Reviews & Analysis

Cowpea mosaic virus nanoparticles can induce the immune system to clear metastatic cancers.

The light-powered assembly and disassembly of functionalized nanoparticles creates dynamic nanocavities with built-in selective uptake, reactivity and release.

A theoretical framework that interprets Raman scattering as an optomechanical process can be used to understand, and guide, experiments in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

With fast, adaptive control over the spin of a single electron, magnetic fields can now be measured at the very limits allowed by quantum physics.

This Review discusses the advances in synthesis, assembly, ligand treatments and doping that have enabled the fabrication of high-mobility quantum dot solids.

The basic building block of a Hund's metal can be constructed from an iron atom adsorbed on a platinum surface and can be probed with a scanning tunnelling microscope.

Recent theoretical advances are starting to elucidate how natural systems use dissipative self-assembly to build their complex nanomachinery and might point to ways in which the same principles can be exploited to fabricate analogous artificial nanoassemblies.

This Review describes the challenges in functionalization of upconversion nanocrystals for applications in multimodal imaging, cancer therapy, volumetric displays and photonics.

By taking advantage of the thermal gradient that is generated in plasmonic systems and by using an a.c. field, plasmonic tweezers can have a large radius of action and can trap and manipulate single nano-objects.

The observation of single-photon emission at room temperature from defects in hexagonal boron nitride sheets opens new opportunities for quantum optics.

Synthetic DNA-labelled polymers can be made to self-assemble on two- and three-dimensional DNA scaffolds in custom routings.

Quantum mechanical wave interference of massive molecules at an atomically thin grating sheds new light on an old question.

This Progress Article reviews recent developments in analytical methods used for nanomaterial analysis and highlights opportunities for methods used in environmental toxicology to be applied in human toxicology and vice versa.

An electrical read-out mechanism for magnetic skyrmions that does not require spin-polarized currents could facilitate the use of these small magnetic states in memory devices.

An optical rectenna made of a forest of multiwalled carbon nanotubes shows potential for direct conversion of light into d.c. electricity.

Randomly assembled nanoparticle networks can compute two-input Boolean functions by exploiting evolution-based computing algorithms.

Characterization of a microdisk resonator suggests that it could be used for ultrasensitive mass detection in biological environments.

Arrays of CMOS nanocapacitors, which can operate at high frequencies, can be used to sense beyond the Debye screening length.

DNA origami nanostructures of unprecedented complexity can be created by finding a DNA strand path through wireframe shapes using an approach based on graph theory.

This article reviews recent progress in the development of cellular DNA nanotechnology, highlighting key potential applications such as DNA-based imaging probes, smart therapeutics, and drug delivery systems.