New pathway to valleytronics

A potential avenue to quantum computing currently generating quite the buzz in the high-tech industry is 'valleytronics', in which information is coded based on the wavelike motion of electrons moving through certain two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. Now, a promising new pathway to valleytronic technology has been uncovered.

The laser pulse that gets shorter all by itself

Ultrashort laser pulses have become an indispensable tool for atomic and molecular research; a new technology makes creating short infrared pulses easy and cheap.

Carbon nanoballs can greatly contribute to sustainable energy supply

Researchers have discovered that the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables can withstand a 26 per cent higher voltage if nanometer-sized carbon balls are added. This could result in enormous efficiency gains in the power grids of the future, which are needed to achieve a sustainable energy system.

'Bulletproof' battery: Kevlar membrane for safer, thinner lithium rechargeables

New battery technology should be able to prevent the kind of fires that grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2013. The innovation is an advanced barrier between the electrodes in a lithium-ion battery.

Peptide nanoparticle delivery of oligonucleotide drugs into cells

Therapeutic oligonucleotide analogs represent a new and promising family of drugs that act on nucleic acid targets such as RNA or DNA; however, their effectiveness has been limited due to difficulty crossing the cell membrane. A new delivery approach based on cell-penetrating peptide nanoparticles can efficiently transport charge-neutral oligonucleotide analogs into cells.

Researchers use oxides to flip graphene conductivity

By demonstrating a new way to change the amount of electrons that reside in a given region within a piece of graphene, scientists have a proof-of-principle in making the fundamental building blocks of semiconductor devices using the 2D material.

Engineering self-assembling amyloid fibers

Researchers have come up with methods to manipulate natural proteins so that they self-assemble into amyloid fibrils.