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Last month's presidential election in France offers the best chance in decades for profound reform of the country's research and innovation systems. Nicolas Sarkozy must not blow the opportunity.
The opportunity to power devices remotely from a thin flexible sheet on the floor or walls sounds futuristic. Combining the unique attributes of organic electronics with high-resolution printing methods has made it possible.
Many living organisms contain silica structures. A biomimetic synthesis process that uses a peptide as a template gives an opportunity for making a new kind of silica structure and understanding the details of how it forms.
A direct electrical current can drive high-frequency oscillations of the magnetization of a nanomagnet. A current-tunable microwave oscillator has now been demonstrated that shows large-amplitude oscillations.
Polyelectrolyte gels are currently used as superabsorbers for polar solvents, such as water. Designing them so that the polyelectrolyte chains and their counterions don't get too close to each other makes them useful for absorbing less-polar solvents, too.
Ferromagnetic clusters within magnetic semiconductors have long been regarded as the bane of semiconductor spintronics. However, they can actually be used to tailor desirable spintronic functionality.