In nature and engineering, microcompartments — molecular shells made of proteins that can encapsulate cellular components — provide a tiny home for important reactions. In bacterial organelles, for example, microcompartments known as carboxyso…
Tiny metal nanoparticles are used as catalysts in many reactions, from refining chemicals to producing polymers and biofuels. How well these nanoparticles perform as catalysts for these reactions depend on which of their crystal faces are exposed.
…
In her search to understand one of the most basic human senses — touch — Mitra Hartmann turns to what is becoming one of the best studied model systems in neuroscience: the whiskers of a rat. In her research, Hartmann, associate professor of bio…
Researchers from Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have studied individual water droplets and discovered a miniature version of the “water hammer,” an effect that produces the familiar radiator pipe clanging…
Gallium nitride (GaN) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are among the most technologically relevant semiconducting materials. Gallium nitride is ubiquitous today in optoelectronic elements such as blue lasers (hence the blue-ray disc) and light-emitting-diodes (…
EVANSTON, Ill. — Researchers at Northwestern University have placed nanocrystals of rock salt into lead telluride, creating a material that can harness electricity from heat-generating items such as vehicle exhaust systems, industrial processes an…
Researchers at Northwestern University have nanoengineered a new kind of fiber that could be tougher than Kevlar.
Working in a multidisciplinary team that includes groups from other universities and the MER Corporation, Horacio Espinosa, James N. …
What are borders these days? When travel was local, borders and communities were easy to define, but now our connectivity is more complex. It’s time to think of borders differently, according to Northwestern University researchers.
To reflect toda…
Educational policy is controversial: positions on achievement gaps, troubled schools and class size are emotionally charged, and research studies often come to very different conclusions.
But what if there was a new way of looking at the problem -…
EVANSTON, Ill. — Tweet this, Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. Just because you have a ton of followers on Twitter doesn’t necessarily mean you’re among the most influential people in the Twitterverse, according to researchers from Nor…