February 13, 2017 A nano-CT scan of "thubber," showing the liquid metal microdroplets inside the rubber material. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Carmel Majidi and Jonathan Malen of Carnegie Mellon University have developed a thermally conductive rubber material that represents a breakthrough for creating soft, stretchable machines and electronics. The findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

The new material, nicknamed "thubber," is an electrically insulating composite that exhibits an unprecedented combination of metal-like thermal conductivity, elasticity similar to soft, biological tissue, and can stretch over six times its initial length.

"Our combination of high thermal conductivity and elasticity is especially critical for rapid heat dissipation in applications such as wearable computing and soft robotics, which require mechanical compliance and stretchable functionality," said Majidi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering.

Applications could extend to industries like athletic wear and sports medicinethink of lighted clothing for runners and heated garments for injury therapy. Advanced manufacturing, energy, and transportation are other areas where stretchable electronic material could have an impact.

"Until now, high power devices have had to be affixed to rigid, inflexible mounts that were the only technology able to dissipate heat efficiently," said Malen, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. "Now, we can create stretchable mounts for LED lights or computer processors that enable high performance without overheating in applications that demand flexibility, such as light-up fabrics and iPads that fold into your wallet."

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The key ingredient in "thubber" is a suspension of non-toxic, liquid metal microdroplets. The liquid state allows the metal to deform with the surrounding rubber at room temperature. When the rubber is pre-stretched, the droplets form elongated pathways that are efficient for heat travel. Despite the amount of metal, the material is also electrically insulating.

To demonstrate these findings, the team mounted an LED light onto a strip of the material to create a safety lamp worn around a jogger's leg. The "thubber" dissipated the heat from the LED, which would have otherwise burned the jogger. The researchers also created a soft robotic fish that swims with a "thubber" tail, without using conventional motors or gears.

"As the field of flexible electronics grows, there will be a greater need for materials like ours," said Majidi. "We can also see it used for artificial muscles that power bio-inspired robots."

Majidi and Malen acknowledge the efforts of lead authors Michael Bartlett, Navid Kazem, and Matthew Powell-Palm in performing this multidisciplinary work. They also acknowledge funding from the Air Force, NASA, and the Army Research Office.

Explore further: Breakthrough soft electronics fabrication method is a first step to DIY smart tattoos

More information: High thermal conductivity in soft elastomers with elongated liquid metal inclusions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1616377114

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(Phys.org)Researchers from North Carolina State University have created conductive wires that can be stretched up to eight times their original length while still functioning. The wires can be used for everything from ...

Carmel Majidi and Jonathan Malen of Carnegie Mellon University have developed a thermally conductive rubber material that represents a breakthrough for creating soft, stretchable machines and electronics. The findings were ...

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Science Daily

Nano-level lubricant tuning improves material for electronic devices and surface coatings Science Daily ... mechanical science and engineering at Illinois. "Whereas the wettability of its more famous cousin, graphene, has been substantially investigated, that of atomically thin MoS2 -- in particular atomically thin MoS2 with micro- and nano-scale ... and more »

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Nano-level lubricant tuning improves material for electronic devices and surface coatings - Science Daily

By John LovettTimes Recordjlovett@swtimes.com

The Warehouse at Chaffee Crossing, a row of several 9,000-square-foot World War II era warehouses, soon willbe turned into a mixed-used development with an engineering firm and pizza pub.

Scott Archer, principal engineer with HSA Engineering Consulting Services in Fort Smith, is a partner in the Diades Investments project and said the timeline for site work is pending final approval by the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Design Review Committee and the final details of a bank loan.

The committee meeting was set for Thursday and rescheduled to 2 p.m. Feb. 21. FCRA Executive Director Ivy Owen could not make the meetingbecause ofillness.

Archer noted the firms commitment to the project.

The firm has to move, because right now were homeless, Archer said.

Site work will include new sidewalks and railing on the exterior.

Last March, the FCRA accepted a bid of $100,000 from Archer and Diades Investments for the whole row, a 2.27-acre block of five warehouses, in the 7400 block of Ellis Street across from the historic barracks. The move tipped off an unexpected redevelopment of two rows of old warehouses not far from the Museum of Chaffee History and Chaffee Barbershop Museum. Old Fort Furniture opened in a warehouse last August opposite the Diades Investment project.

Current plans call for The Warehouse at Chaffee Crossing call for a Napoletana-style pizza pub with a nano-brewery that will be capable of producing about 100-gallons of beer per brew. The pizza pub will be next to the engineering firm, and the remaining three 9,000-square-foot warehouses are up for grabs.

First come, first serve, Archer said to entrepreneurs who offer their plans.

A bicycle shop and office space are options suggested by Archer as prime candidates for the mixed-use redevelopment in the three remaining warehouses on that row.

Although there are two interested parties with ideas to house a restaurant in one of those remaining three buildings, there have been no official commitments or plans with dedicated funding attributed. One of the three buildings, however, is currently being used as a storage facility by a local church and those items are set to be relocated further down to Building 5 in the row.

The pizza pub will be in Building 1 with a theme to honor local military units and Fort Chaffees history. The location is directly behind another microbrewery in development by Fort Smith Brewing Co.

Building 2 will house HSA Engineers offices. Archer said his business partner, Rob May, suggested the move last year to the warehouses. Interior wooden beams will be exposed to offer vaulted ceilings as done by Randy DeCanter and his family at Old Fort Furniture on the opposite side of the warehouse district.

If tenants become available during construction, well roll that into Building 3, Archer explained. All of them should be filled within a five-year time span.

Although they have long wanted to have a Napoletana-style pizza place to call their own, Archer said he and his wife, Stacey, found inspiration and help in planning the pizza pub from Anthony Valnotti ofDeLucas Pizzeria in Hot Springs.Scott Archer is also an award-winning home brewer.

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Pizza pub, offices on tap in The Warehouses at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith - Times Record

Willem Pennings is a young New Zealander living in the Netherlands. As an engineering student and maker he's received lots of attention for his projects, and this week I saw his color sorting robot pop up in a few different places.

The base function of the machine is to take a set of colored objects and sort them into separate bowls. M&M's and Skittles are the objects that the machine currently sorts, with a button to toggle between them, but Willem's machine specification page says that any colored object with a regular shape and even dimensions can be sorted.

Breaking the machine down into systems shows that both the mechanical and electrical projects are very well done. The structure and frame were designed in CAD and 3D printed or built from copper tubing and wood. Even the pillars, their only function seemingly to separate the top hopper section from the bottom sorted section, are an elaborate assembly of laser cut elliptical wooden discs with separate channels for wiring and connection laminated together. Two Arduino Nanos and two EasyDrivers are used to control the device. One Nano controls the color sensor and sorting function, the other controls the complex lights and effects built into the robot. The EasyDrivers control the two stepper motors that pull the candies down from the hopper without jamming the system, and turns the sorting tube back and forth between the different sorting bowls. Even the decorative bells-and-whistles system of decoration is intricate, with an LED strip built around the outside of the machine, and six LEDs nested in the bottom of the upper plate to shine down on the six sorting bowls. The power and candy selection buttons also light up, giving the full machine a great glow in several directions.

This is an amazing machine built with an eye on both form and function. It's obviously a maker project with independent spirit involved but the finished product looks more like an IKEA showpiece than a robot built in a garage. The machine was built between May and December 2016, and Willem estimates that the full build cost around 500. Color sorting robots, specially robots to separate Skittles or M&M's, aren't new and many can be found with a quick web search, but this one is definitely a great example of engineering and design. The project build page is incredibly detailed with notes on the design, the components, the process and materials used.

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February 8, 2017 Shown above is the Internal Photoemission (IPE) Measurement System, developed by Hoon Hahn Yoon, combined M.S./Ph.D. student of Natural Science at UNIST. Credit: UNIST

A team of researchers affiliated with UNIST has created a new technique that greatly enhances the performance of Schottky diodes used in electronic devices. Their research findings have attracted considerable attention within the scientific community by solving the contact resistance problem of metal semiconductors, which had remained unsolved for almost 50 years.

As described in the January issue of Nano Letters, the researchers have created a new type of diode with a graphene insertion layer sandwiched between metal and semiconductor. This new technique supplants previous attempts, and is expected to significantly contribute to the semiconductor industry's growth.

The Schottky diode is one of the oldest semiconductor devices, formed by the junction of a semiconductor with a metal. However, due to the atomic intermixing along the interface between two materials, it is impossible to produce an ideal diode. Professor Kibog Park solved this problem by inserting a graphene layer at the metal-semiconductor interface. In the study, the research team demonstrated that this graphene layer, consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms, not only suppresses the material intermixing substantially, but also matches well with the theoretical prediction.

"The sheets of graphene in graphite have a space between each sheet that shows a high electron density of quantum mechanics, in that no atoms can pass through," says Professor Park. "Therefore, with this single-layer graphene sandwiched between the metal and semiconductor, it is possible to overcome the inevitable atomic diffusion problem."

According to Hoon Hahn Yoon, the first author, the study also confirms the prediction that "in the case of silicon semiconductors, the electrical properties of the junction surfaces hardly change regardless of the type of metal they use."

The internal photoemission method was used to measure the electronic energy barrier of the newly fabricated metal/graphene/n-Si(001) junction diodes. The internal photoemission (IPE) measurement system in the image shown above has contributed greatly to these experiments.

Explore further: New theory establishes a path to high-performance 2D semiconductor devices

More information: Hoon Hahn Yoon et al, Strong Fermi-Level Pinning at Metal/n-Si(001) Interface Ensured by Forming an Intact Schottky Contact with a Graphene Insertion Layer, Nano Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03137

Researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have uncovered a way to overcome a principal obstacle in using two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors in electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Adding hydrogen to graphene could improve its future applicability in the semiconductor industry, when silicon leaves off. Researchers at the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), within the Institute for Basic ...

An HZB team headed by Prof. Silke Christiansen has made a surprising discovery about hybrid organic/inorganic solar cells. Contrary to expectations, a diode composed of the conductive organic PEDOT:PSS and an n-type silicon ...

Following a decade of intensive research into graphene and two-dimensional materials a new semiconductor material shows potential for the future of super-fast electronics.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo demonstrate that using germanides of metals at the metal-germanium interface with suitable surface crystal planes, greatly improves the contact resistance and device performance germanium ...

The old rules don't necessarily apply when building electronic components out of two-dimensional materials, according to scientists at Rice University.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which is ubiquitously used as a solid lubricant, has recently been shown to have a two-dimensional (2D) form that is similar to graphene. But, when thinned down to less than a nanometer thick, ...

Researchers have introduced a new type of "super-resolution" microscopy and used it to discover the precise walking mechanism behind tiny structures made of DNA that could find biomedical and industrial applications.

For the first time, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators have captured a movie of how large populations of carbon nanotubes grow and align themselves.

Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light, thanks to new LED arrays that can both emit and detect light.

Positron emission tomography plays a pivotal role for monitoring the distribution and accumulation of radiolabeled nanomaterials in living subjects. The radioactive metals are usually connected to the nanomaterial through ...

Last summer, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced a new, flat lens that could focus light with high efficiency within the visible spectrum. The lens used an ...

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This will certainly be a Valentines Day present space agencies wont forget. On February 14, SpaceX will launch a deadly bacterium to the International Space Station.

The pathogen in question is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and the superbug often leads to hospitalization. The antibiotic-resistant bacterium and others similar to MRSA are responsible for up to 10 million deaths each year, according to one study. In the U.S. alone, 11,000 deaths can be traced directly back to MRSA each year.

With NASAs funding, SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket will launch the MRSA colonies to be cultivated in the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the ISS.

Anita Goel, the leader of the study and Chairman and CEO of Nanobiosym, has become one of the worlds premier experts in nano- biophysics. Nanobiosym won the first XPRIZE in Healthcare for its Gene-RADAR technology. The device allows for cheap and immediate diagnostic tests at one-tenth the cost of current rates.

Goel said by shipping biological substances into space, she and her team can test modern biological thinking with unconventional technology. Her current hypothesis is that near-zero gravity could rapidly speed up the mutations of MRSA weve yet to experience under earths current gravity:

Our work in microgravity on International Space Station is both very practical and fundamental. We are pushing the envelope of personalized, precision medicine, enabling better prediction of drug resistance and hence smarter drugs. On a fundamental science level, I am keen to test my 20-year-old hypothesis that the environment can deeply influence the information flow from both the genome and transcriptome.

By fast-forwarding through the MRSA mutations, Goel hopes that scientists can engineer biological solutions prior to the mutations themselves. Thus, we can have the treatment in place before it becomes too late.

Space offers a wealth of untapped potential, especially for tests like Goels. In 2000, Russian space station Mir housed a cloning project dealing with yeast while an earth-bound team performed the same project. Even NASAs twin study shows space has unforeseeneffects on our understanding of biological functions.

The only major issue comes from any contamination or spreading of MRSA throughout the station. MRSA spreads through contact and especially through close quarters. Symptoms include red bumps that can turn into abscesses.

For more information about MRSA, staph and other antibiotic resistant bacteria, read this comprehensive 2014 strategyfrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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SpaceX to Deliver a Deadly Superbug to the International Space Station - Interesting Engineering

February 10, 2017 Scanning electron microscope image of atomically-thin MoS2 with hierarchical, dual-scale structures. Credit: SungWoo Nam, University of Illinois

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which is ubiquitously used as a solid lubricant, has recently been shown to have a two-dimensional (2D) form that is similar to graphene. But, when thinned down to less than a nanometer thick, MoS2 demonstrates properties with great promise as a functional material for electronic devices and surface coatings.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new approach to dynamically tune the micro- and nano-scale roughness of atomically thin MoS2, and consequently the appropriate degree of hydrophobicity for various potential MoS2-based applications.

"The knowledge of how new materials interact with water is a fundamental," explained SungWoo Nam, an assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois. "Whereas the wettability of its more famous cousin, graphene, has been substantially investigated, that of atomically thin MoS2in particular atomically thin MoS2 with micro- and nano-scale roughnesshas remained relatively unexplored despite its strong potential for fundamental research and device applications. Notably, systematic study of how hierarchical microscale and nanoscale roughness of MoS2 influence its wettability has been lacking in the scientific community."

"This work will provide a new approach to dynamically tune the micro- and nano-scale roughness of atomically thin MoS2 and consequently the appropriate degree of hydrophobicity for various potential MoS2-based applications," stated Jonghyun Choi, a mechanical engineering graduate student and first author of the article, "Hierarchical, Dual-Scale Structures of Atomically Thin MoS2 for Tunable Wetting," appearing in the journal, Nano Letters. "These include waterproof electronic devices with superhydrophobicity with water contact angle greater than 150 degrees. It may also be useful for medical applications with reduced hydrophobicity (WCA less than 100 degrees) for effective contact with biological substances. "

According to the authors, this study, expands the toolkit to allow tunable wettability of 2D materials, many of which are just beginning to be discovered.

"When deformed and patterned to produce micro- and nano-scale structures, MoS2 shows promise as a functional material for hydrogen evolution catalysis systems, electrodes for alkali metal-ion batteries, and field-emission arrays," Nam added. "The results should also contribute to future MoS2-based applications, such as tunable wettability coatings for desalination and hydrogen evolution."

Explore further: Explaining how 2-D materials break at the atomic level

More information: Jonghyun Choi et al, Hierarchical, Dual-Scale Structures of Atomically Thin MoSfor Tunable Wetting, Nano Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05066

We are familiar with cracks in big or small three-dimensional (3-D) objects, but how do thin, two-dimensional (2-D) materials crack? 2-D materials like molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), have emerged as an important asset for future ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have shown that a one-atom thick film of molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) may work as an effective catalyst for creating hydrogen. The work opens a new door for the production of cheap ...

Researchers have found an unexpected way to control the thermal conductivity of two-dimensional (2-D) materials, which will allow electronics designers to dissipate heat in electronic devices that use these materials.

Mechanics know molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a useful lubricant in aircraft and motorcycle engines and in the CV and universal joints of trucks and automobiles. Rice University engineering researcher Isabell Thomann knows ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University, Duke University and Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) holds more promise than previously thought as a catalyst for producing hydrogen ...

Two-dimensional (2D) materials such as molybdenum-disulfide (MoS2) are attracting much attention for future electronic and photonic applications ranging from high-performance computing to flexible and pervasive sensors and ...

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which is ubiquitously used as a solid lubricant, has recently been shown to have a two-dimensional (2D) form that is similar to graphene. But, when thinned down to less than a nanometer thick, ...

Researchers have introduced a new type of "super-resolution" microscopy and used it to discover the precise walking mechanism behind tiny structures made of DNA that could find biomedical and industrial applications.

For the first time, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators have captured a movie of how large populations of carbon nanotubes grow and align themselves.

Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light, thanks to new LED arrays that can both emit and detect light.

Positron emission tomography plays a pivotal role for monitoring the distribution and accumulation of radiolabeled nanomaterials in living subjects. The radioactive metals are usually connected to the nanomaterial through ...

Last summer, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced a new, flat lens that could focus light with high efficiency within the visible spectrum. The lens used an ...

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The new partnership will provide GF Machining with access to Sensofar Metrology's S line of surface metrology systems. (Image courtesy of Sensofar Metrology.)

The addition of these systems is expected to assist in the development of advanced nano-texturing methods that can be used to produce specific surfaces that meet precise functional or specific esthetic requirements.

These nano-texturing methods utilize both micro- and nano-manufacturing technologies including ultrashort pulsed (ultrafast) laser and EDM.

The new metrology system will allow GF Machining Solutions to reverse engineer natural surface textures down to nano-feature level. It will also enable the company to chart the entire production process of artificial surfaces manufactured with these textures, from the micromachining of the mold to the degree of replication achieved in the molding process.

Carbon matting surface replicated using an ultrafast laser system. (Image courtesy of Sensofar Metrology.)

The S neox platform employs three complementary measurement techniques confocal, interferometry and focus variation (FV) in a single sensor head. This enables users to explore new micro- and nano-texturing approaches across a broad range of scales and structures. Measurement reports will fall within the 3D surface texture parameters defined by ISO 25178. The package for GF Machining will also include custom hardware and software.

GF Machining has employed FV 3D metrology systems before, but expects the new metrology system to provide more advanced surface texturing approaches.

The two companies will jointly demonstrate the new metrology systems at several trade events and workshops in the automotive, optical, medical, micromachining and semiconductor sectors. Additionally, any GF Machining-qualified Sensofar systems sold because of the strategic partnership will be delivered and supported through Sensofars existing global network of distribution and service channels.

For more information, visit the websites for GF Machining Solutions and Sensofar Metrology.

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BioPhotonics Mar 2017

Aydogan Ozcan, UCLA

This is not only a great window of opportunity for all of us, but is also an important responsibility. To transform this exciting and timely opportunity into real impact to globally train and educate the next generations of photonics scientists and engineers, our community has to be proactive in the creation and significant expansion of undergraduate research opportunities in our labs. This will give these young minds firsthand experience in cutting-edge photonics research.

Through such undergraduate research and training programs in our institutions, we will generate transformative impact on the overall quality of undergraduate optics education by:

(1) Providing unique interdisciplinary and hands-on optics-related research experiences for undergraduate students, also shaping their scientific thinking and curiosity;

(2) Increasing the placement of undergraduate students in optics and photonics-related graduate programs, research labs and R&D efforts in the science and technology workforce; and

(3) Creating role models and resource centers for other institutions and universities for adapting similar optics-focused undergraduate research and training programs at a global scale.

The sophistication and technical depth of our scholarship and research projects can sometimes create challenges for us to find appropriate levels of projects to which undergraduate students can make meaningful contributions with their limited time commitment and background.

While this might initially look like a challenging problem for many of us, I can assure you through firsthand experience that undergraduate students, if trained through an appropriate lab infrastructure, can become extremely valuable members of a project team and make meaningful scholarly contributions that deserve co-authorship in resulting publications. In fact, several of my own undergraduate researchers have published more than 150 journal articles and conference proceedings with us over the last few years, and even served as first authors in several of these publications. Some of these very successful undergraduate researchers with several publications resulting from their work received prestigious fellowships and graduate scholarships despite the fact that they had rather low or modest GPAs. This taught me how classroom-based teaching can be quite different and, in some cases, mislead our judgment.

Such an exciting and productive research experience for these students also helped their retention in STEM-related fields. In fact, almost 100 percent of these students, after graduation, continued to either graduate school or science- and technology-related industry positions with a significant research background in optics.

The undergraduate research and training program in my lab also has been helping with diversity since a significant portion of these students have been women and from under-represented backgrounds. In addition to my personal experience, many research labs in photonics, such as professor Rebecca Richards-Kortums lab at Rice University, and in various other fields as well, have provided ample evidence over decades to the advantages of undergraduate research and training. These programs can lead to increased productivity for cutting-edge research and development, in addition to providing excellent opportunities for increasing diversity and retention rates in optics and photonics fields.

With this recent window of exciting opportunity created by the IYL, it is now the time to make this successful practice a widely embraced global culture in optics/photonics education and training at the undergraduate level.

Meet the author

Aydogan Ozcan is the Chancellors Professor at UCLA, an HHMI Professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, leading the bio- and nano-photonics laboratory at the UCLA School of Engineering, and the associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute. He is also a member of the BioPhotonics editorial advisory board; email: ozcan@ucla.edu.

The views expressed in Biopinion are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Photonics Media. To submit a Biopinion, send a few sentences outlining the proposed topic to marcia.stamell@photonics.com. Accepted submissions will be reviewed and edited for clarity, accuracy, length and conformity to Photonics Media style.

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Research the Key to a Rich, Meaningful Undergraduate Photonics Education - Photonics.com

Neither the cell membrane nor the cytoplasm nor the nuclear membrane stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. These couriers are nanoparticles that carry Cas9-ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes into the cytoplasm and nucleus of target cells, and do so with uncommon efficiency.

Newly developed by scientists in Vincent Rotello's laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the nanoparticles are significant because they could enhance the effectiveness of the already powerful CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool, which holds enormous promise for treating genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and hemophilia. To work well, however, CRISPR/Cas9 must be delivered safely across the cell membrane and into its nucleus, a difficult process that can trigger the cell's defenses. These defenses can "trap" CRISPR/Cas9, greatly reducing its treatment potential.

Details about the new delivery system recently appeared in the journal ACS Nano, in an article entitled, Direct Cytosolic Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9-Ribonucleoprotein for Efficient Gene Editing. The article describes how the new delivery method depends on an engineered version of the Cas9 protein, named Cas9En, and carrier nanoparticles that have been designed to be compatible with CasEn.

Here, we report a remarkably highly efficient (90%) direct cytoplasmic/nuclear delivery of Cas9 protein complexed with a [single] guide RNA (sgRNA) through the coengineering of Cas9 protein and carrier nanoparticles, wrote the articles authors. This construct provides effective (30%) gene editing efficiency and opens up opportunities in studying genome dynamics.

The Rotello laboratory's experiment leader, Rubul Mout, Ph.D., pointed out that since CRISPR's potential was first discovered in 2012, gene editing or genome engineering has quickly become an intense research topic in biology and medicine. The goal is to treat otherwise incurable genetic diseases by manipulating diseased genes. "However, to achieve this, noted Dr. Mout, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are constantly searching for more efficient CRISPR delivery methods."

"CRISPR has two components: a scissor-like protein called Cas9, and an RNA molecule called sgRNA that guides Cas9 to its target gene, he explained. Once the Cas9-sgRNA pair gets to the destination gene in the nucleus, it can interrogate its genetic mistakes and correct them with the help of the host cell's repair machinery."

But the direct and efficient delivery of Cas9-RNP into the cytosol followed by translocation to the nucleus has remained a challenge.

"By finely tuning the interactions between engineered Cas9En protein and nanoparticles, we were able to construct these delivery vectors, said Dr. Mout. The vectors carrying the Cas9 protein and sgRNA come into contact with the cell membrane, fuse, and release the Cas9-sgRNA directly into the cell cytoplasm.

"Cas9 protein also has a nuclear guiding sequence that ushers the complex into the destination nucleus. The key is to tweak the Cas9 protein," he continued. "We have delivered this Cas9 protein and sgRNA pair into the cell nucleus without getting it trapped on its way. We have watched the delivery process live in real time using sophisticated microscopy."

90% cytosolic/nuclear delivery is a huge improvement compared to others methods, the researchers pointed out. The researchers also indicated that the Cas9En they developed may also serve as a platform for delivery of a variety of other materials such as polymers, lipid nanoparticles, or self-assembling peptides.

"Now that we have achieved efficient gene editing in cultured cells, we are aiming to edit genes in pre-clinical animal models, Vincent Rotello, Ph.D., remarked. We are also interested in gene editing for adoptive therapies, where a diseased cell is isolated from a patient, corrected by CRISPR in the lab, and delivered back to the patient."

Apart from gene editing, the new delivery method may have other uses. For example, another important issue in biology and medicine is tracking DNA and RNA inside cells. Recently, CRISPR has been used to aid in this research. Moumita Ray, Ph.D., another researcher in the Rotello laboratory, added, "Our method allows the precise monitoring of Cas9 protein movement inside a cell, opening new opportunities in genomic research."

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Nano-CRISPR Packages Attain 90% Delivery Rate with Engineered Cas9 - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

(L-R) Professor Alan Weimer, CU Boulder alum Karen Buechler, CU Boulder alum Mike Masterson and ProfessorSteve George are at ALD NanoSolutions in Broomfield, Colorado.

In 1997, Professor Alan Weimer of chemical and biological engineering heard a campus talk by Professor Steven George of chemistry about a novel process of coating surfaces with the thinnest of materials possible, known as atomic layer deposition (ALD).

One of the things Steve talked about was putting an extremely thin film coating on a flat piece of metal as part of a research project for the U.S. Navy looking for ways to better protect the hulls of ships, explains Weimer, an expert in fine particle processing. We talked afterward and eventually decided to team up on the research.

The thickness, or lack thereof, of ALD is breathtaking. Each layer of the coatings the researchers lay down is generally the thickness of a single atomabout a million times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The team also can control the number of atomic layers, changing up the chemistry depending on the project.

Within a few years Weimer and George had filed a number of patents on the technology, gaining exclusive rights to a wide range of intellectual property. When the CU Technology Transfer Office strongly hinted it would be a good move to start a spin-off company, Weimer and George sought out CU Boulder postdoctoral researcher Karen Buechler, who was working in Weimers lab at the time.

They told me they knew I was looking for a job, and they needed someone who has the energy to pursue this outside of the university, she recalls. So I said I would do it. But we still needed someone who had experience running a business, which none of us had.

No problem. Weimer called Mike Masterson, his former graduate school office mate at CU Boulder in chemical engineering. Masterson, who was embarking on a career in Boston as a venture capitalist, became the first and only CEO of ALD NanoSolutions (ALD Nano).

In a weak moment I said Sure, Ill do that, Masterson recalls with a laugh. ALD Nano was now officially rolling with its four CU Boulder co-founders.

When you start a company, there are a lot of things you cant control, and there is a lot of luck involved, says Masterson, who has started eight high-tech companies. You really cant control the markets and you cant control the global economic environment. But one thing you can control is who you get into business with. With Al, Steve and Karen, I knew I was going to be working with honest, smart and very dedicated people.

Daniel Higgs (left) and Rob Hall (right), both doctoral graduates of Steve George's lab, now are researchers for ALD Nano.

In all, the Weimer and George labs have received roughly $18 million over nearly 20 years to support their ALD research. Most of the resulting intellectual property has been exclusively licensed to ALD Nano. This has created an ongoing, productive relationship between the university and its spin-off company, explains Weimer.

So what exactly do the scientists and engineers do at ALD Nano, which is based in Broomfield, Colorado? The way I describe it to my grandmother is we put down really thin coatings on particles and plastics that makes them better, said Buechler. What each particular film does can be very different depending on the application.

The advanced materials ALD Nano is creating are helping to transform industries like lighting, energy storage, consumer electronics and water purification.We unlock the potential of these materials to impact the performance of new and existing products, said Masterson, noting ALD Nano now has customers in the United States, Europe and Asia, including many Fortune 500 companies.

"One of the hot areas for ALD today is improving lithium-ion batteries,"said George. Using atomic layer deposition, the researchers have shown they can improve the performance, extend the life cycle and enhance the safety of batteries in consumer electronics like cell phones and laptops, as well as in electric vehicles and grid storage.

Every time you charge and discharge these batteries, they get a little weaker, and after a couple of years they have about half the power than when they were newsomething known as capacity fade, George explains. We have shown that ALD coatings on the battery electrodes or the particles that comprise the electrodes can reduce capacity fade significantly.

Whats next for ALD Nano? One of the exciting things about this is that many of the applications for our technology have not been discovered yet, says Weimer.

Of the 15 people who now work at ALD Nano, almost all are CU Boulder graduates, said Buechler. We joke that its not a requirement to be an alum in order to work here, even if it seems that way.

This company has executed with focus and pragmatism since we formed it, and now we are moving into high gear commercially, says Weimer. And we have what I call a lot of high-end ethics within the company, which is very important to all of us. That is one reason we are all still together after all these years.

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Spinoff company is all in the CU Boulder family - CU Boulder News & Events

As Tata Motors tries to gear up for the future with its new performance sub-brand TAMO, it seems the Nano may be running out of the road for survival. Going forward, Tata Motors aims to have just two platforms instead of the present six, allowing for a more streamlined operation. Unfortunately, none of these platforms presently underpin the Nano. One of these platforms is the Advanced Modular Platform (AMP), which will be capable of spawning vehicles ranging from hatchbacks to sports cars. The other platform is expected to be a derivative of a Land Rover platform, which will primarily take care of the SUV/ MUV products.

Since both platforms are modular, most critical parts will remain same for multiple vehicles, resulting in lesser cost and time for development. A lesser number of modular platforms is the way ahead for global vehicle makers but the Nano is based on a different platform, which isn't part of the two discussed platforms. Having a Nano in future would mean developing an all-new one based on the AMP, which doesn't make financial sense for the company. Hence, considering the low-sales of the Nano and the new strategy of Tata Motors, it seems the Nano, along with Ratan Tata's dream is nearing the end.

So, what went wrong for such a global star? Allow us to explain.

Launched in 2008, as the dream project of Ratan Tata, the Nano quickly went on to become a global attraction even before its launch. Despite being a well-engineered car and actually better than the earlier models of Tata Motors, the Nano failed to turn the face of mobility in India. The problem lay in the way it was marketed initially and the inability of the company to turn that around. Today, the Nano sells under 1,000 units on an average, which for a mass-market carmaker isn't a good number.

While popularity in India was due to the expected price of Rs 1 lakh, international companies were curious to know how did it become possible to make a proper car for such a small amount.

Unfortunately, while Tata Motors seemed happy to bask in the sunshine of Nanos increasing popularity, it didnt notice that simultaneously the Nano was also becoming a synonym for cheap. In a young and aspirational economy such as India, this wasnt the right recipe for success. Launched to the global audience, the Nano seemed to start off well but soon things started to go awry. While things had gone bad earlier with the plant in West Bengal earlier, this time the problem was the lack of consumer willingness to buy the Nano. Soon after its launch, some cases of the car catching fire only worsened things further. Soon, plagued by fire and quality issues and its perception of being the cheapest car around, very few people wanted to buy a Nano.

Now there wasn't actually any fundamental engineering or technical problem in the Nano and the car was actually more spacious than its immediate yet more expensive competitor, the Maruti Suzuki 800. The Nano was also safer than the competition but the company was unable to turn around the perception. Over the course of the next few years, Tata Motors rolled out multiple upgrades and new variants of the Nano with newer and better features and technologies. The marketing campaign too was aimed at the youth by pitching the Nano as a funky and convenient car. Later the company also added features such as power steering, Bluetooth audio and an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) too, making it the most affordable automatic car in the country.

Also Read:From Nano to a sportscar, Tata Motors TaMo will have a huge perception gap to bridge

However, all these measures and a well-engineered product failed to capture the customers' imagination. While it was earlier thought that people from two-wheelers will upgrade to the Nano in favour of safety and convenience, the addition of features meant that most people couldn't think of such an upgrade. The targeted youth too didn't want to buy the car, probably because they didn't want to be seen driving around in the cheapest car. I personally know people who liked the Nano but went ahead and bought a used Maruti Suzuki Alto instead because for some being seen in the cheapest car was not a cool thing in the college.

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The Tata Nano might soon be killed and here's why - Financial Express

Schematic of the BIC laser. (Image courtesy of Kant Group/UC San Diego.)

BICs defy the norm of conventional waves, which escape in an open system. In contrast, BICs remain localized or confined despite the open pathways.

The laser has a thin semiconductor membranemade of gallium, phosphorous, arsenic and indiumconstructed as an arrangement of nano-sized cylinders. The membrane is suspended in air and a network of supporting bridges interconnect with its cylinders, providing stability.

With such unique properties, BIC lasers can be adjusted to emit light beams of various wavelengths. This can prove useful in the medical field when precisely targeting cancer cells.

The BIC system was able to emit a low frequency laser beam of its own when researchers used a high frequency laser beam to power the membrane. The lower frequency beam was consistent with telecommunication frequency.

BICs can also enable more powerful optical communication systems and computerscarrying up to 10 times more information compared to current methodsby emitting specific vector beams.

The size of the system can also be scaled up to produce high power lasers for defense and industrial applications. Boubacar Kant, electrical engineering professor, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, who led the research said, A fundamental challenge in high power lasers is heating and with the predicted efficiencies of our BIC lasers, a new era of laser technologies may become possible.

Right now, this is a proof of concept demonstration that we can indeed achieve lasting action with BICs, said Kant, ...And whats remarkable is that we can get surface lasing to occur with arrays as small as 8 x 8 particles.

The popular VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) used in high-precision sensing and data communications require much more power and need about 100 times larger arrays than the potential BICSEL (bound state in the continuum surface-emitting laser). With hopes of replacing VCSELs with BICELs someday, the team has filed a patent. This new type of light source could accompany smaller devices that will require less power.

The next step for Kants team is to create electrically powered BIC lasers, rather than their current optically powered system . "An electrically pumped laser is easily portable outside the lab and can run off a conventional battery source," Kant said.

For more information, visit their published work in the journal Nature.

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New Laser Defies Conventional Wave Physics - ENGINEERING.com

Last summer, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced a new, flat lens that could focus light with high efficiency within the visible spectrum. The lens used an ultrathin array of nanopillars to bend and focus light as it passed.

The announcement was hailed as a breakthrough in optics and was named among Science Magazines top discoveries of 2016.

But the lens had a limitation it could only focus one color at a time.

Now, the same team has developed the first flat lens that works within a continual bandwidth of colors, from blue to green. This bandwidth, close to that of an LED, paves the way for new applications in imaging, spectroscopy and sensing.

The research is published in Nano Letters.

One of the major challenges in developing a flat, broadband lens has been correcting for chromatic dispersion, the phenomenon where different wavelengths of light are focused at different distances from the lens.

Traditional lenses for microscopes and cameras including those in cell phones and laptops require multiple curved lenses to correct chromatic aberrations, which adds weight, thickness and complexity, said Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering. Our new breakthrough flat metalens has built-in chromatic aberrations corrections so that a single lens is required.

Correcting for chromatic dispersion known as dispersion engineering is a crucial topic in optics, and an important design requirement in any optical systems that deals with light of different colors. The ability to control the chromatic dispersion of flat lenses broadens their applications and introduces new applications that have not yet been possible.

"By harnessing chromatic aspects, we can have even more control over the light, said Reza Khorasaninejad, a Research Associate in the Capasso Lab and first author of the paper. Here, we demonstrate achromatic flat lenses and also invent a new type of flat lens with reverse chromatic dispersion. We showed that one can break away from the constraints of conventional optics, offering new opportunities only bound by the designers imagination."

To design an achromatic lens a lens without chromatic dispersion the team optimized the shape, width, distance, and height of the nanopillars that make up the heart of the metalens. As in previous research, the researchers used abundant titanium dioxide to create the nanoscale array.

A scanning electron microscopeimage shows a side-viewof the metalens, withnanopillars optimized to focuscolors without chromatic dispersion.Scale bar: 200 nm. (Image courtesy of the Capasso Lab/Havard SEAS)

This structure allows the metalens to focus wavelengths from 490 nm to 550 nm, basically from blue to green, without any chromatic dispersion.

This method for dispersion engineering can be used to design various ultrathin components with a desired performance, said Zhujun Shi, a PhD student in the Capasso Lab and co-first author of the paper. This platform is based on single step lithography and is compatible with high throughput manufacturing technique such as nano-imprinting.

Harvards Office of Technology Development has filed patent applications on a portfolio of flat lens technologies and is working closely with Capasso and members of his research group to catalyze commercialization of this technology through a startup company.

The research publishedwas coauthored by Alexander Zhu, Wei Ting Chen, Vyshakh Sanjeev, and Aun Zaidi. It was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.This work was performed in part at Harvard Universitys Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation.

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Flat lens opens a broad world of color - Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

February 7, 2017 A cartoon shows gene editing through engineered CRISPR/Cas9En delivery in the Rotello lab at UMass Amherst. The researchers have overcome an obstacle in the technology by designing a delivery system using nanoparticles to assist CRISPR/Cas9 across the cell membrane and into the nucleus while avoiding entrapment by cellular machinery. Credit: UMass Amherst

More and more scientists are using the powerful new gene-editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9, a technology isolated from bacteria, that holds promise for new treatment of such genetic diseases as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and hemophilia. But to work well, the new gene-clipping tool must be delivered safely across the cell membrane and into its nucleus, a difficult process that can trigger the cell's defenses and "trap" CRISPR/Cas9, greatly reducing its treatment potential.

Now, researchers in nanochemistry expert Vincent Rotello's laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have designed a delivery system using nanoparticles to assist CRISPR/Cas9 across the membrane and into the cell nucleus while avoiding entrapment by cellular machinery. Details appear in a recent issue of the journal ACS Nano.

The lab's experiment leader, Rubul Mout, says, "CRISPR has two components: a scissor-like protein called Cas9, and an RNA molecule called sgRNA that guides Cas9 to its target gene. Once the Cas9-sgRNA pair gets to the destination gene in the nucleus, it can interrogate its genetic mistakes and correct them with the help of the host cell's repair machinery."

He points out that since CRISPR's potential was first discovered in 2012, gene editing or genome engineering has quickly become an intense research topic in biology and medicine. The goal is to treat otherwise incurable genetic diseases by manipulating diseased genes. "However, to achieve this, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are constantly searching for more efficient CRISPR delivery methods," he adds.

The new delivery method Rotello, Mout and colleagues designed involves engineering the Cas9 protein, named Cas9En, and carrier nanoparticles. Rotello says, "By finely tuning the interactions between engineered Cas9En protein and nanoparticles, we were able to construct these delivery vectors. The vectors carrying the Cas9 protein and sgRNA come into contact with the cell membrane, fuse, and release the Cas9:sgRNA directly into the cell cytoplasm."

"Cas9 protein also has a nuclear guiding sequence that ushers the complex into the destination nucleus. The key is to tweak the Cas9 protein," he adds. "We have delivered this Cas9 protein and sgRNA pair into the cell nucleus without getting it trapped on its way. We have watched the delivery process live in real time using sophisticated microscopy."

Mout and colleagues say they can now deliver the Cas9 protein and sgRNA pair into about 90 percent of cells grown in a culture dish with an editing efficiency of about 30 percent. "Ninety percent cytosolic/nuclear delivery is a huge improvement compared to others methods," Mout points out.

The researchers believe that the Cas9En may also serve as a platform for delivery of a variety of other materials such as polymers, lipid nanoparticles or self-assembling peptides. Rotello says, "Now that we have achieved efficient gene editing in cultured cells, we are aiming to edit genes in pre-clinical animal models. We are also interested in gene editing for adoptive therapies, where a diseased cell is isolated from a patient, corrected by CRISPR in the lab, and delivered back to the patient."

Apart from gene editing, the new delivery method may have other uses. For example, another important issue in biology and medicine is tracking DNA and RNA inside cells. Recently, CRISPR has been used to aid in this research. Moumita Ray, another researcher in the Rotello lab, says, "Our method allows the precise monitoring of Cas9 protein movement inside a cell, opening new opportunities in genomic research."

Explore further: Watching gene editing at work to develop precision therapies

More information: Rubul Mout et al. Direct Cytosolic Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9-Ribonucleoprotein for Efficient Gene Editing, ACS Nano (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b07600

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have developed methods to observe gene editing in action, and they're putting those capabilities to work to improve genetic engineering techniques.

A study in The Journal of Cell Biology by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School reveals important new details about the inner workings of the CRISPR-Cas9 machinery in live cells that may have implications ...

The ability to control gene expression in cells allows scientists to understand gene function and manipulate cell fate. Recently, scientists have developed a revolutionary gene-editing tool, called CRIPSR/Cas9, which employs ...

Researchers have discovered a way to program cells to inhibit CRISPR-Cas9 activity. "Anti-CRISPR" proteins had previously been isolated from viruses that infect bacteria, but now University of Toronto and University of Massachusetts ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers with members from several institutions in Japan has developed a new way to edit genes that involves cutting just one strand of DNA rather than both of them, as is normal for CRISPR-Cas9. ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have for the first time created and used a nanoscale vehicle made of DNA to deliver a CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool into ...

Inspired by the hair of blue tarantulas, researchers from The University of Akron lead a team that made a structural-colored material that shows consistent color from all viewing directions. This finding overturns the conventional ...

Using tiny snippets of DNA as "barcodes," researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly screening the ability of nanoparticles to selectively deliver therapeutic genes to specific organs of the body. The technique ...

How the natural defence force within our immune system attacks and destroys harmful invaders such as virus-infected and cancerous cells has been visualised in microscopic detail by scientists from UCL, Birkbeck, University ...

More and more scientists are using the powerful new gene-editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9, a technology isolated from bacteria, that holds promise for new treatment of such genetic diseases as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy ...

(Phys.org)In an effort to curb the adverse environmental impacts of paper production, researchers in a new study have developed a light-printable paperpaper that can be printed with UV light, erased by heating to 120 ...

Scientists used one of the world's most powerful electron microscopes to map the precise location and chemical type of 23,000 atoms in an extremely small particle made of iron and platinum.

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Overcoming hurdles in CRISPR gene editing to improve treatment - Phys.Org

The University of California at Santa Barbara claims to have developed the worlds smallest hammer.

The technology, dubbed the Hammer or microHammer, is geared for biomedical research. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the tiny hammer will allow researchers to get a cellular-level understanding when force is applied to brain cells. The project is part of the U.S.-based Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The initiative is aimed at revolutionizing the understanding of the human brain.

The nano-hammer, a cellular-scale machine, aims to solve a major problem. Mechanical forces are known to impact cells. But there is a lack of understanding in terms of the reactions of individual neural cells. This, in turn, could help researchers gain a better understanding of Alzheimers disease and other brain injuries.

The microHammer will allow researchers to get a cellular-level understanding of what happens when force is applied to neurons. (Source: UCSB)

Through a cell sorting technique, the Hammer is injected into a system. It flows through individual cells. Then, it subjects each of them to one of a variety of physical forces.

This in turn will elicit responses. This project will enable precision measurements of the physical, chemical and biological changes that occur when cells are subjected to mechanical loading, ranging from small perturbations to high-force, high-speed impacts, said Megan Valentine, an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, on the universitys Web site. Our technology will provide significantly higher forces and faster impact cycles than have previously been possible, and by building these tools onto microfluidic devices, we can leverage a host of other on-chip diagnostics and imaging tools, and can collect the cells after testing for longer-term studies.

Our studies could transform our understanding of how cells process and respond to force-based signals, she said. These signals are essential in development and wound healing in healthy tissues, and are misregulated in diseases such as cancer.

Cell nanoscopy Traditional optical microscopy is used in life sciences. But the resolution is limited to half the wavelength of light or about 200nm, according to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

So, the smallest cellular structures are sometimes blurred using traditional microscopy. Over the years, the industry has developed various techniques to overcome the problem, including the development of simulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy.

Now, KIT has refined the STED nanoscopy method. The new method, named STEDD or Stimulated Emission Double Depletion, modifies the image and suppresses the background noise. STEDD or STED2 is advantageous when analyzing three-dimensional sub-cellular structures.

A cancer cell under the microscope: The STED image (left) has lower resolution. In the STEDD image (right), the resolution is better. (Image: APH/KIT)

In fluorescence microscopy, a sample is scanned with a focused light beam. This makes dye molecules emit fluorescent light, according to KIT. The light is registered pixel-by-pixel to form an image.

In STED, a beam is overlapped by another beam. The light intensity is located around this beam. It produces a fine image, but the background has a lower resolution.

KIT has extended this STED method by adding another beam. The beam follows the STED beam with a time delay. It eliminates the signal in the center, causing the background excitation to remain. The STED method is based on recording two images, said Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus, a professor at KIT. Photons registered prior to and after the arrival of the STED2 beam contribute to the first and second image, respectively.

Resolving proteins The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has used various techniques to observe protein nanomachines or protein complexes in living cells at three dimensional images.

Researchers used a combination of super-resolution microscopy, cell engineering and computational modeling. This in turn allows them to observe protein complexes at 5nm resolutions. This is four times smaller than previous studies.

On the left, in vivo image of nanomachines using current microscopy; on the right, the new method allows 3D observation of nanomachines in vivo and provides 25-fold improvement in resolution. (O. Gallego, IRB Barcelona)

With the technology, it will be possible to study cellular proteins for applications such as health and disease. Being able to see protein complexes measuring 5nm is a great achievement, but there is still a long way to go to be able to observe the inside of the cell at the atomic scale that in vitro techniques would allow, said Oriol Gallego, an IRB Barcelona researcher.

Related Stories Manufacturing Research Bits: Jan. 31 Fiber-imprint patterning; measuring nanofibers. The Week In Review: Manufacturing (Feb. 3, 2017) Veeco buys Ultratech, Amkor buys Nanium; NIs instrument; DRAM shortage?

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Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 7 - SemiEngineering

By@SimonCocking

Describe the company the elevator pitch

Sky and Space Global will deploy nano-satellites constellation in orbit to provide affordable, global, narrow-band communication services to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.

How are you different?

Sky and Space Global is the first company to utilize nano-satellites in a constellation format in the communication domain. It is building a proprietary network management software platform that will enable the constellation to manage, monitor, and control itself in an automated fashion, which is a capability yet to be realized by a for-profit business model utilizing small-satellites in the communication domain. An inter-satellite connectivity-based constellation system focusing on the equatorial belt is an industry first and Sky and Space Global is doing it. The business is aiming to support existing and incoming telecom operators and service providers as they deliver affordable narrow-band services to remote locations that do not have access to reliable and affordable connectivity services. The company is also engaging fellow space industry participants in the small satellite industry and is well on its way in establishing its core principle of affordable connectivity being a basic human right.

When @PeterDiamandis founded @singularityu, he challenged the students to improve the lives of 1b people in 10 years. Were gonna do it in 4

Sky and Space Global (@SkySpaceGlobal) February 2, 2017

Why will the company / product do well?

There are almost 4 billion people living without mobile coverage, hence, a huge demand for connectivity services in remote locations. Mobile market is a crucial player in enabling companies to reach new customers and offer new services. The mobile industry is also a significant source of employment and job creation.

For the full potential of mobile to be realized, populations need access to mobile networks, and to affordable devices and services. Nano-satellites offer a great alternative to traditional satellite communications, which are very costly, and have the potential to provide affordable connectivity to anyone, anywhere, anytime in the world. The ability to provide mobile coverage in remote locations is vital for building a healthy information infrastructure in developing countries where poor connectivity is a barrier to education, business growth and economic prosperity.

Secure World Foundation recognizes SAS as one of the world leaders along with @OneWebOfficial @planetlabs and @SpireGlobal pic.twitter.com/JiWXONgGDl

Sky and Space Global (@SkySpaceGlobal) January 31, 2017

Where are you based?

As a global company, Sky and Space Global has centers in United Kingdom, Australia, Israel and Poland.

When was the company launched?

Incorporated on November 2015.

What have been your biggest wins to date?

Affordable #connectivity is a basic right, @Frost_Sullivan recognizes @SkySpaceGlobal for providing just that. https://t.co/z5ZUruoBCq

Frost & Sullivan BP (@FrostBPAwards) January 30, 2017

What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?

Sky and Space Globals services will be supporting telecom operators and service providers to expand their existing networks and deliver low-cost narrow-band connectivity services to locations yet to realize reliable connectivity for basic voice and text services. In this way, Sky and Space Global will be supporting the existing communication layers while also establishing a value chain of its own moving forward.

Our business model is a B2B wholesale. Our existing customers are :

Our potential customers are :

Tell us about your team?

Our Team is composed of aerospace, satellite and software industry experts which their unique sector knowledge and long experience have enable Sky and Space Global to develop a company with highly potential to execute its vision and mission to bring Affordable communication to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.

On stage, Meir Moalem CEO of SAS and Barry Matsumori (@barrym) Senior VP Of Business Development And Advanced Concepts @virgingalactic pic.twitter.com/aSwK74Jwqz

Sky and Space Global (@SkySpaceGlobal) January 30, 2017

CEO Meir Moalem

A jet fighter pilot, Lt. Col (Res.) of the IAF, has over 20 years of experience in management, R&D and operation of state-of-the-art projects in Space Systems and UAS. Meir is a Founder of Sky and Space Global and its CEO and Managing Director.Meir served as the head of Space Systems Branch in the Israeli Air Force, led the MEDIEX experiment on Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) as the project manager for Israel first astronaut flight and led Israels satellite projects including Ofeq and Techsar. During his many years of service, Meir worked with high level national security contacts, planning for strategic security requirements, projects initiation, development and design management, policy making, total responsibility for planning, while managing multi-million project budgets.Meir holds a B.Sc. in Physics from Ben Gurion University, M.A. in national security from Tel Aviv University and is in final stage of his PhD. Meir was awarded the Israel National Security Award in 2009.

CTO Meidad Pariente

With more than 20 years of satellite and aerospace industry experience, Meidad is a founder of Sky and Space Global and its Chief Technical Officer.Meidad started as AMOS-1 satellite operator, later was the Deputy Mission Manager of AMOS-2, Chief systems engineer of AMOS-3 successfully launched in 2008, and special engineering advisor for AMOS-5, launched in 2011.Meidad was the chief systems engineer and led a team of Israeli engineers and scientists designing the VENUS project, an Israeli-French hyperspectral satellite.Meidad is a leading nanosatellite expert, having led projects in Israel, Europe and the USA. In 2014 Meidad and Maya led the Duchifat-1 project, the first Israeli nanosatellite which was launched successfully in June 2014 as part of a tertiary project. The Nano-satellite is still fully operational.Meidad holds a B.Sc in Physics from Tel Aviv University and a M.E. in Systems Engineering from the Technion Aerospace faculty.

COO Maya Glickman

With more than 14 years of hands-on experience, Maya Glickman is Sky and Space Globals satellite mission analyst, orbit designer, and satellite operating expert.Maya was a Senior Satellite Engineer of communications satellites with IsraelAerospace Industries. Maya was part of the AMOS-3 development team, LEOPand IOT missions as well as the AMOS-1 hand-over to Intelsat and led the end-of-life mission team.Maya designed and optimized several large scale constellations for earth observation and communication use, and was involved in the assembly, integration and testing of Duchifat-1, the first Israeli nanosatellite.Maya has a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering and M.Ein System Engineering, bothfrom theTechnion Aerospace faculty, and is also a graduate of the 2003 ISU summer session program in Adelaide, Australia.

What are you long term plans for your product / company?

Our 2020 (and beyond) vision, is to make a better world for billions of people off the communication grid, by providing Affordable voice, instant messaging and data transfer for Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere.

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

Beam me up,Scotty

How do people get in touch with you?

Website http://www.skyandspace.global

Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/skyandspaceglobal/

LinkedIn page http://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/10424893/

Twitter https://twitter.com/SkySpaceGlobal

Email contact@skyandspace.global

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or on Twitter: @SimonCocking

AustraliaBusiness ShowcaseIsraelPolandSky and Space GlobalUnited KingdomVirgin Galactic

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Business Showcase : Sky and Space Global - Irish Tech News

With the importance of short distance optical interconnects for improving data centres performance, a team of researchers have discovered the first step towards building electrically pumped nanolasers (or light-based sources). These lasers are critical in the development of integrated photonic based short-distance optical interconnects and sensors.

The team including Arka Majumdar, University of Washington assistant professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics and Xiaodong Xu, assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics, demonstrated this first step through cavity-enhanced electroluminescence from atomically thin monolayer materials. The thinness of this material yields efficient coordination between the two key components of the laser. Both the cavity-enhanced electroluminescence and material will allow energy-efficient data centres and support high performance parallel computing.

Figure 1: Assistant professors Arka Majumdar (left) and Xiaodong Xu (right) have discovered how to improve data centres performance through light-based sources.

The recently discovered atomically thin semiconductors have generated significant interest due to showing light emission in the 2D limit. However, due to the extreme thinness of this material, its emission intensity is usually not strong enough, and it is important to integrate them with photonic devices (nanolasers, in this case) to get more light out.

Researchers have demonstrated electroluminescence in this material [atomically thin monolayer], Majumdar said. Last year, we also reported the operation of an ultra-low threshold optically pumped laser, using this material integrated with nano-cavity. But for practical applications, electrically driven devices are required. Using this, one can power the devices using electrical current. For example, you power your laser pointer using an electrical battery.

Figure 2: Heterostructure of 2D material.

Majumdar and Xu recently reported cavity-enhanced electroluminescence in atomically thin material. A heterostructure of different monolayer materials are used to enhance the emission. Without the cavity, the emission is broadband (unidirectional) and weak. A nano-cavity enhances the emission and also enables single-mode (directed) operation. This allows direct modulation of the emission, a crucial requirement for the data communication.

These structures are of current scientific interest and are considered the new gold rush of condensed matter physics and materials science. Their current result and the previous demonstration of optically pumped lasers show the promise of electrically pumped nanolasers that constitutes the next milestone for this research. This next achievement will improve data centres efficiency for optimal performance.

Our team is currently exploring integration of the monolayer materials with a silicon nitride platform, Majumdar said. Through this work, we hope to achieve the coveted CMOS [complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor] compatibility that is the same process by which the computer processors are fabricated today.

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Atomically thin material optimises data communication - Eetasia.com

Transparent window coatings that keep buildings and cars cool on sunny days. Devices that could more than triple solar cell efficiencies. Thin, lightweight shields that block thermal detection. These are potential applications for a thin, flexible, light-absorbing material developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego.

The material, called a near-perfect broadband absorber, absorbs more than 87 percent of near-infrared light (1,200 to 2,200 nanometer wavelengths), with 98 percent absorption at 1,550 nanometers, the wavelength for fiber optic communication. The material is capable of absorbing light from every angle. It also can theoretically be customized to absorb certain wavelengths of light while letting others pass through.

Materials that "perfectly" absorb light already exist, but they are bulky and can break when bent. They also cannot be controlled to absorb only a selected range of wavelengths, which is a disadvantage for certain applications. Imagine if a window coating used for cooling not only blocked infrared radiation, but also normal light and radio waves that transmit television and radio programs.

By developing a novel nanoparticle-based design, a team led by professors Zhaowei Liu and Donald Sirbuly at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering has created a broadband absorber that's thin, flexible and tunable.

"This material offers broadband, yet selective absorption that could be tuned to distinct parts of the electromagnetic spectrum," Liu said.

The absorber relies on optical phenomena known as surface plasmon resonances, which are collective movements of free electrons that occur on the surface of metal nanoparticles upon interaction with certain wavelengths of light. Metal nanoparticles can carry a lot of free electrons, so they exhibit strong surface plasmon resonance but mainly in visible light, not in the infrared.

UC San Diego engineers reasoned that if they could change the number of free electron carriers, they could tune the material's surface plasmon resonance to different wavelengths of light. "Make this number lower, and we can push the plasmon resonance to the infrared. Make the number higher, with more electrons, and we can push the plasmon resonance to the ultraviolet region," Sirbuly said. The problem with this approach is that it is difficult to do in metals.

To address this challenge, engineers designed and built an absorber from materials that could be modified, or doped, to carry a different amount of free electrons: semiconductors. Researchers used a semiconductor called zinc oxide, which has a moderate number of free electrons, and combined it with its metallic version, aluminum-doped zinc oxide, which houses a high number of free electrons not as much as an actual metal, but enough to give it plasmonic properties in the infrared.

The materials were combined and structured in a precise fashion using advanced nanofabrication technologies in the Nano3 cleanroom facility at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego. The materials were deposited one atomic layer at a time on a silicon substrate to create an array of standing nanotubes, each made of alternating concentric rings of zinc oxide and aluminum-doped zinc oxide. The tubes are 1,730 nanometers tall, 650 to 770 nanometers in diameter, and spaced less than a hundred nanometers apart. The nanotube array was then transferred from the silicon substrate to a thin, elastic polymer. The result is a material that is thin, flexible and transparent in the visible.

"There are different parameters that we can alter in this design to tailor the material's absorption band: the gap size between tubes, the ratio of the materials, the types of materials, and the electron carrier concentration. Our simulations show that this is possible," said Conor Riley, a recent nanoengineering Ph.D. graduate from UC San Diego and the first author of this work. Riley is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Sirbuly's group.

Those are just a few exciting features of this particle-based design, researchers said. It's also potentially transferrable to any type of substrate and can be scaled up to make large surface area devices, like broadband absorbers for large windows.

"Nanomaterials normally aren't fabricated at scales larger than a couple centimeters, so this would be a big step in that direction," Sirbuly said.

The technology is still at the developmental stage. Liu and Sirbuly's teams are continuing to work together to explore different materials, geometries and designs to develop absorbers that work at different wavelengths of light for various applications.

Source and top image: UC San Diego

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Thin, flexible, light-absorbent material - Printed Electronics World

Transparency Market Research Report Added "Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024"

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire

Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/06/2017 -- Scanning probe microscopes include imaging technologies that measure surface of small molecules, atoms and fine scales. This technique uses interaction of sharp, electrically charged probe with the surface of samples at particular points. This electrically charged probe is used to interact with sample that helps researchers to understand the properties of sample specimen. In addition, scanning probe microscope scan sample surface with sharp probe in order to observe three dimensional images at high magnification rate. Scanning probe technology is widely used for the study of macro-molecules and biological specimens.

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Additionally, scanning probe microscopy technique is used for the measurement of wide variety of inorganic (e.g. to measure surface chemistry of the molecules), synthetic (e.g. identify surface of polymers) and biological materials (like polymers and polymer matrix). In addition, scanning probe microscope technology can also be used for manipulation and observation of environmental non-conductive specimen.

The market of scanning probe microscopes is witnessing positive growth owing to development of advanced technologies in this field coupled with wide application areas of scanning probe microscopy in science, environmental and engineering field. For example, RHK Technology, Inc. offers innovative and well engineered RHK UHV Scanning Probe Microscopes. This microscope provides variety of applications in science and environmental field. In addition, Danish Micro Engineering A/S offers ProberStation 150 scanning probe microscope.

This microscope offers accurate sampling and flexibility for customer specific modifications by combining with other types of analytical heads. Thus, these types of offering will help key manufacturers to attract more number of customers hence drives the market growth. In addition, various advantages of scanning probe microscope as compared to conventional optical microscopes will further drive the market growth. For example, scanning probe micros offers highest possible magnification i.e. more than 800 to 1000 times greater than conventional microscopes.

Thus, this advantage will offer proper analysis of sample specimen hence drives the market growth of scanning probe microscopes. Moreover, these types of advanced microscopy is rapidly growing in developing countries like North America and Europe due to their innovative features and novel applications in variety of disciplines that will further boost the overall market of scanning probe microscope. However, high cost of these types of microscopes will restrain the market growth.

Geographically, North America is the largest market of scanning probe microscopes due to the launch of novel and innovative products by domiciled key manufacturer coupled with increasing uptake of these technologies by consumers. Europe is considered as the second largest market of scanning probe microscopes. The growth of this market is attributed to the presence of large number of companies like NanoTechnology GmbH, Danish Micro Engineering A/S and others.

This factor would help European market to grow consistently in future and hence stimulate the market growth. Additionally, Asia-Pacific region in emerging markets for scanning probe microscopes because of increasing awareness about scanning probe microscopy technology among customers.

Various key players contributing to the global scanning probe microscopes market comprises Danish Micro Engineering A/S (DME), Klocke Nanotechnik, Agilent Technologies, Omicron NanoTechnology GmbH, Hitachi High-Tech Science Corporation, RHK Technology, Inc., Bruker Nano, Danish Micro Engineering, Schaefer Technology and others.

About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.

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Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market: Microscope Offers Accurate Sampling and Flexibility for Customer Specific ... - Digital Journal