News & Views in 2010

Understanding the impact of nanomaterials on human health will require more detailed knowledge about the protein corona that surrounds nanoparticles in biological environments.

Graphene nanoribbons with low defect densities and large energy gaps can be fabricated by chemically unzipping carbon nanotubes and annealing the result.

Contacts between a single molecule and a metal electrode can be good or bad depending on the number of metal atoms that are in direct contact with the molecule.

Quantum-control pulse sequences can suppress errors and significantly extend the lifetimes of spin-based quantum bits in solid-state devices.

Can silicon ever be a true direct-bandgap semiconductor? The first observation of a new, short-lived photoluminescence band from silicon nanocrystals offers fresh hope.

A pump–probe approach allows the relaxation times of single spins to be measured.

Ionic-conductance measurements show that proton mobility in 2-nm-deep hydrophilic channels is up to four times as high as bulk values of mobility.

Electron tunnelling can be used to identify single bases in a short DNA oligomer.

Solutions of DNA-based molecules can be taught to play a simple game in a process that does not require the operator to be familiar with the underlying molecular programming.

An atomic force microscope with antibodies attached to its tip can be used to determine methylation patterns in individual DNA strands by making hundreds of force spectroscopy measurements.

Ideas about angular momentum that have been borrowed from optics could allow the magnetic and spin structures of materials to be studied on atomic scales with electron vortex beams.

Arrays of metallic nanostructures allow chiral biomolecules to be detected and characterized with increased sensitivity.

A phase transition at the surface of a thin film of iron can be exploited to create a metallic non-volatile memory.

A DNA walker moving along a DNA track can perform a series of organic reactions in a single solution without external intervention.

It might be possible to sequence DNA by passing the molecule through a small hole in a sheet of graphene.

Samples of graphene supported on boron nitride demonstrate superior electrical properties, achieving levels of performance that are comparable to those observed with suspended samples.

Arrays of graphene nanoribbons are fabricated on structured silicon carbide substrates using self-organized growth, without lithography and with well-controlled widths.

Patterning thin films of silicon to produce nanomesh structures can reduce their thermal conductivity without compromising their good electrical properties.

Targeting magnetic nanoparticles to tumours then applying an alternating magnetic field can improve the contrast for infrared thermal imaging.

An array of polymer tips that can channel light to an underlying substrate can be used to generate intricate nanostructures with high throughput and over large areas.