Nanotechnology

Thomas Edison Tried to Build an EV Battery in 1901. Scientists Just Made It Work

The battery won't power cars as the famous inventor intended, but it's still got a lot of potential.

Physics & Chemistry Gayoung Lee Feb 11

Representational Image Of Solid Liquid Metal

Newly Discovered ‘Hybrid’ Phase of Matter Blurs the Line Between Solid and Liquid

During this phase, matter exists in a weird, precarious limbo that ultimately determines what it becomes.

Physics & Chemistry Gayoung Lee Dec 9

Remember When Nanotech Was the Next Big Thing?

As the market reckons with AI's future, it's good to remember that we've been through this boom and bust hype cycle with technology before.

Tech News Matthew Gault Jan 28

Chemists Unveil the Slickest Surface Ever to Ward Off Water

The discovery holds potential for various applications, including self-cleaning surfaces and de-icing glass, in which droplet-repellent surfaces are useful.

Physics & Chemistry Kevin Hurler Oct 23

Researchers Found a Way to Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains

In a mind-bending development, a team of researchers in China have managed to treat brain tumors in mice by delivering drugs to the tissues using microscopic robots. The robots jumped from the mice’s bloodstreams into their brains by being coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents’ immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots…

Tech News Isaac Schultz Mar 24

Nanoparticle ISS Experiment Could Lead to New Anti-Aging Therapies

An upcoming experiment aboard the International Space Station will test the effects of microgravity on living cells mixed with tiny ceramic particles. The test could result in powerful new antioxidants to treat the deleterious effects of prolonged exposure to space as well as various age-related diseases. The raw materials for the research, called the Nano…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky May 6

Incredible Experiment Gives Infrared Vision to Mice—and Humans Could Be Next

By injecting nanoparticles into the eyes of mice, scientists gave them the ability to see near-infrared light—a wavelength not normally visible to rodents (or people). It’s an extraordinary achievement, one made even more extraordinary with the realization that a similar technique could be used in humans. Of all the remarkable things done to mice over…

Tech News George Dvorsky Feb 28

Robots Made From DNA Could One Day Transport Medicine Inside Your Body

In the classic 1966 American science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, a submarine crew was miniaturized and injected into a body to fix a blood clot in the brain. That’s obviously not how future medical science is going to work, but the notion of creating microscopic machines to perform complex tasks is certainly on point. A…

Health George Dvorsky Sep 14

How Scientifically Plausible Is the ‘Simian Flu’ in Planet of the Apes?

The Planet of the Apes prequels did much to explain how humans lost their status as the dominant species on the planet—a cataclysmic set of events fueled by a global pandemic known as the “Simian Flu.” This virus, the product of a medical experiment gone horribly wrong, wiped out the vast majority of humans, but…

Tech News George Dvorsky Jul 28

The World’s Smallest Snowman is So Cute

Look at this cute little snowman! I bet he won’t even melt and make me cry like the snowman from Jack Frost does. This tiny fella is a wee three microns tall, around half the height of a red blood cell. Todd Simpson from the Western University Nanofabrication Facility in Ontario, Canada made it from…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum Dec 21

10 Ludicrously Advanced Technologies We Can Expect by the Year 2100

Predicting the future is hard. It’s nearly impossible to know what technological marvels await in the next few years, let alone the next eight decades. Undaunted, we’ve put together a list of 10 super-advanced technologies that should be around by the year 2100. Some of these technologies are rather “out there,” but I’m reasonably confident…

Artificial Intelligence George Dvorsky Nov 11

Nobel Prize For Chemistry Awarded to Creators of the World’s Tiniest Machines

The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their pioneering work in developing molecular machines. These gadgets measure just a thousandth of a human hair in width, and they’re poised to revolutionize everything from manufacturing and materials to medicine and the functioning of the human body. The winners…

Tech News George Dvorsky Oct 5

World’s First ‘Nanofish’ Coming to Swim Drugs Up Your Bloodstream

If the idea of a robot fish swimming through your veins elicits a Cronenberg-ian chill up your spine, you might want to brace yourself. Researchers at U.C. San Diego have created the first nanofish, the New Scientist reports—a magnet-powered bot that they hope to use for targeted delivery of medication, non-invasive surgery and single-cell manipulation.…

Health Rhett Jones Sep 10

Record-Setting Hard Drive Writes Information One Atom At a Time

Researchers working in the Netherlands have developed an atomic-scale rewritable data-storage device capable of packing 500 terabits onto a single square inch. Incredibly, that’s enough to store every book written by humans on a surface the size of a postage stamp. Holy shit. It is as if we have invented the atomic scale printing press.…

Tech News George Dvorsky Jul 18

Scientists Found a Possible Deal Breaker in the Quest to Build a Space Elevator

Carbon nanotubes have been pegged as the wonder material that could finally allow us to build a space elevator. A discouraging new study suggests these microscopic strands aren’t as resilient as we thought—and all it could take is a single misplaced atom to bring the whole thing crashing down. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are tiny hollow…

Tech News George Dvorsky Jun 13

The World’s Tiniest Light-Powered Engines Could Revolutionize Medicine

Nanomachines could revolutionize technology and modern medicine, if only we had viable power sources to make them move where we wanted them to go. Now scientists at the University of Cambridge have built the world’s tiniest engines, powered by light, as described in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette May 2

New Nanowire Batteries Can Be Charged More Than 100,000 Times

Li-on batteries gradually deteriorate as they’re repeatedly drained and recharged. But now researchers from University of California, Irvine have developed a new nano-wire battery that can survive hundreds of thousands of charging cycles. Over time, lithium becomes irreversibly deposited to the electrodes in li-on batteries. These build ups are called dendrites and they’re what causes…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Apr 21

The Australian Nanoscience Institute Puts Every Experiment Inside a Faraday Cage

Nanotechnology researchers at the University of Sydney now have a building that will make them the envy of the scientific community—with ultra-clean rooms, vibration-free floors and faraday cages aplenty. New Scientist calls the new Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science “one of the most controlled places on the planet.” And it might just be right, because…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Apr 20

These Microbots Steer Using Electricity and the Bacteria That Causes Urinary Tract Infections

Because the world keeps getting more bizarre, it turns out that the best way to get these microbots to navigate around obstacles is to smear them with the bacteria that causes urinary tract infections and send them through an electrical grid. See a demonstration! In a recent issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Robots,…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 15

Graphene Patterned After Moth Eyes Could Give Us ‘Smart Wallpaper’

Tweaking the structure of graphene so that it matches patterns found in the eyes of moths could one day give us “smart wallpaper,” among a host of other useful technologies. Using a novel technique called “nano texturing,” scientists at the University of Surrey in England have successfully modified ultra-thin graphene sheets to create the most…

Tech News Jennifer Ouellette Feb 29

Nanotechnology

Thomas Edison Tried to Build an EV Battery in 1901. Scientists Just Made It Work

Newly Discovered ‘Hybrid’ Phase of Matter Blurs the Line Between Solid and Liquid

Remember When Nanotech Was the Next Big Thing?

Chemists Unveil the Slickest Surface Ever to Ward Off Water

Researchers Found a Way to Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains

Nanoparticle ISS Experiment Could Lead to New Anti-Aging Therapies

Incredible Experiment Gives Infrared Vision to Mice—and Humans Could Be Next

Robots Made From DNA Could One Day Transport Medicine Inside Your Body

How Scientifically Plausible Is the ‘Simian Flu’ in Planet of the Apes?

The World’s Smallest Snowman is So Cute

10 Ludicrously Advanced Technologies We Can Expect by the Year 2100

Nobel Prize For Chemistry Awarded to Creators of the World’s Tiniest Machines

World’s First ‘Nanofish’ Coming to Swim Drugs Up Your Bloodstream

Record-Setting Hard Drive Writes Information One Atom At a Time

Scientists Found a Possible Deal Breaker in the Quest to Build a Space Elevator

The World’s Tiniest Light-Powered Engines Could Revolutionize Medicine

New Nanowire Batteries Can Be Charged More Than 100,000 Times

The Australian Nanoscience Institute Puts Every Experiment Inside a Faraday Cage

These Microbots Steer Using Electricity and the Bacteria That Causes Urinary Tract Infections

Graphene Patterned After Moth Eyes Could Give Us ‘Smart Wallpaper’

Musk Changes OpenAI Lawsuit So that If He Wins the $134 Billion, OpenAI’s Nonprofit Gets It

Pro-Iran Hackers Target Critical U.S. Energy and Water Infrastructure

‘She-Hulk’ Was Apparently One of Marvel’s Most Successful Shows

The World’s First Eye-Tracking Smart Glasses Are Intriguing and Unpolished

Noah Hawley Is Remaking ‘Terrified,’ Which Shouldn’t Happen

Unprecedented Observation Reveals 2 Supermassive Black Holes Locked in a Tight Death Spiral

This Apple MacBook Pro Is Now Under $500 After 78% Off, Grade-A Refurb Deal (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Touch Bar)

Anthropic Launches ‘Project Glasswing’ to Stealthily Spot Cybersecurity Issues for Rivals

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

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