Volume 13 Issue 1, January 2018

Scalability and cost efficiency should intensify research efforts in DNA nanotechnology.

Chris Toumey revisits the 2003 exchange of opinions between Eric Drexler and Richard Smalley, which was one of the most colourful disagreements in the history of nanotechnology.

The microstate of geometrically frustrated two-dimensional arrays of strongly interacting nanomagnets is controlled by means of topological defect-driven magnetic writing, to the extent that elusive configurations such as the ground state and negative-temperature states are realized.

Nanoparticles loaded with paclitaxel and nintedanib induce synthetic lethality in endometrial cancer cells.

Negative capacitance effect in a ferroelectric-based gate stack provides an effective solution for hysteresis-free steep-slope  operation in a MoS₂ field-effect transistor.

A terbium-based molecular magnet, containing four nuclear quantum states, or a qudit, experimentally validates the Grover algorithm for database searches.

This Perspective describes the fundamental principles of nano-opto-electo-mechanical systems and their applications in communication, sensing and signal transduction.

Electric polarization is induced in the binary rock salt layer of an ultrathin insulating heterostructure on a metal electrode, and its hysteretic reversal is demonstrated using a combination of atomically resolved scanning probe microscopies.

A field-effect MoS<Subscript>2</Subscript> transistor with a negative capacitor in its gate shows stable, hysteresis-free performance characterized by a sub-thermionic sub-threshold slope.

Advanced nanoengineering of small-period AG lattices enables the observation of a vanishing density of states that suggests the presence of massless Dirac fermions.

A hybrid molecular motor made of an engineered protein and an RNA lever arm shows bidirectional transport controlled by oligonucleotide signals.

Observation of an efficient out-of-plane energy transfer channel in van der Waals heterostructures, where charge carriers in graphene couple to hyperbolic phonon&#x02013;polaritons on a picosecond timescale.

Boron-nitride-supported graphene transistors show prominent current and noise temperature saturation due to hyperbolic phonon emission by non-equilibrium electron–hole pairs.

Elusive magnetic configurations of geometrically frustrated artificial kagome dipolar spin ices are realized by means of topological defect-driven magnetic writing.

Tip-enhanced photoluminescence spectroscopy allows for modulation and radiative control of dark exciton emission at room temperature.

Gram-negative bacteria exposed to subinhibitory concentrations of silver nanoparticles can develop resistance to their antibiotic activity due to the production of flagellin, an adhesive protein of the bacterial flagellum, which causes the aggregation of silver nanoparticles.

The combination of paclitaxel and the antiangiogenic agent BIBF 1120, loaded into nanoparticles, induces synthetic lethality in endometrial cancers with specific mutations in the tumour suppressor p53, providing the first step towards personalized medicine for endometrial cancer.

RNA nanotechnology is utilized for directional control by altering the orientation of arrow-shaped RNAs for either ligand-display on extracellular vesicle or to regulate intracellular trafficking of siRNA or miRNA in cancer treatment.

Failure is an unavoidable element of the process that leads to discovery and it should be embraced even in early education, says Deji Akinwande.