Sniffing out terrorists

06-Jan-2010 - A new intelligent system has been developed to help identify terrorists carrying explosives. Sensitive electronic noses capture the smell of the explosives; the system processes the acquired data, correlates it with individuals’ movements … and ultimately tracks down the suspects. Literally ...

New biosensors reveal workings of anti-psychotic drugs in the living brain

15-Dec-2009 - Scientists have resolved a question about how a popular class of drugs used to treat schizophrenia works using biosensors that reveal previously hidden components of chemical communication in the brain. Although delusions and hallucinations characterize the illness, people with schizophrenia also ...

Safe journey for works of art

09-Dec-2009 - Valuable paintings travel long distances when they are shipped from one place to another. To minimize damage, they are packed in special picture cases. In future, these will be equipped with sensors to detect the buildup of pollutant gases, emanating from adhesives for example. After being ...

Sculptured materials allow multiple channel plasmonic sensors

12-Nov-2009 - Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers use sculptured thin films. "Everyone uses surface plasmon resonance sensors. They are ...

Nanocapsules for artificial photosynthesis

10-Nov-2009 - Imitating photosynthesis in plants? If we were to accomplish this, mankind would have a little less to worry about. Chemists from the University of Würzburg have now made progress on the road to achieving artificial photosynthesis. The structure that has been developed in the university's ...

New nanomethod paves the way for new measuring technology and hypersensitive sensors

05-Nov-2009 - Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a new measurement technology that makes use of optical resonances in nanoparticles. The method, which opens new possibilities in the field of catalytics, will be published in the journal Science for November and is already ...

Magnetic mixing creates quite a stir

Sandia researcher solves problem of mixing liquids in tiny volumes

03-Nov-2009 - Sandia researchers have developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated spaces. Researchers currently use all types of processes to try and create mixing, with only "mixed" success. "In small devices," says Sandia materials scientist Jim Martin "people have tried all ...

Harvard scientists bend nanowires into 2-D and 3-D structures

New 'stereocenters' introduce triangular joints into otherwise linear nanomaterials

27-Oct-2009 - Taking nanomaterials to a new level of structural complexity, scientists have determined how to introduce kinks into arrow-straight nanowires, transforming them into zigzagging two- and three-dimensional structures with correspondingly advanced functions. The work is described in the journal ...

24-carat gold 'snowflakes' improve graphene's electrical properties

16-Oct-2009 - In an effort to make graphene more useful in electronics applications, Kansas State University engineers made a golden discovery -- gold "snowflakes" on graphene. Vikas Berry is a K-State assistant professor of chemical engineering who works with graphene, a carbon material only a single atom ...

Quantum-limited Measurement Method for Nanosensors

A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeeds in applying a novel optical method to nanomechanical oscillators

14-Oct-2009 - New fabrication techniques have enabled the development of on-chip mechanical elements whose dimensions are on the nanometre (one millionth mm) scale. Their application, however, has been limited by the lack of sufficiently sensitive techniques for measuring the motion of these tiny devices. A ...