Volume 8 Issue 4, April 2013

Without insurance the long-term sustainability of nanotechnology is questionable, but insurance companies are encumbered by their institutional memory of losses from the asbestos crisis and the absence of suitable actuarial models to measure the potential risks of nanotechnology. Here we propose a framework that supports the transfer of nanomaterial production risk to the insurance sector.

A recent book on risk in nanotechnology highlights the different forms of risk studies — analysis, perception and communication — and explores the relationships that exist between them. Chris Toumey reports.

The excitation of plasmons in nanostructured metallic electrodes generates short-lived highly energetic carriers that can be injected into the conduction band of a semiconductor and used to drive artificial photosynthesis.

By varying the distance between two electrodes bridged by a single molecule, the interaction between charges passing through the molecular junction and their mirror images in the metal contacts can be observed.

Ultrafast spin currents in iron-based heterostructures generate terahertz radiation bursts whose frequency can be tailored through structural engineering.

While the size of silicon transistors in conventional computers shrinks towards the atomic scale, the quantum states of atoms and quantum dots in silicon are being investigated for quantum information processing.

Advances in the understanding of Raman processes in graphene have made it an essential tool for studying the properties of this one-atom-thick carbon material.

Water is split into H₂ and O₂ by charges deriving exclusively from plasmon excitation in a wireless device.

Electrostatic forces drive mechanical reconfiguration of a photonic metamaterial and enable megahertz-frequency electric modulation of its optical properties.

Through properly designed heterostructures it is possible to control the shape and duration of spin current pulses generated by laser excitation.

Transport measurements in triple quantum dots reveal a bidirectional Pauli spin blockade, and that electron transport occurs through electronic states that are extended over the three dots.

Magnetic force microscopy imaging reveals that individual dislocations in antiferromagnetic NiO crystals show ferromagnetic behaviour originating from the local atomic-scale structure.

Energy-momentum spectroscopy is used to identify distinct intra- and interlayer exciton species in MoS₂ and a perylene derivative.

The flow of nanoscale liquids along the outer surface of solid nanowires at a scale of attolitres per second can be directly imaged with in situ transmission electron microscopy and explained through theoretical analysis.

Electrically and mechanically tunable molecular junctions show large image-charge effects.

The unfolding pathway of a model protein during translocation through a transmembrane pore differs from that in solution.

RNA–DNA hybrids carrying split functionalities can re-associate inside cells and activate RNA interference to selectively suppress certain genes.