Category Technology/Electronics

This image shows examples of engineered 3-D silk constructs. Credit: Silklab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Tufts University

Tufts University engineers have created a new format of solids made from silk protein that can be preprogrammed with biological, chemical, or optical functions, eg mechanical components that change color with strain, deliver drugs, or respond to light. Using a water-based fabrication method based on protein self-assembly, the researchers generated 3D bulk materials out of silk fibroin, the protein that gives silk its durability. Then they manipulated the bulk materials with water-soluble molecules to create multiple solid forms, from nano- to micro-scale, that have embedded, pre-designed functions.

Eg, they created a surgical pin that ...

In the proposed system, a carbon nanotube is suspended between two leads, below a tip electrode, and above a gate. The pair of leads and the tip are two separate electron reservoirs with different temperatures. Electrons can tunnel between the nanotube and the reservoirs. Although electron exchange between the two reservoirs is prevented, electron-electron interaction couples the two reservoirs, allowing for a heat flow. Credit: A. Vikström et al. ©2016 American Physical Society

Illustrating the unusual way things work on the nanoscale, scientists have designed a new nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) that produces mechanical motion due to the interactions between electrons—yet unlike similar systems, this system does not require any electric current...

The magnetic structure of a skyrmion is symmetrical around its core; arrows indicate the direction of spin. Credit: ill./©: Benjamin Krüger, JGU

Another breakthrough in future magnetic storage devices has been made by JGU and MIT resesarchers. Already in March 2016, the international team investigated structures, which could serve as magnetic shift register or racetrack memory devices. This type of storage promises low access times, high information density, and low energy consumption. Now, the team achieved the billion-fold reproducible motion of special magnetic textures, so-called skyrmions, between different positions, which is exactly the process needed in magnetic shift registers thereby taking a critical step towards the application of skyrmions in devices.

The experiments were ca...

This animation shows molecular building blocks joining the tip of a growing nanowire. Each block consists of a diamondoid — the smallest possible bit of diamond — attached to sulfur and copper atoms (yellow and brown spheres). Like LEGO blocks, they only fit together in certain ways that are determined by their size and shape. The copper and sulfur atoms form a conductive wire in the middle, and the diamondoids form an insulating outer shell. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

LEGO-style building method has potential for making 1-dimensional materials with extraordinary properties...