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Nanoscience and nanotechnology offer fundamental challenges in research and the possibility of a new industrial revolution. This presents opportunities for all sorts of scientists and engineers.
The invention of the scanning tunnelling microscope 25 years ago, followed by the arrival of the atomic force microscope five years later, were crucial events in the history of nanoscience and nanotechnology. As the recent International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology in Basel made clear, scanning probe microscopes based on these discoveries are still having a tremendous impact on many areas of research.
A new and scalable method for separating metallic from semiconducting carbon nanotubes will make for easier wiring of nanocircuits and lead to more reliable nanoelectronic devices.
The proteins used as fluorescent markers in cellular imaging are only a few nanometres in size, yet the image resolution is typically diffraction-limited to one hundred times this scale. Now, a new strategy exists for imaging intracellular structure and dynamics with 10 nm resolution.
Controlling the friction between two moving surfaces — and possibly even reducing it to zero — is one of the outstanding challenges in modern tribology. Two recent discoveries may make this dream come true.
The tobacco mosaic virus can be combined with metallic nanoparticles to make novel electronic memory elements. Are virus-based memory sticks just around the corner?
