An overview of three decades of progress in DNA nanotechnology emphasizes bringing programmed motion to DNA nanostructures, including efforts to incorporate design principles from macroscopic mechanical engineering.
Archive for the 'Nanotechnology' Category
IBM researchers engineered a class of molecules called block copolymers to self-assemble into dense patterns to extend the capabilities of photolithography.
Mixing two different types of cylindrical nanoparticles causes them to reorganize into smaller spherical nanoparticles. A mechanism to release drugs only inside cells that internalize both types?
Computational simulations demonstrate that pentagonal tiling to give a variant of graphene based on pentagons rather than on hexagons is dynamically, thermally, and mechanically stable.
Applications of nanotechnology to wearable electronics and other portable devices will benefit from the discovery that adding an insulating layer to a piezoelectric nanostructure increases the output voltage by up to 200 times.
A simple method of producing nanoporous alumina surface discourages bacteria from attaching and forming biofilms, with potential applications in medicine, dentistry, and food processing.
Variable length single-stranded DNA springs determine how far a hinge of double-stranded DNA joining two stiff sections of DNA origami can bend.
Scaffolded DNA origami is combined with hinges of single- or double-stranded DNA to built simple machines parts that have been combined to program simple to complex motions.
One example is presented of how well the meme is spreading that nanotechnology will evolve toward atomically precise manufacturing that will in turn bring forth a world of abundance.
To measure in-plane piezoelectric stress, an MoS2 film was suspended on HSQ posts and clamped by two Au electrodes. When the film was indented with a scanning AFM probe, the induced stress changed the load on the cantilever, which was observed by the deflection of a laser beam. Credit: Berkeley Lab
Combinations of different types of DNA nanorobots, implementing different logic gates, work together to tag a specific type of cell in a living cockroach depending on the presence or absence of two protein signals.
New software makes it possible to generate 3D structures of proteins without artificially incorporating metal atoms in the proteins, making it possible to study many molecular machines using data that could not previously be analyzed.
Among the smallest molecular robots reported so far, a walker based on phenylarsonous acid with two organic thiol ligands as feet walks through a one-nanometer-diameter protein nanopore channel by taking 0.6 nanometer steps, by thiol exchange, from one cysteine residue to the next.
A more general computational framework predicts the structures of 2D and 3D-curved DNA nanostructures impossible to predict using previously available computational methods. May lead to 3D-printing DNA nanostructures?
A new strategy to form bonds between carbon atoms opens the way to a wide variety of molecular architectures that had been difficult or impossible to access using previous methods.
Artificial enzymes have been created from nucleic acids that use synthetic molecules instead of ribose or deoxyribose sugars.
Design principles have been developed and tested to construct novel synthetic protein monomers that can self-assemble into large, open protein cages for potential use in vaccines and drug delivery.
Painting atomically precise carbon nanotubes onto a cathode produces flat panel lights a hundred times more energy efficient than LEDs.
A general framework is presented for using 32-nucleotide DNA bricks to build large two-dimensional crystals up to 80 nm thick and incorporating sophisticated three-dimensional features.
Metal or other inorganic nanoparticles of 20 to 30-nm scale can be cast in arbitrary 3D shapes and configurations dictated by stiff, atomically precise molds constructed using scaffold DNA origami.