dark-field imaging, is described. A monolayer of boron nitride was studied, and three types of atomic substitution were identified. Careful analysis of the data enabled the construction of a detailed map of the atomic structure.
- Ondrej L. Krivanek
- , Matthew F. Chisholm
- & Stephen J. Pennycook
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Research Highlights |
Atmospheric science: Paparazzi pollution
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News |
Nanoparticle kit could diagnose disease early
Colour change shows the presence of minuscule amounts of key enzymes.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Letter |
Shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is a powerful spectroscopy technique that can be used to study substances down to the level of single molecules. But the practical applications have been limited by the need for metal substrates with roughened surfaces or in the form of nanoparticles. Here a new approach — shell-insulated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy — is described, and its versatility demonstrated with numerous test substances.
- Jian Feng Li
- , Yi Fan Huang
- & Zhong Qun Tian
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Research Highlights |
Conservation: Heavy metal history
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Research Highlights |
Materials science: Ultrathin fibres heat up
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News & Views |
Expanding versatility
Gold nanoparticles coated with a thin layer of an oxide allow molecules adsorbed on surfaces as diverse as those of platinum, yeast cells or citrus fruits to be characterized routinely in the laboratory.
- Martin Moskovits
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News |
Nano-antennas could help keep quantum secrets
Nanorod arrays can guide light along the path toward quantum communication.
- Zeeya Merali
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Harvesting heat
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Research Highlights |
Biomaterials: Squishy particles
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News & Views |
Wider role for airborne chlorine
Unexpected chlorine chemistry in the lowest part of the atmosphere can affect the cycling of nitrogen oxides and the production of ozone, and reduce the lifetime of the greenhouse gas methane.
- Roland von Glasow
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News Feature |
Bioengineering: What to make with DNA origami
Chemists looking to create complex self-assembling nanostructures are turning to DNA. Katharine Sanderson looks at the science beneath the fold.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Research Highlights |
Nanotechnology: Light DNA machine
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Books & Arts |
How lateral thinking saved lives
Martin Kemp is struck by the surreal quality of a home-made iron lung.
- Martin Kemp
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News |
Bacteria buzzing in the seabed
Nanowires growing from bacteria might link up distant chemical reactions in sediments.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News |
Did design flaws doom the LHC?
Catastrophic failure that caused accelerator shutdown was not a freak accident, says project physicist.
- Geoff Brumfiel
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