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High-Temp Superconducting Nanowire System is First of its Kind

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have, for the first time, created an array of nanowires that are superconducting at relatively high temperatures. This work, published recently in Nano Letters, could lead to the incorporation of superconducting nanowires into emerging nanotechnologies.

Turning vibrations into energy, nanowire style

Considering the problems inherent to fossil fuel energy production and the increasing saturation of mobile electronic devices, one would think that we could waste less of the energy that we produce and carry with us. However, it turns out that we lose a huge fraction of our energy as excess heat and vibration. While some of the lost energy is impossible to recover (in this journal, we follow the laws of thermodynamics!), most waste heat and vibration can be captured and converted back into useable energy.

Single atoms switch nanowires

Adding just a single atom to a nanowire, or taking one away from it, can completely change the wire's magnetic properties. So say researchers in Germany who have modelled the effect of atom parity on antiferromagnetic wires placed on a ferromagnetic surface. The phenomenon, unique to nanostructures, might one day be used to make atomic-scale switches or logic gates composed of magnetic wires.

Detecting tiny twists with a nanomachine

Researchers at Boston University working with collaborators in Germany, France and Korea have developed a nanoscale torsion resonator that measures miniscule amounts of twisting or torque in a metallic nanowire. This device, the size of a speck of dust, might enable measurements of the untwisting of DNA and have applications in spintronics, fundamental physics, chemistry and biology.

How Self-Powered Nanotech Machines Work

Editor's Note: This story, originally printed in the January 2008 issue of Scientific American, is being posted due to a new study by the author, Zhong Lin Wang, on flexible nanowire energy generators.

The gripping potential of DNA nanotechnology

(Nanowerk Spotlight) DNA, the fundamental building block of our genetic makeup, has become an intense nanotechnology research field. DNA molecules can serve as precisely controllable and programmable scaffolds for organizing functional nanomaterials in the design, fabrication, and characterization of nanometer scale electronic devices and sensors. The reason why DNA could be useful in nanotechnology for the design of electric circuits is the fact that it actually is the best nanowire in existence – it self-assembles, it self-replicates and it can adopt various states and conformations (see: DNA electronics in nanotechnology or The long road to molecular electronics could be paved with DNA). Then of course there is a rich body of work on DNA use in nanorobotics such as Ned Seeman's work at NYU (see: Nanorobotic arm to operate within DNA

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