(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense)
Caltech engineers have built a metasurface patterned with tunable nanoscale antennas capable of reflecting an incoming beam of optical light to create many channels of different optical frequencies. The work points to a promising route for the development of not only a new type of wireless communication channel but also potentially new range-finding technologies and even a novel way to relay larger amounts of data to and from space. “With these metasurfaces, we’ve been able to show that one beam of light comes in, and multiple beams of light go out, each with different optical frequencies and going in different directions,” says Harry Atwater, one of the engineers involved in this study. “It’s acting like an entire array of communication channels. And we’ve found a way to do this for free-space signals rather than signals carried on an optical fiber.”

(Funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
This online post from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that “[m]icroplastics and nanoplastics may be present in food, primarily from environmental contamination where foods are grown or raised,” but “[c]urrent scientific evidence does not demonstrate that levels of microplastics or nanoplastics detected in foods pose a risk to human health.”

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)
Researchers from North Carolina State University, the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden in Germany, Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in Germany have embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light and expand when the light is removed. When the hydrogel structures are exposed to light, the embedded gold nanorods convert that light into heat. This causes the polymers in the hydrogel to contract, pushing water out of the hydrogel and shrinking the structure. When the light is removed, the polymers cool down and begin absorbing water again, which expands the hydrogel structure to its original dimensions. Because this expansion and contraction can be performed repeatedly, the 3D-printed structures can serve as remotely controlled actuators.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Harvard University have developed nanoparticles that can send gene treatment directly to various types of cells in bone marrow to correct mutations that cause sickle cell disease. The researchers used CRISPR/Cas and base gene-editing techniques in a mouse model of sickle cell disease to activate a form of hemoglobin and correct the sickle cell mutation.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have engineered a seafood-waste material that removes chemical pesticides and herbicides from produce and extends shelf life. The material, made of a derivative of crab and shrimp shells, is designed to form a thin nanocrystal layer on the treated produce, removing chemical residues. The researchers used a smartphone app to check the chemical residue level. They found that this coating was effective in absorbing the chemical residues, enhanced the fruit’s shelf life, and was easily rinsed off.