Volume 18 Issue 10, October 2019

3D printing is now widely used in aerospace, healthcare, energy, automotive and other industries. Metal printing, in particular, is the fastest growing sector, yet its development presents scientific, technological and economic challenges that must be understood and addressed.

Reducing the thickness of an amorphous conductive indium tin oxide layer down to a few nanometres has enabled the realization of 40-nm-long channel transistors with remarkable operating characteristics.

Understanding the mechanics of acute kidney injury from toxins, ischemia and sepsis remains challenging. Molecular probes with high renal clearance have now been developed for real-time optical detection of early-stage biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and for the understanding of the mechanisms of injury.

Majorana zero modes — useful for quantum computing — are revealed in carbon nanotubes by utilizing a synthetic spin–orbit interaction.

A high-spatial-resolution force microscopy method combined with a model of cellular mechanics quantifies intracellular forces from nanoscale stiffness patterns at the cell membrane.

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells have been engineered using gold nanoformulations conjugated with CRISPR capable of targeting two distinct genomic loci of therapeutic interest, with potential engraftment in humanized mouse models.

This Perspective explores correlative characterization for bringing together multiple imaging modalities with maps of local chemistry, structure and functional performance to improve our understanding and manufacturing of existing materials and facilitate data-centric materials innovation.

Evidence for spin chirality fluctuations in two-dimensional ferromagnets is provided by magnetotransport measurements.

A magnetic texture is used to synthetically induce a large spin–orbit interaction in a carbon nanotube, and signatures of Majorana zero modes—promising for quantum computing applications—are observed.

Due to the crystal symmetry of single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides and the fact that the conduction and valence band edges are at the zone-edge K points, the 2p exciton states are split. A two-colour pump–probe scheme is used to drive the 1s–2p exciton transition, and then probe the changes in absorption near the spectral position of the 1s line to measure the splitting energy.

High-spatial-resolution mechanical imaging reveals that intracellular forces generate cellular nanoscale stiffness patterns.

Optical or electric perturbations create a hyperuniform pattern in a correlated electron glass.

Triplet excited states related to partial molecular structures are shown to mediate spin-flip between lowest singlet and triplet excited states in multiple donor–acceptor charge-transfer-type organic molecules.

Controlled physical vapour deposition of indium tin oxide layers with thickness down to 4 nm allows the use of these materials as active channels in high-performing transistors for digital and radiofrequency electronics.

The semiconductor–electrolyte interface dominates the behaviour of semiconductor electrocatalysts. Inspired by ion-controlled electronics a universal self-gating phenomenon is now proposed to explain transport modulation during electrocatalytic reaction.

A ceramic electrolyte with a lithium metal anode can offer advantages over liquid electrolytes for Li-ion battery performance. A critical current density on stripping in a solid-state cell is identified, resulting in dendrite formation on plating and failure.

Layered 2D sheets can present impressive molecular sieving properties, but suffer from limited water stability. Here, a membrane composed of MoS₂ sheets functionalized by hydrophobic groups displays stability and high performance for desalination under reverse osmosis.

The rotational dynamics of self-propelled microparticles suspended in a colloidal glass is sharply increased at the glass transition of the system while their translation diffusion is strongly hindered.

Gold nanoparticles that passively deliver CRISPR machinery to blood repopulating cells have been developed and are shown to be capable of precise editing of multiple genetic loci of therapeutic interest without cytotoxicity or reduced fitness.

Chemiluminescent molecular renal probes have been developed and are shown to be capable of non-invasive real-time imaging of early-stage oxidative stress biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and high renal clearance.

Stuart Higgins reflects on his experience as both a scientist and a producer of the podcast Scientists not the Science.