Volume 9 Issue 1, January 2014

The confluence of nanotechnology and biotechnology provides significant commercial opportunities. By identifying, classifying and tracking firms with capabilities in both biotechnology and nanotechnology over time, we analyse the emergence and evolution of the global nanobiotechnology industry.

Eric Drexler has restated his vision of nanotechnology in a new book. Chris Toumey explores its apparent contradictions.

An artificial motor protein with loosely coordinated subunits can travel at high speed and over long distances.

DNA motors can transport CdS nanoparticles along tracks made of carbon nanotubes.

Polarized arrays of microtubules can be assembled and disassembled using motor proteins that are programmed by DNA strands.

The exchange interaction between the electron spin in individual magnetic atoms and the spin of electrons in a non-magnetic substrate has a strong effect on the magnetic anisotropy of the atoms.

Nanomagnet logic devices that do not require a magnetic field for clocking can now be fabricated.

Stable fluorescence is observed in nanodiamonds of molecular dimensions extracted from a meteorite.

This Review reports the state of the art for silicon nanostructures used in photonics and photovoltaic applications, and highlights the challenges for making silicon a high-performing photonic material.

Diverse myosins can be modified by non-natural means to obtain high processivity on actin filaments.

Motors based on RNA-cleaving DNA enzymes can transport cadmium sulphide nanocrystals along single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Kinesin motor proteins conjugated to DNA nanostructures can be used to assemble a network of microtubule tracks, and to control the loading, active concentration and unloading of cargo on this network, or trigger its disassembly.

The spontaneous emission rate and emission intensity of dye molecules are significantly enhanced by using a nanopatterned multilayer hyperbolic metamaterial.

Diamond nanoparticles containing only about 400 atoms emit bright fluorescence due to silicon vacancy defects.

Nanomagnetic logic elements that do not require a magnetic field for clocking are now fabricated.

The spin excitation energy and the magnetic anisotropy of individual atoms can be modified by varying the exchange coupling of the atomic spin to metallic leads.

Cobalt oxide nanoparticles can carry out overall water splitting with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of around 5%.

Rigid DNA origami scaffolds can be used to hierarchically organize metal nanoparticles, quantum dots and organic dyes into functional nanoclusters that have a planet–satellite-type structure.

A study of the magnetic fine structure of the electronic states in a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to a superconducting contact highlights important elements that should be taken into account in the search for Majorana modes in the solid state.