Apr 01, 2026 Researchers developed a soft optical bending sensor that enables humanoid robotic hands to perceive finger posture across multiple axes during dexterous tasks. (Nanowerk News) A team of engineers has developed a humanoid robotic hand equipped with a new type of soft optical sensor that can track finger...
Evidence of cosmic explosions with missing black holes
Apr 01, 2026 Scientists have uncovered evidence of a rare form of exploding star, helping to shed light on one of the most cataclysmic events in the Universe. (Nanowerk News) At the end of their lives, most massive stars collapse into black holes – objects with gravity so strong that...
Fullerene’s spherical symmetry enables a reliable three-state molecular switch
Apr 01, 2026 Fullerene's perfect symmetry turns a long-standing weakness of molecular electronics into a programmable three-state switch. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Shrink an electrical switch down to the size of a single molecule and the current flowing through it becomes hostage to geometry. At that scale, the signal depends not just...
AI inspires new research topics in materials science
Apr 01, 2026 Scientific papers are growing so rapidly that researchers struggle to keep up, but AI analysis of materials science literature can still uncover new research directions. (Nanowerk News) The number of scientific papers is growing so rapidly that scientists are no longer able to keep track of all...
Gravitational waves as possible candidates for the origin of dark matter
Apr 01, 2026 Gravitational waves may have produced dark matter in the early universe, according to new calculations exploring a mechanism driven by stochastic gravitational waves. (Nanowerk News) Gravitational waves could be responsible for the production of dark matter during the early phases of our universe’s formation, according to results...
Nanotechnology sensor reads creatinine in seconds for rapid kidney testing
Apr 01, 2026 Biosensor reads creatinine in seconds, enabling rapid kidney function testing with high sensitivity for faster, point-of-care diagnostics. (Nanowerk News) Creatinine measurement is central to renal diagnostics and is routinely performed using urine samples. However, conventional approaches such as the Jaffé reaction suffer from interference, while electrochemical biosensors...
‘Smart’ drugs to fight cancer
Apr 01, 2026 Scientists have designed a molecular system that distinguishes and neutralises cancer cells with unprecedented precision, paving the way for autonomous, self-regulating drugs. (Nanowerk News) How can cancer cells be targeted without damaging healthy tissue? This is one of the major challenges facing oncology today. Using synthetic DNA...
Atomic-level vacancy engineering activates two-dimensional catalyst for lithium-air batteries
Apr 01, 2026 Researchers activated the full basal plane of tungsten diselenide through atomic vacancies, achieving over 550 stable lithium-air battery cycles. (Nanowerk News) A research team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE) has developed a catalyst strategy that converts...
Flexible aerogels from molecular cages open new doors for microporous materials
Apr 01, 2026 Weak van der Waals interactions align metal-organic polyhedra into one-dimensional microporous fibrils, enabling flexible aerogels with excellent moldability and paving the way for industrial application of microporous materials. (Nanowerk News) Porous materials are widely used for gas storage, separation, catalysis, and environmental purification. Their functionality arises from...
2D materials enable artificial charged domain walls for nanoelectronics
Mar 31, 2026 Researchers have presented the first example of an artificially made charged domain wall in a 2D ferroelectric material. (Nanowerk News) In a first for the field, materials scientists from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have interfaced two materials to artificially generate...