Physical sciences articles within Nature Nanotechnology

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    In regenerative medicine, stem-cell-derived extracellular vesicles are emerging as cell-free nanotherapeutics. Here, the authors show that coating these nanovesicles with blood proteins such as albumin improves their uptake by liver cells, offering a better treatment strategy for liver diseases.

    • Revadee Liam-Or
    • , Farid N. Faruqu
    •  & Khuloud T. Al-Jamal

  • Article |

    Here the authors present a non-FRET DNA-templated silver nanocluster probe that exhibits a distinct colour switch from green to red upon nuclease digestion, visible under UV excitation, offering a low-cost, effective alternative to fluorescent reporters for detecting nuclease activities.

    • Soonwoo Hong
    • , Jada N. Walker
    •  & Hsin-Chih Yeh

  • Article |

    Distinguishing proteoforms and post-translational modifications has remained a challenge. Here the authors explore single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer to probe amino acids via DNA exchange and map the location of individual amino acids and post-translational modifications within single full-length protein molecules.

    • Mike Filius
    • , Raman van Wee
    •  & Chirlmin Joo

  • Comment |

    Scientists encounter pressure to validate their research work, leading to varied benchmarks and methods for performance assessment in the broad energy research field. Interlaboratory studies help highlight discrepancies in reported figures of merit, underscoring the need for standardized protocols, transparent reporting, and detailed analysis for fair comparisons. Here, we discuss this topic, focusing on battery materials.

    • Nella M. Vargas-Barbosa

  • Research Briefing |

    An encodable DNA clutch with the ability to recognize microenvironmental molecular inputs intelligently complements the remote control of a 200-nm sized magnetic nanomachine. This nanomachine interacts with biological machinery in vitro when the encoded clutch selectively engages the engine with the rotor while external magnetic fields power the rotation.

  • Research Briefing |

    A robust initialization protocol has been demonstrated for a four-qubit nuclear spin register in silicon. The protocol, driven electrically through electric-dipole spin resonance, enables high-fidelity qubit control and hence a route to a register-based quantum computer that exploits the exceptional coherence properties of atom qubits in silicon.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An electric dipole spin resonance protocol making use of hyperfine interaction enacts high-fidelity initialization of a four-qubit nuclear spin register in silicon. This protocol allows for high-fidelity qubit control and a path towards a register-based quantum computer using the exceptional coherence properties of donors in silicon.

    • J. Reiner
    • , Y. Chung
    •  & M. Y. Simmons

  • Article |

    The nanospace confinement of a magnetic nanoparticle within a porous cage, coupled with an encodable DNA clutch interface, enables a remotely powered and controlled rotary nanomotor that is autoresponsive to its microenvironment.

    • Mouhong Lin
    • , Jung-uk Lee
    •  & Jinwoo Cheon

  • News & Views |

    An intelligent meta-imager can perform multi-channel convolutions to accelerate machine vision for incoherent light.

    • Zheng Huang
    •  & Hongwei Chen

  • Comment |

    The legal definition of a nanomaterial differs around the world, meaning that the same material may be classified as a nanomaterial, or not, depending on the country where it is classified. The first steps towards converging on an international definition are to recognize the differences between existing nanomaterial definitions and to agree on particle counting methods. Meanwhile, we propose a naming convention that indicates the key criteria of a specific definition of a nanomaterial.

    • Kirsten Rasmussen
    • , Juan Riego Sintes
    •  & Hubert Rauscher

  • Article |

    A novel scanning single-electron charging spectroscopy enables nanometre-scale imaging of quasiparticle excitations and thermodynamic gaps in generalized Wigner crystals.

    • Hongyuan Li
    • , Ziyu Xiang
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Article |

    Ptychography is a coherent diffractive imaging method that enables atomic resolution in four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy. Taking advantage of the nature of the investigated object, and therefore using atomic-orbital-like functions for the reconstruction of the object, the resolution can be further improved to an information limit of 14 pm.

    • Wenfeng Yang
    • , Haozhi Sha
    •  & Rong Yu

  • Article |

    Insects have been shown to have the ability to detect different chemical agents. Here, the authors present a nanomaterial-assisted neuromodulation strategy to augment the chemosensory abilities of insects via photothermal effect and on-demand neurotransmitter release from cargo-loaded nanovehicles to augment natural sensory function.

    • Prashant Gupta
    • , Rishabh Chandak
    •  & Srikanth Singamaneni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In vivo positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) remains a challenge due to the lack of single-particle tracers. Here a sub-micrometre silica particle has been radiolabelled and isolated with high specific activity, allowing the dynamic tracing of a single particle in vivo using PEPT in mice.

    • Juan Pellico
    • , Laurence Vass
    •  & Rafael T. M. de Rosales

  • Article |

    Resolving interactions of negligibly charged or neutral small molecules with their binding partners in a label-free manner is challenging. Here the authors present a single-molecule carbon-nanotube biosensor device for capturing aptamer–neurotransmitter kinetics at high temporal resolution, uncovering four-state structural transitions.

    • Yoonhee Lee
    • , Jakob Buchheim
    •  & Kenneth L. Shepard

  • Article |

    A hybrid valley-centre tandem optical structure that combines perovskites and organic light-emitting diodes is demonstrated to obtain an efficient emitting device, showing the commercial potential of perovskite displays.

    • Hyeon-Dong Lee
    • , Seung-Je Woo
    •  & Tae-Woo Lee

  • Article |

    Proteins absorbed on nanomaterials often lose function due to denaturation. A poly(propylene sulfone) nanoparticle with site-specific dipole relaxation has been reported, which allows proteins to anchor to the nanoparticle without disrupting the hydrogen bonding or structure maintaining the protein functionality.

    • Fanfan Du
    • , Clayton H. Rische
    •  & Evan A. Scott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bladder cancer treatment suffers from low therapeutic efficacy. Here the authors present radioactive 131I-labelled urease-powered nanobots that exhibit enhanced accumulation at the tumour site, enabling effective radionuclide therapy at low doses as an alternative treatment option for bladder cancer.

    • Cristina Simó
    • , Meritxell Serra-Casablancas
    •  & Samuel Sánchez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A soft artificial retina with flexible phototransistors and three-dimensional liquid-metal microelectrodes is used to enhance proximity to retinal ganglion cells and minimize damage to soft tissue as well as improve charge injection for vision restoration in retinal degenerative in vivo models.

    • Won Gi Chung
    • , Jiuk Jang
    •  & Jang-Ung Park

  • Article |

    As singularities in non-Hermitian systems, exceptional points exhibit rich topological characteristics and have potential for sensing applications. Now, a nitrogen-vacancy spin in diamond exhibits a third-order exceptional line upon the introduction of multiple symmetries in the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian of the spin system.

    • Yang Wu
    • , Yunhan Wang
    •  & Jiangfeng Du

  • Research Briefing |

    Pre-adsorption of water molecules on a material surface, followed by assembly of a van der Waals (vdW) structure, provides a vdW water gap with a height that can be precisely tuned through variation of the amount of water adsorbed at the interface. This approach is applicable to different two-dimensional and even three-dimensional homo- and heterojunctions.

  • Article |

    A metasurface-based approach is used to implement computationally expensive digital convolution operations in high-speed, low-power optics for improving the latency and power consumption of machine vision systems.

    • Hanyu Zheng
    • , Quan Liu
    •  & Jason G. Valentine

  • Article |

    By preadsorption of water molecules on a material surface, a controllable ångström-scale van der Waals (vdW) gap is created, which can be applied to other vdW material systems with controllable gaps.

    • Chang Liu
    • , Xuming Zou
    •  & Jun He

  • Review Article |

    The Review discusses the state-of-the-art polymer nanocomposites from three key aspects: dipole activity, breakdown resistance and heat tolerance for capacitive energy storage applications.

    • Minzheng Yang
    • , Mengfan Guo
    •  & Yang Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insulin injections are not ideal and have an increased risk of hypoglycaemia. A preferable oral formulation based on silver sulfide quantum dots coated with a chitosan/glucose polymer is discussed, which has controlled insulin release and reduced risk of hypoglycaemia, and demonstrates applications in rodent and non-human primate models.

    • Nicholas J. Hunt
    • , Glen P. Lockwood
    •  & Victoria C. Cogger

  • News & Views |

    Organic and inorganic nanoparticles have different clearance mechanisms from the brain resulting in different biological fates and retention times.

    • Elizabeth Nance

  • News & Views |

    Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction in acid with a nano-structured tandem catalyst achieves high single-pass conversion efficiency and selectivity to useful C–C coupled products, bringing the process closer to commercial viability.

    • Calton J. Kong
    •  & Joel W. Ager

  • Review Article |

    Nanoparticles naturally accumulate in the liver; this can be a major limitation to any therapy needing delivery to other organs or tissues. Here the authors review the reason for predominant liver uptake and explore different strategies used to target non-viral gene delivery nanoparticles to other organs and tissues.

    • Jeonghwan Kim
    • , Yulia Eygeris
    •  & Gaurav Sahay

  • Research Briefing |

    Using fluorinated elastomers in the fabrication of soft neural probes is shown to enhance spatiotemporal recording capability at single-neuron resolution within the central nervous system of rodents. Other soft encapsulation materials could be similarly engineered for high-resolution, long-lasting bioelectronics.

  • News & Views |

    Conserved regions of the circular DNA sequence of the M13mp18 bacteriophage, which is used as a scaffold for DNA origami construction, are targeted with specific hybridization-chain-reaction probes. The probes enable sensitive detection of DNA origami nanostructures in cells, organoids and tissues to assess their biodistribution and stability.

    • Tania Patino

  • News & Views |

    A biohybrid, leaf-spring design of DNA origami functions as a pulsating nanoengine that exploits the DNA-templated RNA transcription mechanism while consuming nucleoside triphosphates as fuel. The nanoengine also drives a nanomechanical follower structure.

    • Divita Mathur

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective discusses the current understanding of extracellular vesicles within the context of their movement into and out of blood circulation, with an outlook on leveraging extracellular vesicle nanobiology for mechanistic insights as well as diagnostic and nanotherapeutic applications in both physiological and pathological contexts.

    • Dalila Iannotta
    • , Amruta A
    •  & Joy Wolfram

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