Researchers from Purdue University have found a way to see synthetic nanostructures and molecules using a new type of super-resolution optical microscopy that does not require fluorescent dyes, representing a practical tool for biomedical and nanotechnology research.

A new type of super-resolution optical microscopy takes a high-resolution image (at right) of graphite “nanoplatelets” about 100 nanometers wide. The imaging system, called saturated transient absorption microscopy, or STAM, uses a trio of laser beams and represents a practical tool for biomedical and nanotechnology research.

“Super-resolution optical microscopy has opened a new window into the nanoscopic world,” said Ji-Xin Cheng, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purdue University.”The diffraction limit represents the fundamental limit of optical imaging resolution,” Cheng said. “Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute and others have developed super-resolution imaging methods that require fluorescent labels. Here, we demonstrate a new scheme for breaking the diffraction limit in optical imaging of non-fluorescent species. Because it is label-free, the signal is directly from the object so that we can learn more about the nanostructure.”

Source: http://www.purdue.edu/

Using cutting-edge X-ray techniques, Cornell researchers have uncovered cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears repetitive stress over time, visualizing damage at smaller scales than previously observed. Their work could offer clues into how bone fractures could be prevented. More: from athletes to individuals suffering from osteoporosis, bone fractures are usually the result of tiny cracks accumulating over time — invisible rivulets of damage that, when coalesced, lead to that painful break.
Marjolein van der Meulen, the Swanson Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, led the study published online March 5 in PLOS One using transmission X-ray microscopy at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, part of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Transmission X-ray microscope images of damage generated in a bone sample and stained with lead-uranyl acetate. White is the staining of microdamage, gray is bone and black is background. On the left is one-time loading of the sample, and on the right is repeated loading.

“In skeletal research, people have been trying to understand the role of damage,” said van der Meulen, whose research is called mechanobiology — how mechanics intersects with biological processes. “One of the things people have hypothesized is that damage is one of the stimuli that cells are sensing.”

Source: http://www.news.cornell.edu/

A Northwestern University research team has found a way to manufacture single laser devices that are the size of a virus particle and that operate at room temperature. These plasmonic nanolasers could be readily integrated into silicon-based photonic devices, all-optical circuits and nanoscale biosensors. Reducing the size of photonic and electronic elements is critical for ultra-fast data processing and ultra-dense information storage. The miniaturization of a key, workhorse instrument — the laser — is no exception. The results are published in the journal Nano Letters.

“Coherent light sources at the nanometer scale are important not only for exploring phenomena in small dimensions but also for realizing optical devices with sizes that can beat the diffraction limit of light,” said Teri Odom , a nanotechnology expert who led the research.

Source: http://www.northwestern.edu/

High-temperature superconductivity doesn't happen all it once. It starts in isolated nanoscale patches that gradually expand until they take over. That discovery, from atomic-level observations at Cornell and the University of Tokyo, offers a new insight into the puzzling "pseudogap" state observed in high-temperature superconductors; it may be another step toward creating new materials that superconduct at temperatures high enough to revolutionize electrical engineering.

Scanning tunneling microscope image of a partially doped cuprate superconductor shows regions with an electronic "pseudogap" (rounded rectangle) others with no progress from the original insulator (dashed circles). As doping increases, pseudogap regions spread and connect, making the whole sample a superconductor. 

Superconductivity, in which an electric current flows with zero resistance, was first discovered in metals cooled very close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius). New materials called cuprates — copper oxides "doped" with other atoms — superconduct as "high" as -123 Celsius.

Source: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May12/CuprateEvolution.html

A Spanish and French research team have described a new technique for measuring the temperature inside a single cell without altering the cell’s metabolism. 

The new technique uses transfected green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a temperature nanoprobe and measures the polarization anisotropy of the GFP fluorescence. This rapid and non-invasive thermal nanoscopy differs from previous intents in that it does not alter cellular processes with the introduction of synthetic nano-objects. Furthermore, it is fully compatible with widespread GFP cellular biology.This advance complements the optical toolbox for biologists and could help to provide new understanding of cellular processes, such as those involved in Cancer.

The research is published in NanoLetters, by Jon Donner, Sebastian Thompson and Mark Kreuzer in the group led by ICREA Professor at ICFO, Romain Quidant, in collaboration with Guillaume Baffou, ex-ICFOnian now at Institut Fresnel in Marseille, France, 

Source: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl300389y

Ultrapowerful microscopes, computers and solar cells could result from the research on "hyperbolic metamaterials". Scientists from Purdue University have shown how to create the metamaterials without the traditional silver or gold previously required,Using the metals is impractical for industry because of high cost and incompatibility with semiconductor manufacturing processes. The metals also do not transmit light efficiently, causing much of it to be lost. The Purdue researchers replaced the metals with an "aluminum-doped zinc oxide," or AZO.

"This means we can have a completely new material platform for creating optical metamaterials, which offers important advantages," said Alexandra Boltasseva, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering."Alternative plasmonic materials such as AZO overcome the bottleneck created by conventional metals in the design of optical metamaterials and enable more efficient devices," Boltasseva adds : "We anticipate that the development of these new plasmonic materials and nanostructured material composites will lead to tremendous progress in the technology of optical metamaterials, enabling the full-scale development of this technology and uncovering many new physical phenomena."

Source: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120514BoltassevaHyperbolic.html

Every year, U.S. supermarkets lose roughly 10 percent of their fruits and vegetables to spoilage, according to the Department of Agriculture. To help combat those losses, MIT chemistry professor Timothy Swager and his students have built a new nanotechnology-based sensor that could help grocers and food distributors better monitor their produce. 
The new sensors, described in the journal Angewandte Chemie , can detect tiny amounts of ethylene, a gas that promotes ripening in plants. Swager envisions the inexpensive sensors attached to cardboard boxes of produce and scanned with a handheld device that would reveal the contents’ ripeness. That way, grocers would know when to put certain items on sale to move them before they get too ripe.

“If we can create equipment that will help grocery stores manage things more precisely, and maybe lower their losses by 30 percent, that would be huge,” says Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry.
Detecting gases to monitor the food supply is a new area of interest for Swager, whose previous research has focused on sensors to detect explosives or chemical and biological warfare agents.

Source: http://web.mit.edu/press/2012/fruit-spoilage-sensor.html

A new x-ray microscope probes the inner intricacies of materials smaller than human cells and creates unparalleled high-resolution 3D images. By integrating unique automatic calibrations, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are able to capture and combine thousands of images with greater speed and precision than any other microscope. The direct observation of structures spanning 25 nanometers – or 25 billionths of a meter – will offer fundamental advances in many fields, including energy research, environmental sciences, biology, and national defense. This innovative full field transmission x-ray microscope (TXM), was developed at Brookhaven Lab’s National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). A paper published in the April 2012 Applied Physics Letters details the experimental system that rapidly combines 2D images taken from every angle to form digital 3D constructs.

This 3D reconstruction of a lithium-ion battery electrode, composed of 1,441 individual images captured and aligned by the TXM, reveals nano-scale structural details to help guide future energy research.

“We can actually see the internal 3D structure of materials at the nanoscale,” said Brookhaven physicist Jun Wang, lead author of the paper and head of the team that first proposed this TXM. “The device works beautifully, and it overcomes several major obstacles for x-ray microscopes. We’re excited to see the way this technology will push research.”

Source: http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1406&template=Today

At the heart of the immune system that protects our bodies from disease and foreign invaders is a vast and complex communications network involving millions of cells, sending and receiving chemical signals that can mean life or death. At the heart of this vast cellular signaling network are interactions between billions of proteins and other biomolecules. These interactions, in turn, are greatly influenced by the spatial patterning of signaling and receptor molecules.   Biology is a game of nanometers, where spatial differences of only a few nanometers can determine the fate of a cell – whether it lives or dies, remains normal or turns cancerous. A scientific team led by chemist Jay Groves (Berkeley Lab and the University of California – UC- Berkeley) has used supported membranes to demonstrate that living cells not only interact with their environment through chemical signals but also through physical force.

click here to enjoy the video demonstration

The ability to observe signaling spatial patterns in the immune and other cellular systems as they evolve, and to study the impact on molecular interactions and, ultimately, cellular communication, would be a critical tool in the fight against immunological and other disorders that lead to a broad range of health problems including cancer.  
Such a tool is now at hand.

Source: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/03/23/a-shiny-new-tool-for-imaging-biomolecules/

Printing three dimensional objects with incredibly fine details is now possible using “two-photon lithography”. With this technology, tiny structures on a nanometer scale can be fabricated. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have now made a major breakthrough in speeding up this printing technique: The high-precision-3D-printer  is orders of magnitude faster than similar devices (see video). This opens up completely new areas of application, such as in medicine.

The video shows the 3d-printing process in real time. Due to the very fast guiding of the laser beam, 100 layers, consisting of approximately 200 single lines each, are produced in four minutes.
CLICK HERE TO ENJOY THE VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

This amazing progress was made possible by combining several new ideas. “It was crucial to improve the control mechanism of the mirrors”, says Jan Torgersen (TU Vienna). The mirrors are continuously in motion during the printing process. The acceleration and deceleration-periods have to be tuned very precisely to achieve high-resolution results at a record-breaking speed.

Source: http://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news_detail/article/7444/

Imec, a belgian world-leading research company in nano-electronics. today announces that it has released an early-version PDK (process development kit) for 14nm logic chips. This PDK is the industry’s first to address the 14nm technology node. It targets the introduction of a number of new key technologies, such as FinFET technology and EUV lithography. The PDK is made available to Imec’s partners, and will be followed by incremental updates. Imec and its partners are developing a 14nm test chip to be released in the 2^nd half of 2012 using this PDK.

A well-made process design kit (PDK) can assist an integrated circuit (IC) designer to reach that goal by maximizing design productivity and providing a portal to the foundry where the IC will be fabricated.

This first 14nm PDK contains all elements for design assessment of the 14nm node through device compact models, parasitic extraction, design rules, parameterized cells (pcells), and basic logic cells. Starting from the PDK, Imec and its partners are now designing a first test chip.

Source: http://www2.imec.be/be_en/press/imec-news/14nm.html

Global Industry Analysts  announces the release of a comprehensive global outlook on the Nanotechnology Industry. Nanotechnology products present potential for cheaper, faster, and more environmental friendly applications. Backed by huge number of Government sponsored projects, demand for nanotechnology enabled products is strong.

Nanotechnology is a well funded industry, mainly  Government funding and corporate research and development spending.. Funds from venture capitalists is however low. The US government leads other governments in terms of nanotechnology spending, followed by the Japanese and German governments.  One of the prominent factors hampering rapid commercialization of nanotechnology is the time delay in establishing labs for the necessary R&D. Besides, after obtaining funds, a minimum of another year-and-a-half is consumed in establishing a full-fledged nanotech research laboratory.

Chemical industry currently dominates the Nanotech arena in terms of maturity of R&D efforts and actual product commercialization. Among the product segments, Nanomaterials are emerging as the most lucrative segment. Nanofilms are making rapid strides in the global market driven by their expanding application in  high efficiency solar cells, light-emitting diodes, photonics, wireless communications, and semiconductor technology. While the US and Europe continue to remain the major geographic markets for nanotechnology industry until 2015,  the share of Asia Pacific in the nanotechnology market is expected to grow substantially.
The research report titled "Nanotechnology: A Global Outlook" is  announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

According to a new technical market research report,  the global market for nanophotonic devices was valued at nearly $2.5 billion in 2011 and is expected to increase to $10.9 billion in 2016, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.8%. The global market for nanophotonic devices can be separated into nine segments: nanophotonic diodes, near-field optics, solar cells, optical switches, nanophotonic ICs, holographic memory, nano-optical sensors, optical amplifiers, and add/drop filters. 

Nanophotonics involve the interaction of light with nanoscale structures and materials.  “Nanoscale” is defined as having at least one dimension measuring less than 100 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. At this scale, the properties that characterize larger systems do not necessarily apply – a fact that gives nanophotonics devices their unique properties.

Source: NANOTECHNOLOGY FOR PHOTONICS: GLOBAL MARKETS (NAN036B) from BCC Research  www.bccresearch.com.

Wrinkles and folds are ubiquitous. They occur in furrowed brows, planetary topology, the surface of the human brain, even the bottom of a gecko's foot. In many cases, they are nature's ingenious way of packing more surface area into a limited space. Scientists, mimicking nature, have long sought to manipulate surfaces to create wrinkles and folds to make smaller, more flexible electronic devices, fluid-carrying nanochannels or even printable cell phones and computers. 

"Wrinkles are everywhere in science," said Kyung-Suk Kim, professor of engineering at Brown University. "But they hold certain secrets. With this study, we have found mathematically how the wrinkle spacings of a thin sheet are determined on a largely deformed soft substrate and how the wrinkles evolve into regular folds."
Source; http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/11/wrinkles

Not to pick up electrons, but tweezers made of electrons. A recent paper by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Virginia (UVA) demonstrates that the beams produced by modern electron microscopes can be used not just to look at nanoscale objects, but to move them around, position them and perhaps even assemble them.

The tool is an electron version of the laser “optical tweezers” that have become a standard tool in biology, physics and chemistry for manipulating tiny particles. Except that electron beams could offer a thousand-fold improvement in sensitivity and resolution. Optical tweezers were first described in 1986 by a research team at Bell Labs. The general idea is that under the right conditions, a tightly focused laser beam will exert a small but useful force on tiny particles. Not pushing them away, which you might expect, but rather drawing them towards the center of the beam. Biochemists, for example, routinely use the effect to manipulate individual cells or liposomes under a microscope.
Source: http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/headlines.php?date=2011-11-09