Tech

Researchers from Polytechnique Montréal, Université de Montréal and McGill University have just achieved a spectacular breakthrough in cancer research. They have developed new nanorobotic agents capable of navigating through the bloodstream to administer a drug with precision by specifically targeting the active cancerous cells of tumours. This way of injecting medication ensures the optimal targeting of a tumour and avoids jeopardizing the integrity of organs and surrounding healthy tissues.

A nanocrystalline material that rapidly makes white light out of blue light has been developed by KAUST researchers.

While Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are now well established technologies, there are several advantages gained by shortening the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves used for transmitting information.

For all the promise they have shown in the lab, polymer solar cells still need to "get on a roll" like the ones employed in printing newspapers so that large sheets of acceptably efficient photovoltaic devices can be manufactured continuously and economically. Polymer solar cells offer advantages over their traditional silicon-based counterparts in numerous ways, including lower cost, potentially smaller carbon footprint and a greater variety of uses.

Researchers have developed a highly stretchable touchpad that can be used to write words and play electronic games. The development could lead to flexible, wearable devices with a variety of applications. While various types of conductors such as carbon nanotubes and metal nanowires have been explored for stretchy touchpads, they are all based on hard materials. To help solve this problem, Chong-Chan Kim and colleagues developed a touchpad made of hydrogel, a network of hydrophilic polymers that are soft and very stretchable.

UPTON, NY-Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have created a new imaging technique that allows scientists to probe the internal makeup of a battery during charging and discharging using different x-ray energies while rotating the battery cell. The technique produces a three-dimensional chemical map and lets the scientists track chemical reactions in the battery over time in working conditions. Their work is published in the August 12 issue of Nature Communications.

For the first time ever a team of Dutch hacking experts, led by cyber security professor Herbert Bos at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, managed to alter the memory of virtual machines in the cloud without a software bug, using a new attack technique.

Dublin, Ireland, Thursday 11th August, 2016 - Scientists have discovered macabre fossil evidence suggesting that 300 million-year-old sharks ate their own young, as fossil poop of adult Orthacanthus sharks contained the tiny teeth of juveniles. These fearsome marine predators used protected coastal lagoons to rear their babies, but it seems they also resorted to cannibalising them when other food sources became scarce.