News & Views

Synthetic DNA-labelled polymers can be made to self-assemble on two- and three-dimensional DNA scaffolds in custom routings.

Quantum mechanical wave interference of massive molecules at an atomically thin grating sheds new light on an old question.

An electrical read-out mechanism for magnetic skyrmions that does not require spin-polarized currents could facilitate the use of these small magnetic states in memory devices.

An optical rectenna made of a forest of multiwalled carbon nanotubes shows potential for direct conversion of light into d.c. electricity.

Randomly assembled nanoparticle networks can compute two-input Boolean functions by exploiting evolution-based computing algorithms.

Characterization of a microdisk resonator suggests that it could be used for ultrasensitive mass detection in biological environments.

Arrays of CMOS nanocapacitors, which can operate at high frequencies, can be used to sense beyond the Debye screening length.

DNA origami nanostructures of unprecedented complexity can be created by finding a DNA strand path through wireframe shapes using an approach based on graph theory.

High-transmission metasurfaces based on elliptical silicon rods provide a simple approach to engineering the phase and polarization of light.

The photocurrent generated at the boundary between structural phases of bismuth ferrite reveals information on the coupling between mechanical and electrical phenomena.

Nanomechanical sensors can now detect femtomolar concentrations of analytes within minutes without the need to passivate the underlying cantilever surface.

Bacterial cells can be sculpted into different shapes using nanofabricated chambers and then used to explore the spatial adaptation of protein oscillations that play an important role in cell division.

Synthetic muscles built from DNA nanotube scaffolds can be used to study how myosin motors work together to make real muscles function.

Low dimensionality in NbSe₂ layers enhances the critical temperature for the onset of charge density wave order, up to a temperature of 145 K in the monolayer limit.

On bending, nanowires display anelastic behaviour, recovering their initial shape over time and efficiently dissipating mechanical energy in the process.

Molecular dynamics simulations show that the flow of water through carbon nanotubes can be enhanced by exciting the phonon modes of the nanotube.

The propagation direction of surface plasmon wakes can be controlled by exciting a series of dipoles with different phases along a one-dimensional metamaterial.

The high sensitivity of magnetic skyrmions to mechanical deformation of the underlying crystal lattice provides a new tuning parameter for potential applications of these nanosized spin whirls.

Studies on a perovskite photovoltaic device suggest that improved stability, one of the hurdles to large-scale applicability of perovskites in solar cells, can be achieved.

A nucleic acid-based chloride sensor is used to image and quantify spatiotemporal chloride transport in the living cell.