Volume 9 Issue 3, March 2014

Ten years after the publication of an influential report on the uncertainties in nanoscale science and engineering, Andrew D. Maynard asks, are we in danger of creating a new metaphorical grey goo?

A commercially viable method for synthesizing magnetic nanoparticles could be developed by transferring clusters of genes from magnetic bacteria to foreign, more stable bacteria.

Individual molecules change their conformation on application of an anisotropic compressive stress from the tip of an atomic force microscope.

Nanomechanical cantilevers can determine the concentration of active drugs in human serum.

Quantum computers require error correction protocols to repair the state of the quantum bits. This has now been demonstrated using a 'majority voting' protocol among a cluster of three defect spins in diamond.

A design that allows electrical contacts to be created on semiconductor microphotonic structures brings quantum networks based on semiconductor single photon sources one step closer.

The electron spin of a nitrogen–vacancy centre in diamond can be used to initialize, control and read the surrounding nuclear spins.

Charge fractionalization can be observed in artificial Tomonaga–Luttinger liquids by using a time-resolved electron transport experiment.

Compressive force exerted by an atomic force microscope tip on an individual molecule adsorbed on a surface causes its emission spectrum to shift reversibly.

A Si anode with hierarchical morphology can accommodate large volume changes, demonstrates high Coulombic efficiency and cyclability as well as an areal capacity comparable to that of commercial Li-ion batteries.

Magnetic nanoparticles are synthesized in a foreign host after gene transfer from magnetotactic bacteria.

Using a three-dimensional multi-resolution method the early events leading to the cellular uptake of peptide-modified nanoparticles are visualized in real time.

Pro-inflammatory cells are inactivated by the targeted delivery of drug-loaded protein-based nanoparticles, preventing vascular inflammation.

A type of spin–orbit torque originating from the Berry curvature is identified in ferromagnets with bulk inversion asymmetry.

The spin-momentum locking in a topological insulator can be detected directly through electrical measurements.

A nanomechanical sensor can quantify the concentration of active free drugs in human serum.

Polymer nanoparticles that absorb near-infrared light can be used for photoacoustic imaging with clear advantages over existing contrast agents.