There have been impressive advances in computational methods, allowing researchers to better understand biological and physiological systems at the atomic level. In its latest Perspectives in General Physiology series, the Journal of General Physiology (JGP) offers an in-depth look at several of these methods and the advantages of each as applied to membrane proteins, with special focus on ion channels.

Researchers at the University of Iceland, University of Cologne and the Fraunhofer Institute Jena have demonstrated net optical amplification in a plasmonic waveguide.

A $3 million Ohio Third Frontier award to the University of Dayton Research Institute will fund the scale-up and production of a 'game-changing' new nanomaterial that will allow composites to multitask - a wind turbine tower that can de-ice its own blades in winter, or store energy to release on a calm day, powering a grid even when its blades are not moving.

The NanoKTN has helped secure over 2.5 million euros funding for a number of its members, to aid further development into a new generation of fluid lubricants that use nanomaterials.

A collaboration between researchers ha led to the discovery of a new self-assembly method for controlling the dimensions of cylinders created from polymer precursors which contain two chemically different segments joined together, so the length of the cylinders can be precisely controlled.

A Taiwan research team has developed a new approach for investigating the amount of nano-/microparticles taken up by mammalian cells.

Der neue Nano-Energie-Newsletter des Centers for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen CeNIDE erscheint kuenftig drei bis vier Mal jaehrlich.

The silicon transistors in your computer may be replaced in ten years by transistors based on carbon nanotubes. This is what scientists at the University of Gothenburg are hoping - they have developed a method to control the nanotubes during production.

Researchers have theoretically developed and experimentally demonstrated that the artificial catalytic nucleic acids called DNAzymes and their substrates constitute a platform for the logic operations essential to computational processes.

Among the various production methods for carbon nanotubes and graphene, currently only chemical vapor deposition techniques demonstrate a significant opportunity for mass production of CNT material. Using the CVD process, which is based on the catalytic action of metals, manufacturers can combine a metal catalyst such as iron with reaction gases such as hydrogen to form carbon nanotubes inside a high-temperature furnace. In order to optimize the synthesis process, a detailed understanding of the interaction between nanotubes or graphene and metal atoms is required - something that has been missing so far. Researchers in France have now shown that it is possible to create atomic-scale defects in carbon nanotubes and in graphene in preselected positions with a focused electron beam and to use these defects as trapping centers for foreign atoms.