Latest Nanosensor Stories

Johns Hopkins Medicine Researchers at Johns Hopkins have devised a way to detect whether cells previously transplanted into a living animal are alive or dead, an innovation they say is likely to speed the development of cell replacement therapies for conditions such as liver failure and type 1 diabetes. As reported in the March issue of Nature Materials, the study used nanoscale pH sensors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to tell if liver cells injected into mice survived over...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online No one denies that a sense of smell is important. People have trained themselves to smell the subtle differences in foods and wines and perfumes. We have trained dogs that can smell explosives and drugs and even the changes in a person's body when they are going to have a seizure. With this much emphasis on smelling, is it any wonder that someone has developed an electronic nose? Research by Nosang Myung, a professor at the...

Sensors that work flawlessly in laboratory settings may stumble when it comes to performing in real-world conditions, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. These shortcomings are important as they relate to safeguarding the nation's food and water supplies, said Ali Passian, lead author of a Perspective paper published in ACS Nano. In their paper, titled "Critical Issues in Sensor Science to Aid Food and Water Safety," the researchers observe...

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a novel technique that may give doctors a faster and more sensitive tool to detect pathogens associated with inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease. The new nanoparticle-based technique also may be used for detection of other microbes that have challenged scientists for centuries because they hide deep in human tissue and are able to reprogram cells to successfully evade the immune system. The microbes...

Researchers from the University of Bristol have measured and identified for the first time the stress and strain shear modulus and internal friction of graphene sheets. Graphene is a material that has many potential groundbreaking uses in the electronics and composites industry. The research, in collaboration with the US Office of Naval Research, is published in Nano Letters. Graphene is made up of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is a promising...

Experiments on animals have been the subject of criticism for decades, but there is no prospect of a move away from them any time soon. The number of tests involving laboratory animals has in fact gone up. Now, researchers have found an alternative approach: they hope sensor nanoparticles will reduce the need for animal testing. Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science – and the situation is getting worse. While German laboratories used some 2.41 million...

New methods for creating 3D nanostructures deposited on an array of regularly spaced indentations on the surface of silicon films opens the door for innovative nanosensors Scientists have shown that it is now possible to simultaneously create highly reproductive three-dimensional silicon oxide nanodots on micrometric scale silicon films in only a few seconds. Xavier Landreau and his colleagues at the University of Limoges, France, demonstrated in their paper to be published in EPJD¹ that...

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have built a very simple nanoantenna that directs red and blue colors in opposite directions, even though the antenna is smaller than the wavelength of light. The findings – published in the online journal Nature Communications this week – can lead to optical nanosensors being able to detect very low concentrations of gases or biomolecules. A structure that is smaller than the wavelength of visible light (390-770 nanometers) should not...

  Sensors made from custom DNA molecules could be used to personalize cancer treatments and monitor the quality of stem cells, according to an international team of researchers led by scientists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Rome Tor Vergata. The new nanosensors can quickly detect a broad class of proteins called transcription factors, which serve as the master control switches of life. The research is described in an article published in Journal of the American Chemical...

PISCATAWAY, N.J., Aug. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- It's been said that big things come in small packages. But according to experts at IEEE, the world's largest professional technical association, some of the technology innovations and devices that could make the biggest impact in our world are so small millions of them could fit on the head of a pin. These game-changing advancements in nanotechnology, or the "science of small things," are transforming the way researchers are approaching how to...