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For the first time, researchers at Empa and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research have succeeded in "growing" single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNT) with a single predefined structure - and hence with identical electronic properties. And here is how they pulled it off: the CNTs "assembled themselves", as it were, out of tailor-made organic precursor molecules on a platinum surface, as reported by the researchers in the latest issue of the journal "Nature".

Black truffles, also known as Périgord truffles, grow in symbiosis with the roots of oak and hazelnut trees. In the world of haute cuisine, they are highly prized for their syrupy sweet flavor. In the world of epigenetics, however, the fungi (Tuber melanosporum) are of major interest for another reason: their unique pattern of DNA methylation, a biochemical process that chemically modifies nucleic acids without changing their sequence.

Tim Donohue, UW-Madison bacteriology professor and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, supervised the lab that identified the makeup of 19Fu-FA - a compound with promising potential applications. Photo: Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified the genes and enzymes that create a promising compound - the 19 carbon furan-containing fatty acid (19Fu-FA).

Like the perfect sandwich, a perfectly engineered thin film for electronics requires not only the right ingredients, but also just the right thickness of each ingredient in the desired order, down to individual layers of atoms. Cornell researchers have discovered that sometimes, layer-by-layer atomic assembly - a powerful technology capable of making new materials for electronics - requires some unconventional "sandwich making" techniques.

About one in four older adults suffers from chronic pain. Many of those people take medication, usually as pills. But this is not an ideal way of treating pain: Patients must take medicine frequently, and can suffer side effects, since the contents of pills spread through the bloodstream to the whole body.

Discovery could help cut the cost of solar electricity Perovskite is a promising new material for solar cells, combing high efficiency with low materials costs Spray-painting method could be used in high volume manufacturing A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield is the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process - a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity.

A team of chemists from the University of Cambridge and New York University has developed a method for examining the inner workings of battery-like devices called supercapacitors, which can be charged up extremely quickly and can deliver high electrical power. Their technique, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), establishes a means for monitoring and potentially enhancing and the performance of such devices.

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Chemists Create Nanofibers Using Unprecedented New Method-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University : Jocelyn Duffy / 412-268-9982 / jhduffy [a] andrew.cmu (p) edu PITTSBURGH—Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a novel method for creating self-assembled protein/polymer nanostructures that are reminiscent of fibers found in living cells.

Professor John Wheeler: "These calculations show that we need to reappraise how we interpret minerals which grew within the Earth” A study by the University of Liverpool has provided new insight into how minerals grow under the Earth's surface. Using new calculations, a researcher in the School of Environmental Sciences was able to predict that the difference in stress acting on a rock in various directions has played a more significant role in influencing the growth of minerals in the Earth's crust and mantle than was previously supposed.

New findings show that phytochromes, the "eyes" that help plants sense light, can be manipulated - "tricking" shaded plants into thinking they are in the sun. Above are mature plants with various changes to the phytochrome. Image courtesy of Richard Vierstra Copious corn growing in tiny backyard plots? Roses blooming in December? Thanks to technology that the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Richard Vierstra has been developing for years, these things may soon be possible.

A team at Cornell and Brookhaven National Laboratory has discovered that previously observed density waves that seem to suppress superconductivity are linked to an electronic "broken symmetry," offering an important clue to why superconductivity doesn't happen at higher temperatures. "This exotic state has been predicted for decades," said J.C. Séamus Davis, the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell and director of the Center for Emergent Superconductivity at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Physicists were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices. Ever since the 1990s, physicists have been able to directly control surface structures by moving and positioning single atoms to certain atomic sites.

A Berkeley Lab-Intel collaboration outlines the chemistry of photoresist, enabling smaller features for future generations of microprocessors. Over the years, computer chips have gotten smaller thanks to advances in materials science and manufacturing technologies. This march of progress, the doubling of transistors on a microprocessor roughly every two years, is called Moore's Law.

Researchers from Umeå University have explored two different ways that allow unprecedented experimental insights into the reaction sequence leading to the formation of oxygen molecules in photosynthesis. The two studies have been published in the scientific.

New discovery reveals testing for molecule αvβ6 could identify a subset of breast cancer patients at high risk of their tumours spreading from the breast - and therefore twice as likely to die within five years- Combining αvβ6- antibody drug with breast cancer drug Herceptin 'eradicated' tumours in mice- Researchers are now looking at options to progress to a clinical trial in breast cancer patients For the first time, re

A breakthrough discovery into how living cells process and respond to chemical information could help advance the development of treatments for a large number of cancers and other cellular disorders that have been resistant to therapy.

Scientists from Yale University and the University of Chicago will collaborate on a new $6.25 million project intended to create novel, biologically inspired synthetic materials that can generate and respond to forces in the same way cells do. Such materials could autonomously stiffen, change shape, or self-heal in response to mechanical forces.

Berkeley Lab and University of Hawaii research outlines the story of soot, with implications for cleaner-burning fuels. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Hawaii have uncovered the first step in the process that transforms gas-phase molecules into solid particles like soot and other carbon-based compounds.

On Friday 29 August at 15:00, the ALS research group at Umeå University will take on the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Researchers discover way to use water as solvent in a reaction widely used to make chemical products Green-chemistry researchers at McGill University have discovered a way to use water as a solvent in one of the reactions most widely used to synthesize chemical products and pharmaceuticals. The findings, published June 26 , mark a potential milestone in efforts to develop organic reactions in water.