A research team at the University of Pittsburgh led by Alexander Star, a chemistry professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has developed a fentanyl sensor that is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than any electrochemical sensor for the drug reported in the past five years. The portable sensor can also tell the difference between fentanyl and other opioids.

Many pancreatic tumors are like malignant fortresses, surrounded by a dense matrix of collagen and other tissue that shields them from immune cells and immunotherapies that have been effective in treating other cancers. Employing bacteria to infiltrate that cancerous fortification and deliver these drugs could aid treatment for pancreatic cancer, according to newly published findings from a team of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers.

Nucleic acid-based medications such as mRNA vaccines offer tremendous potential for medicine and are opening up new therapeutic approaches. These active ingredients must be enclosed inside nanoparticles to ensure that they get to where they are needed inside the body's cells.

A technology enabling the fabrication of intricate three-dimensional (3D) quantum dot (QD)-based structures at room temperature has been developed.

Imagine a future where computers can learn and make decisions in ways that mimic human thinking, but at a speed and efficiency that are orders of magnitude greater than the current capability of computers.

Nuclear energy has long been regarded as a next-generation energy source, and major countries around the world are competing to secure cutting-edge technologies by leveraging the high economic efficiency and sustainability of nuclear power. However, uranium, which is essential for nuclear power generation, has serious implications for both soil ecosystems and human health.

Thermoelectric systems are a green and sustainable way to harvest energy from any form of heat that otherwise would be wasted. At the core of this energy conversion process is the so-called Seebeck effect, which describes the voltage building up on a material exposed to a temperature difference.

A team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has drawn inspiration from a wide variety of natural geometric motifs—including those of 12-sided dice and potato chips—in order to extend a set of well-known design principles to an entirely new class of spongy materials that can self-assemble into precisely controllable structures.

Oxidative redispersion at elevated temperatures has long been utilized in heterogeneous catalysis for the regeneration of sintered metal catalysts and the synthesis of metal single atom and cluster catalysts. These redispersion processes require a considerable energy input. Therefore, the quest for eco-friendly and energy-saving redispersion strategies remains an urgent priority.

In order to better understand fundamental processes in life science at the molecular level, the precise observation of single molecule dynamics is of utmost interest. However, current techniques based on fluorescence measurements in aqueous solutions are unable to track changes in molecular structure with sufficient temporal resolution.

By exploiting a smart learning algorithm that fuses two microscopy signals, University of Michigan researchers have accomplished high-resolution, efficient 3D chemical imaging for the first time at the one-nanometer scale. For context, a nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter, or one-hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair.

In a new discovery, researchers have revealed novel insights into the behavior of water molecules confined within nanostructures. Their study, published in Science Advances on April 24, delves into how terahertz (THz) waves influence the dynamics of water molecules confined in two-dimensional (2D) spaces within nanoresonators.

Traditional semiconductors such as Si, GaAs, and HgCdTe seem unable to meet the development trend of electronic devices that feature ultra-small volume, lightweight, and low power consumption. These limitations of traditional semiconductors mainly stem from complex growth conditions and low-temperature working environments.

Inexpensive and readily available copper-based catalysts are considered ideal for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to produce multi-carbon products. The presence of copper oxides is crucial for generating high-value-added products in CO2RR.

Engineered protein filaments originally produced by bacteria have been modified by scientists to conduct electricity. In a study published recently in the journal Small, researchers revealed that protein nanowires—which were modified by adding a single compound—can conduct electricity over short distances and harness energy from moisture in the air.

A team of researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has created tiny droplets that, when activated by laser light, can detect viral protein biomarkers indicating the presence of certain diseases.

A research team led by the late Professor Liang Haojun from the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has developed a facile enthalpy-mediated strategy to precisely control the replication and catalytic assembly of DNA-functionalized colloids in a time-dependent manner, facilitating the creation of large-scale ordered nanomaterials. The study was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

A collaborative research team from NIMS and Tokyo University of Science has successfully developed an artificial intelligence (AI) device that executes brain-like information processing through few-molecule reservoir computing. This innovation utilizes the molecular vibrations of a select number of organic molecules.

Traditional memory devices are volatile and the current non-volatile ones rely on either ferromagnetic or ferroelectric materials for data storage. In ferromagnetic devices, data is written or stored by aligning magnetic moments, while in ferroelectric devices, data storage relies on the alignment of electric dipoles.

Self-assembling molecules that spontaneously organize themselves to form complex structures are common in nature. For example, the tough outer layer of insects, called the cuticle, is rich in proteins that can self-assemble.