ANN ARBOR, Mich.—By mimicking the structure of the silk moth’s antenna, University of Michigan researchers led the development of a better nanopore—a tiny tunnel-shaped tool that could advance understanding of a class of neurodegenerative di…
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 — The eyes of moths, which allow them to see well at night, are also covered with a water-repellent, antireflective coating that makes their eyes among the least reflective surfaces in nature and helps them hide from predators …
The seeds that you plant in your backyard garden next spring — and farmers sow in their fields — may have a guardian angel that helps them sprout, stay healthy, and grow to yield bountiful harvests. It’s a thin coating of chemicals termed a “s…
Magnetometers come in many shapes and sizes — an ordinary hand-held compass is the simplest — but alkali-vapor magnetometers are extrasensitive devices that measure magnetic fields using light and atoms. They can detect archaeological remain…
NIST will use the new ultra-dark detector, described in a new paper in Nano Letters,* to make precision laser power measurements for advanced technologies such as optical communications, laser-based manufacturing, solar energy conversion, and in…
Medical implants may soon get better at preventing life-threatening clogs and bacterial infections thanks to an unusual coating that is being developed from mussels, according to researchers at Northwestern University. They have developed a two-sided coating: one side is a sticky glue based on adhesive proteins secreted by mussels, the other is a special repellant. While the sticky side is designed to attach securely to the surface of the implant, the repellant side prevents the build-up of cells and proteins that typically foul implant devices such as cardiac stents, urinary catheters and dialysis tubing.