Dec 23, 2025 Scientists develop metal-organic framework composites that convert nitrogen to ammonia using renewable electricity, offering a cleaner fertilizer alternative. (Nanowerk News) For more than a century, the world has relied on the Haber-Bosch process to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, the key ingredient in synthetic fertilizers. This industrial...
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Stardust study resets how life’s atoms spread through space
Dec 22, 2025 Observations of red giant R Doradus suggest stardust grains are too small for starlight to drive winds, challenging a key model. (Nanowerk News) Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That’s...
Universal growth conditions yield transfer-free monolayer graphene on perovskite oxides
Dec 22, 2025 Identical growth conditions yield uniform monolayer graphene on three different perovskite oxides, suggesting gas-phase chemistry enables universal fabrication without the defects that transfer methods introduce. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Stacking graphene onto perovskite oxides creates hybrid structures with electronic properties that neither material possesses alone. Graphene on strontium titanate,...
Engineered vesicles train immune cells to suppress harmful responses
Dec 22, 2025 A new class of engineered extracellular vesicles induces antigen-specific regulatory T cells, offering a targeted strategy for treating autoimmune and allergic diseases. (Nanowerk News) A research team at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) and the Faculty of Medicine at Kanazawa University has developed a new class...
Chemists create a gold nanocluster with an open channel running through its atomic core
Dec 22, 2025 A 40-atom gold nanocluster breaks from gold's signature dense packing, forming square atomic planes with a central channel that accelerates electron relaxation about 80x. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Gold refuses to behave like other metals. It ignores oxygen, shrugs off acids that dissolve platinum, and maintains its lustrous gleam...
Washing machine filters that trap micro- and nanoplastics before they reach waterways
Dec 22, 2025 Tests show a new washing machine filter cuts polyester microfibres and captures particles down to 20 microns, helping keep plastics out of waterways. (Nanowerk News) A single laundry load containing synthetic clothing can release thousands of plastic microfibres from nylon, acrylic and polyester materials. Lab testing of...
Quantum nanothermometer shows that single-cell hyperthermia triggers immune reprogramming
Dec 21, 2025 Atomic defects in nanodiamonds enable both precise heating of lysosomes inside macrophages and nanoscale temperature measurement, revealing that localized thermal spikes trigger immune cell reprogramming. (Nanowerk Spotlight) The human body maintains a core temperature of about 37 °C, but the interiors of individual cells tell a different...
This message will self-destruct, courtesy of living bacteria
Dec 20, 2025 Bacterial patterns invisible to the eye reveal hidden information only with correct biochemical triggers, creating anti-counterfeiting codes that are harder to copy or forge. (Nanowerk Spotlight) A petri dish sits under ultraviolet light, revealing a glowing QR code formed entirely from living bacterial colonies. Scan it with...
Nanofluidic chips could make nanopore sensing practical for diagnostics
Dec 19, 2025 Linking nanopores with nanofluidic chips can slow molecules, cut noise, scale measurements, and enable early disease detection and precision diagnostics. (Nanowerk News) When disease begins forming inside the human body, something subtle happens long before symptoms appear. Individual molecules such as DNA, RNA, peptides, or proteins begin...
Laser-assisted imprinting patterns ultrathin nanowires on flexible transparent films
Dec 19, 2025 A scalable nanofabrication method uses electric-field alignment and picosecond laser welding to imprint patterned silver nanowire networks on polymer films. (Nanowerk News) A breakthrough development in nanofabrication could help support the development of new wireless, flexible, high-performance transparent electronic devices. Researchers from the University of Glasgow’s James...