Manmade molecular machine goes to work

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Chemistry World, 22 Aug 2011

Researchers in the UK and Belgium have measured the work performed by a single manmade molecule. The result demonstrates that manmade molecules can generate similar forces to natural molecular machines, and could help chemists to design artificial molecular machines for meaningful tasks.

Many biological molecules can perform useful work. The protein motors kinesin and dynein, for example, transport cargo around cells using the chemical energy stored in ATP, the chemical fuel of biological systems. Scientists have created their own molecular machines that perform useful work, such as moving liquid droplets uphill or rotating microscale objects. But these synthetic machines have all had to work collectively, perhaps in groups of billions or more. […]

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Plasma treatment to use patient’s proteins to improve medical device biocompatibility

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Chemistry World, 17 Aug 2011

Researchers in Australia have developed a plasma treatment that can make any medical device biocompatible by sticking a patient’s own proteins to it. They hope the treatment could be used on biomedical devices, such as stents and hip replacements.

Biocompatibility is a serious issue when developing biomedical devices. If a device isn’t compatible, it can cause inflammation, excessive tissue regrowth, or even be outright rejection. […]

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Rashba gets hotter and more pronounced

Physics WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Physics World, 17 Aug 2011

An international group of physicists has demonstrated an electron spin-splitting effect in a semiconductor that is far larger than has ever been seen before. The large Rashba effect – the phenomenon of spin splitting with an applied electric field instead of a magnetic field – could herald the room-temperature operation of spintronic devices.

Spintronics is expected to be one of the next revolutions in computing. The idea is to fabricate devices that operate using not just an electron’s charge, but also its spin. Because the spin of an electron can be switched more quickly than charge can be moved round, these spintronic devices should operate faster and at lower temperatures than their electronic counterparts. […]

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Information paradox simplified

Physics WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Physics World, 15 Aug 2011

A black hole’s event horizon is the ultimate last-chance saloon: beyond this boundary nothing, not even light, can escape. But does this “anything” include information itself? Physicists have spent the best part of four decades grappling with the “information paradox”, but now a group of researchers from the UK thinks it can offer a solution.

The researchers have created a theoretical model for the event horizon of a black hole that eschews space–time altogether. Their work also supports a controversial theory proposed last year that suggests that gravity is an emergent force rather than a universal fundamental interaction. […]

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‘Electronic Skin’ Grafts Gadgets to Body

ScienceJon Cartwright

Published in ScienceNOW, 11 Aug 2011

He may have had a laser in his watch and a radio in his lighter, but even James Bond didn’t sport gadgets tattooed to his skin. Now he could, thanks to the development of ultrathin electronics that can be placed on the skin as easily as a temporary tattoo. The researchers hope the new devices will pave the way for sensors that monitor heart and brain activity without bulky equipment, or perhaps computers that operate via the subtlest voice commands or body movement.

Stretchy and bendy electronics have been around for a few years. One approach is to write circuits onto materials that are already flexible, such as ink on paper, so gadgets can be folded and put away. Another is to make the circuits themselves flexible. In 2008, for example, engineers at the University of Tokyo created a conductive materialthat looked a bit like a fishnet stocking. Made of carbon nanotubes and rubber, it could stretch by more than a third of its natural length, possibly enough to make robots become more agile. […]

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3D cloak is first to work in free space

Physics WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Physics World, 8 Aug 2011

Physicists in the US claim to have created the first 3D invisibility cloak that can operate alone in free space. The cloak, based on a “plasmonic” shell, can hide a cigar-sized cylinder from microwaves – although it currently only operates for one microwave polarization.

Invisibility cloaks have been around since 2006, when a team led by David Smith at Duke University in North Carolina, US, produced a device that could guide microwaves of a very narrow frequency around an area a few centimetres in diameter. The device was based on a “metamaterial” comprising an array of resonators that altered the electrical permittivity and magnetic permeability throughout the cloak. Variations in these properties resulted in the microwaves bending round the hidden space like water around a stone, albeit only in 2D. […]

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Photons tune in and shape up

Physics WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Physics World, 3 Aug 2011

Physicists in the US have created a device that can emit single photons of the right shape and colour for use in quantum information. The advance is another step in the development of practical quantum-computing and quantum-cryptography systems.

Quantum computing exploits the peculiar laws of quantum physics to process certain calculations much faster than any of today’s computers, whereas quantum cryptography uses those laws to prevent eavesdropping on secure communications. Both rely on the transmission of quantum information, and one of the best media for transmitting quantum information is single photons. […]

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Golf Is All About the X (and S) Factor

ScienceJon Cartwright

Published in ScienceNOW, 29 Jul 2011

Golfers can spend years honing their swings, but now it seems there are just a few key traits that separate amateurs from the pros. Researchers used eight digital cameras to record 3D videos of 10 professional and five amateur male golfers in action. Then, they measured several parameters, including the “S factor” (tilt of the shoulders) and the elusive “X factor” (rotation of hips relative to the shoulders), which is considered vital for power generation. Compared with the amateurs, the pros had S and X factors that were greater—often by as much as 10 degrees—and more consistent. […]

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Cloak could hide ships from flowing water

Physics WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Physics World, 21 Jul 2011

Ships of the future may be able to move through the water without a creating a wake. That is according to a pair of physicists in the US, who have proposed a new type of material that lets water flow around an object as if it were not there at all. The design, which has yet to be built, could boost the energy efficiency of ships and submarines – and even prevent them from being detected. “The main function of [our] structure is to prevent fluid flowing around an object from ‘feeling’ that object,” says Yaroslav Urzhumov of Duke University.

The past five years have seen a flurry of research into invisibility cloaks. The first functioning cloak, which operated for electromagnetic waves in the microwave range, was demonstrated by a team led by David Smith at Duke University in 2006, and since then researchers have proposed and demonstrated cloaks that work for visible light, sound and even events in time. […]

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Magnetic sponge can squeeze itself out

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright

Published in Chemistry World, 19 Jul 2011

Researchers in Japan and Singapore have created a sponge that can wring itself out upon application of a magnetic field. The sponge, which is based on a network of nanomagnets, could be used as a capsule that delivers drugs to specific parts of the human body.

First developed in the late 1990s, magnetic sponges consist of nanoparticles linked up by spring-like molecules. When the sponges absorb water they expand, and their overall magnetic properties change. As a result, they have been touted for use as sensors that can sensitively detect the presence of water. […]

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