Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Nanoscale metal/oxide/metal devices that are capable of fast non-volatile switching have been built from platinum and titanium dioxide. The devices could have applications in ultrahigh density memory cells and novel forms of computing.
A lithographic method using a scanning tunnelling microscope can etch graphene nanoribbons in graphite sheets with nanometre precision. The electronic properties of these ribbons can be engineered by controlling their width and crystallographic orientation.
A number of optical techniques can produce subwavelength features on surfaces, but they tend to be limited in speed and expensive to implement. Researchers have now shown that a microsphere can be trapped near a surface by a specially shaped laser beam and used as a lens to focus another laser beam that writes subwavelength patterns directly onto the surface.
New laboratory studies using a simplified food web show that quantum dots can be ingested by certain ciliates and transferred to higher trophic organisms such as the predatory rotifers by dietary uptake.
Through a combination of superhydrophobicity and capillary action, membranes made of manganese oxide nanowires can be used to selectively absorb hydrophobic contaminants, such as oil, from water.
A small organic molecule self-assembles into helical ribbons that wrap around single-walled carbon nanotubes. The strength of the wrapping interaction depends on the chirality of each nanotube and enables mixtures to be separated.
Researchers have measured the mechanical response of individual metallofullerene molecules confined inside a carbon nanotube to the tip of an atomic force microscope with atomic resolution. Highly elastic — that is, almost frictionless — behaviour was observed under certain conditions
To date most sensors based on nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have been passive devices that require external periodic or pulsed stimuli to excite them into resonance. Now researchers have demonstrated an active NEMS device excited by a d.c. source that exhibits excellent frequency stability, linewidth narrowing and low-noise performance.
A pilot study in a small number of mice shows that long multiwalled carbon nanotubes introduced into the abdominal cavity can cause asbestos-like pathogenic behaviour. The results suggest the need for further research and caution before introducing nanotube products into the market.
Computer simulations suggest that high concentrations of fullerenes can change the mechanical properties of the lipid membrane in cells. However, these changes are not large enough to damage the membrane, which suggests that other mechanisms are responsible for membrane disruption and fullerene toxicity.
Nanocomposites reinforced with functionalized graphene sheets that form strong interactions with the surrounding polymer matrix are shown to have significantly enhanced thermal and mechanical properties.
Nanoparticles released into the environment could impact the performance of the protozoa that regulate the population of bacteria and other microbes in water. New experiments show that carbon nanotubes are internalized by one such protozoa, Tetrahymena thermophila, reducing its ability to ingest and digest harmful bacteria species.