Renewable energy from evaporating water (w/video)

Scientists report the development of two novel devices that derive power directly from evaporation - a floating, piston-driven engine that generates electricity causing a light to flash, and a rotary engine that drives a miniature car.

Nanoparticles naturally fall into left- and right-handed versions

Researchers published first experimental results showing that ordinary nanocrystals possess intrinsic chirality and can be produced under normal conditions as a half-and-half mixture of mirror images of each other.

Graphene heat-transfer riddle unraveled

Researchers have solved the long-standing conundrum of how the boundary between grains of graphene affects heat conductivity in thin films of the miracle substance - bringing developers a step closer to being able to engineer films at a scale useful for cooling microelectronic devices and hundreds of other nano-tech applications.

Support morphology affects nanoparticle adsorption

Scientists have discovered an intriguing phenomenon in adsorption properties of nanoparticles.

Efficient conversion from spin currents to charge currents in a superconductor

Paving the way to future superconducting spintronics devices.

Rayleigh scattering reveals light propagation in optical nanfibers

Researchers have developed a new technique for visualizing light propagation through an optical nanofiber. The result is a non-invasive measurement of the fiber size and shape and a real-time view of how light fields evolve along the nanofiber.

Electrospun delivery vehicle for bioactive compounds in food nanotechnology

New research outlines how the creation of nanofibres could provide new and improved products and delivery systems for supplementary foodstuffs.

Diamonds are for temperature

Luminescent signals from green glowing diamond defects could monitor temperature in a range of physical and biological systems with unprecedented versatility.

Theory turns to reality for nonlinear optical metamaterials (w/video)

A research team has realized one of the long-standing theoretical predictions in nonlinear optical metamaterials: creation of a nonlinear material that has opposite refractive indices at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies of light. Such a material, which doesn't exist naturally, had been predicted for nearly a decade.

Transparent, stretchable conductors with a nano-accordion structure design

Researchers have created stretchable, transparent conductors that work because of the structures' 'nano-accordion' design. The conductors could be used in a wide variety of applications, such as flexible electronics, stretchable displays or wearable sensors.

What the blank makes quantum dots blink?

Calculations confirm that surface flaws are behind fluorescence intermittency in silicon nanocrystals.

The perils of platinum

Curtailing precious metal use to bring new energy storage and production online.

Research team fuses art, engineering to create stretchable batteries (w/video)

Researchers have used a variation of origami, called kirigami, as a design template for batteries that can be stretched to more than 150 percent of their original size and still maintain full functionality.

Designer electronics out of the printer

Optimized printing process enables custom organic electronics.

Stacking semiconductors for artificial photosynthesis

Nanowire-based design incorporates two semiconductors to enhance absorption of light.