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DNA is packed in a condensed state in nature to serve numerous functions. The condensation of DNA on a surface typically gives polydisperse structures with no spatial organization. Simmel, Bar-Ziv and colleagues have now shown that by patterning a photo-modifiable biochip with an electron beam, DNA dendrites collapse into one-dimensional fibres 20 nm wide stretching over 70 μm in length. As well as allowing micron-scale DNA patterning, the system is suited to probabilistic problems such as solving a maze and could be integrated with biological circuits to regulate downstream processed linked to DNA condensation. The cover image is a scanning electron microscopy image of DNA condensation propagating through a maze to find the shortest path to the exit.
In 2006, a group of scientists proposed five grand challenges to support the safe handling of nanotechnology. Ten years on, Andrew Maynard and Robert Aitken — two of the original authors — look at where we have come, and where we still need to go.
A general method for particle assembly allows access to a diverse range of modular microscale supraparticles from nanoparticles, nanowires and even cells.
This Perspective discusses an approach to artificial photosynthesis based on arrays of semiconducting microwires and flexible polymeric membranes, and highlights the scientific and engineering challenges involved in delivering an artificial photosynthetic system that is simultaneously safe, robust, efficient and scalable.
This Perspective establishes catalyst activity targets for hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells and discusses advantages and research needs of this technology.
This Perspective discusses the possibilities for using structural nanocomposites to enhance the mechanical properties of materials for automotive applications.
This Review discusses how nanostructured materials are used to enhance the performances and safety requirements of Li batteries for hybrid and long-range electric vehicles.
This Analysis reports an environmental life-cycle screening of various nanomaterials for both batteries and fuel cells for electric vehicles, and discusses the most promising candidates for a sustainable technology.
Multi-terminal superconducting Josephson junctions are used to induce topologically protected transitions between gapless and gapped states, showing the potential for creating artificial topological materials.
Individual ion qubits held in a planar ion trap are optically addressed with scalable nanophotonic waveguides and focusing grating couplers integrated with the trap chip.
Spatially resolved measurements of the absorption, internal quantum efficiency and photoluminescence quantum yield of InP single nanowire solar cells allow the determination of intrinsic losses and thermodynamic limits of these nanophotonic devices.
The phenomenon of circumferential faceting in multiwalled nanotubes of general chirality and identity is rationalized in terms of interwall registry patterns between adjacent layers of curved hexagonal lattices.
A Janus photocatalytic structure can orient and move either towards or away from an external light source, mimicking the behaviour of phototactic microorganisms.
Solid-state nanopores can be used to directly observe individual knots in linear and circular DNA molecules of arbitrary length, and to determine the knot's size, position, and probability of occurrence as a function of DNA length.
Few-layered, vertically aligned MoS2 films can efficiently harvest visible light for photocatalytic water disinfection, allowing >99.999% bacteria to be rapidly inactivated.
Quantum dots encapsulated inside DNA icosahedra that display a single endocytic ligand are used to track compartmental dynamics along endocytic pathways.