(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University have shown that carbon nanotubes could be combined with machine learning to detect subtle differences between closely related immune cells. The researchers used an in vitro experiment that involved placing live cells into a culture dish, adding carbon nanotubes, and then using a specialized microscope with an infrared camera to observe the emitted light from each cell. The camera generated millions of data points, each of which reflected cellular activity. Healthy cells emitted one type of light, while potentially unhealthy or changing cells emitted different light patterns.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Penn State, the University of North Texas, the University of Pennsylvania, Université Paris-Saclay in France, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have shown that the light emitted from two-dimensional (2D) materials can be modulated by embedding a second 2D material, called a nanodot, inside them. The researchers showed that by controlling the nanodot size, they could change the color and frequency of the emitted light. The control came from adjusting the band gaps of the materials – essentially the energy threshold electrons must cross to make a material emit light.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Alliance for Research and Technology in Singapore, in collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and MIT, have developed a groundbreaking near-infrared fluorescent nanosensor that can simultaneously detect and differentiate between iron (II) and iron (III) in living plants. This first-of-its-kind nanosensor allows precise localization of iron in plant tissues or subcellular compartments, enabling the measurement of even minute changes in iron levels within plants. The nanosensor features single-walled carbon nanotubes wrapped in a negatively charged fluorescent polymer, forming a structure that interacts differently with iron (II) and iron (III).

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Cornell University and the Army Research Laboratory have devised a new method for designing metals and alloys that can withstand extreme impacts. When a metallic material is struck at an extremely high speed, it immediately ruptures and fails. The reason for that failure is embrittlement – the material loses its ability to bend without breaking – when deformed rapidly. The researchers created a nanocrystalline alloy made of copper and tantalum in which dislocations could barely move more than a few nanometers before they were stopped in their tracks, effectively suppressing embrittlement. Dislocations are tiny defects that move through a crystal. During rapid, extreme strains, the dislocations accelerate and interact with lattice vibrations, which create substantial resistance that leads to embrittlement.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Purdue University, and the University of Illinois Urbana−Champaign have used a nanoscale quantum sensor to measure spin fluctuations near a phase transition in a magnetic thin film. Thin films with magnetic properties at room temperature are essential for data storage, sensors and electronic devices because their magnetic properties can be precisely controlled and manipulated. The researchers used a specialized instrument called a scanning nitrogen-vacancy center microscope at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL. A nitrogen-vacancy center is an atomic-scale defect in diamond in which a nitrogen atom takes the place of a carbon atom, and a neighboring carbon atom is missing, creating a special configuration of quantum spin states.