News from the NNI Community - Research Advances Funded by Agencies Participating in the NNI

Date Published
(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Northwestern University and Columbia University have developed a tiny nanolaser that can function inside living tissues without harming them. The laser, which is about 1/1,000th the thickness of a single human hair, has the potential to sense disease biomarkers or perhaps treat deep-brain neurological disorders, such as epilepsy.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Rice's Brown School of Engineering have created what may be viewed as the world's smallest incandescent light bulb. Composed of near-nanoscale materials that absorb heat and emit light, this light source promises to advance sensing, photonics, and perhaps computing platforms beyond the limitations of silicon.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Rice's Brown School of Engineering have created what may be viewed as the world's smallest incandescent light bulb. Composed of near-nanoscale materials that absorb heat and emit light, this light source promises to advance sensing, photonics, and perhaps computing platforms beyond the limitations of silicon.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)

Just as the steam engine set the stage for the Industrial Revolution, and micro transistors sparked the digital age, nanoscale devices made from DNA are opening up a new era in bio-medical research and materials science.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)

Just as the steam engine set the stage for the Industrial Revolution, and micro transistors sparked the digital age, nanoscale devices made from DNA are opening up a new era in bio-medical research and materials science.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office)

MIT engineers have developed a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995% of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office)

MIT engineers have developed a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995% of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have introduced the first universal adsorption model that accounts for detailed nanoparticle structural characteristics, metal composition and different adsorbates, making it possible to not only predict adsorption behavior on any metal nanoparticles but screen their stability, as well. This improvement will significantly accelerate nanomaterials design and avoid trial and error experimentation in the lab.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have introduced the first universal adsorption model that accounts for detailed nanoparticle structural characteristics, metal composition and different adsorbates, making it possible to not only predict adsorption behavior on any metal nanoparticles but screen their stability, as well. This improvement will significantly accelerate nanomaterials design and avoid trial and error experimentation in the lab.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research)

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Harvard Medical School have developed a method that combines the team's DNA-powered imaging technology with a single-molecule labeling strategy at a desired location within synthetic nanostructures or intact cells. This approach could allow researchers to stimulate or inhibit the functions of individual molecules in real time and with very high resolution.