Research Highlights

The electrospinning technique commonly used to produce fibrous materials has now been applied to stretch DNA molecules

A combination of lithography and electrochemistry can be used to pattern arrays of free-standing metallic nanowires

With improved optics and intensity, X-ray reflectivity can now provide subnanometre vertical resolution of surface features.

The purity of carbon nanotubes has a significant affect on the thermal conductivity of composite materials

Researchers have combined photolithography and self-assembly to pattern a silicon wafer

Single photoconducting nanowires made from an organic polymer may lead to smaller solar cells and photo-detectors

Nanosized objects can be easily manipulated on a low-friction workbench made of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Disk-like molecules can be self-assembled into nanowires and crosslinked to form robust structures

The charge on a quantum dot controls the magnetic properties of a single manganese atom embedded in it

RNA molecules can be used as scaffolds for the synthesis of CdS nanocrystals of the same size

Quantum ‘back-action’ has been used to lower the temperature of a vibrating nanobeam

The 'molecular fingerprinting' technique known as SERS has now been applied to living samples for the first time

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes can stimulate the growth of a single-celled organism when cultured in yeast medium

A single molecule fixed to the wall of a nanopore can be switched between two states using light

The efficiency of amorphous-silicon solar cells can be improved by adding a layer of gold nanoparticles

A synthetic nanoparticle crystal can be used as a filter for hypersonic vibrational frequencies

The outer edges of a branched molecule can be zipped together to form a nanoparticle with a conjugated polymer coating

Neuronal electronic signal transfer is controlled and measured using silicon nanowire device arrays