Cornell University
Microtransistor prototypes map the mind
April 12, 2013 9:42 am | by Blaine Friedlander, Cornell University | News | Comments
To make better mind maps, a group of French scientists—building on prototypes developed at the Cornell University NanoScale Science and Technology Facility—have produced the world’s first microscopic, organic transistors that can amplify and record signals from within the brain itself.
Ultrathin transistors spread like butter on toast
April 18, 2013 8:37 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | Comments
Like spreading a thin layer of butter on toast, Cornell University scientists have helped...
Scientists develop world's smallest drug deliverer
April 12, 2013 7:29 am | by Blaine Friedlander, Cornell University | News | Comments
Cornell University researchers have created a pore in “Cornell Dots”—brightly glowing...
Study: Mental picture of others can be seen using fMRI
March 5, 2013 2:16 pm | News | Comments
According to a study by Cornell University neuroscientist Nathan Spreng and his colleagues, it...
Turn out the light: Switch determines cancer cell fate
May 3, 2013 8:10 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsLike picking a career or a movie, cells have to make decisions—and cancer results from cells making wrong decisions. At the cellular level, wrong decisions can be made right. A team has discovered that colon cancer stem cells, a particularly malignant population of cancer cells, are able to switch between the decision to proliferate or to remain constant—and this “switch” is controlled by a little-studied molecule called microRNA.
Physicists crack science of ice formation
February 27, 2013 10:21 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsSalt lowers water's melting point, which is why it's useful for de-icing roads. And the higher the solute concentration, the slower ice forms. That's why solutes, or cryoprotectants, are added to proteins, cells, tissues, and even dead bodies to slow down ice formation during cryopreservation. Intrigued by this rather poorly understood process, Cornell University physicists have discovered that, for a variety of common cryoprotectants, the time for ice to form has a simple exponential variation with concentration.
Bioengineered ear looks, acts like the real thing
February 21, 2013 10:54 am | News | CommentsPhysicians at Weill Cornell Medical College and biomedical engineers at Cornell University have succeeded in building a facsimile of a living human ear that looks and acts like a natural ear. Researchers believe their bioengineering method will finally succeed in the long quest by scientists and physicians to provide normal looking "new" ears to thousands of children born with a congenital ear deformity.
Three-photon microscopy improves biological imaging
January 22, 2013 7:58 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsScientists may be a step closer to cracking one of the world's most compelling mysteries: the impossible complexity of the brain and its billions of neurons. Cornell University researchers have demonstrated a new way of taking high-resolution, 3D images of the brain's inner workings through a three-fold improvement in the depth limits of multiphoton microscopy, a fluorescence-based imaging technique with Cornell roots.
Synchronized nanoscale oscillators may spur new devices
December 17, 2012 8:38 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsSynchronization phenomena are everywhere in the physical world—from circadian rhythms to side-by-side pendulum clocks coupled mechanically through vibrations in the wall. Cornell University researchers have now demonstrated synchronization at the nanoscale, using only light, not mechanics.
Organic metamaterial flows like liquid
December 5, 2012 12:21 pm | News | CommentsA bit reminiscent of the Terminator T-1000, a new material created by Cornell University researchers is so soft that it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape. Rather than liquid metal, it is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like a sponge. It qualifies as a "metamaterial" with properties not found in nature and may be the first organic metamaterial with mechanical metaproperties.
Study is first to observe oscillatory cracking behavior of materials
October 25, 2012 3:08 pm | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | Comments"Avalanches"—the crackling behavior of materials under slowly increasing stress, like crumpling paper or earthquakes—may have a novel facet previously unknown, say Cornell University researchers. Their study employs both theory and experiment to describe never-before-seen oscillatory behavior of microcrystal plastic bursts at very small scales, under highly controlled conditions.
Well-ordered nanorods could improve LED displays
October 25, 2012 2:16 pm | News | CommentsSynchrotron-based imaging has helped develop enhanced light-emitting diode (LED) displays using bottom-up engineering methods. Collaborative work between researchers from the University of Florida and Cornell University has produced a new way to make colloidal "superparticles" from oriented nanorods of semiconducting materials.
Electron's magnetic moment calculated to new precision
September 11, 2012 3:36 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsAn electron, as well as other subatomic particles with an electric charge, is actually a little magnet—it spins like a top, giving it its own magnetic moment. It's the subtle change in this magnetic moment caused by emission and reabsorption of photons, a quantum phenomenon called the anomalous magnetic moment, that has interested a Cornell University professor. And now, a team at Cornell has calculated the value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and muon to the most precise degree known to physics.
Interfaces provide new control over oxides' electronic properties
September 5, 2012 3:38 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsMaterials called transition metal oxides have physicists intrigued by their potentially useful properties. By combining two sophisticated experimental tools, researchers have gained the first insights into quantum interactions in transition metal oxide superlattices, which are artificial stacked layers of alternating materials, each just a few atoms thick.
Making Web applications more efficient
September 4, 2012 3:54 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMost major Websites maintain huge databases. Almost any transaction on a shopping site, travel site, or social networking site require multiple database queries, which can slow response time. Now, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a system that automatically streamlines Websites' database access patterns, making the sites up to three times as fast.
New technique builds graphene-boron sheets without substrate
August 29, 2012 11:34 am | by Anne Ju | News | CommentsEngineers at Cornell University have invented a way to pattern single atom films of graphene and boron nitride, an insulator, without the use of a silicon substrate. The technique, called patterned regrowth, is reliant on conventional silicon photolithography technology and could lead to substrate-free circuits that would be atomically thin yet retain high tensile strength and superior electrical performance.
New method helps researchers decode genomes
August 28, 2012 3:32 am | by Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell University | News | CommentsAlthough scientists sequenced the entire human genome more than 10 years ago, much work remains to understand what proteins all those genes code for. Now, a study describes a new approach that allows researchers to decode the genome by understanding where genes begin to encode for polypeptides, long chains of amino acids that make up proteins.
3D facial reconstruction tools “shaves” faces virtually
August 13, 2012 4:48 am | News | CommentsConventional face capturing is well established and widely utilized in the entertainment industry to capture a 3D model of an actor's face. However, up to now, no method was capable of reconstructing facial hair or even handling it appropriately. A new method developed at Disney Research in Switzerland captures individual strands of facial hair and stores them separately from the actual human face until added. Or “shaved” away.
Engineers study physics of avalanches
July 25, 2012 3:32 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsSnow avalanches, a real threat in countries from Switzerland to Afghanistan, are fundamentally a physics problem: What are the physical laws that govern how they start, grow, and move, and can theoretical modeling help predict them? Cornell University researchers have uncovered some clues.
Solid-state terahertz devices could scan for cancer
July 11, 2012 3:49 am | by Bill Steele, Cornell University | News | CommentsCornell University researchers have developed a new method of generating terahertz signals on an inexpensive silicon chip, offering possible applications in medical imaging, security scanning, and wireless data transfer.
Tighter 'stitching' means better graphene
June 1, 2012 5:11 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsSimilar to how tighter stitches make for a better quality quilt, the "stitching" between individual crystals of graphene affects how well these carbon monolayers conduct electricity and retain their strength, Cornell University researchers report.
High-temperature superconductivity starts with nanoscale electronic oases
May 31, 2012 5:04 am | by Bill Steele, Cornell University | News | CommentsHigh-temperature superconductivity doesn't happen all at once. It starts in isolated nanoscale patches that gradually expand until they take over. That discovery, from atomic-level observations at Cornell University and the University of Tokyo, offers a new insight into the puzzling " pseudogap " state observed in high-temperature superconductors.
Infrared LEDs can be made cheaper, compatible with silicon
May 10, 2012 3:31 am | by Anne Ju, Cornell University | News | CommentsLight-emitting diodes (LEDs) at infrared wavelengths are the magic behind such things as night vision and optical communications. Cornell University researchers have advanced the process of making such LEDs cheaper and easier to fabricate, which could lead to ultrathin LEDs painted onto silicon to replace computer wiring with light waves.
Researchers demonstrate new way to control nonvolatile magnetic memory devices
May 7, 2012 5:00 am | News | CommentsCornell University researchers have demonstrated a new strategy for making energy-efficient, reliable nonvolatile magnetic memory devices, which retain information without electric power. The researchers use a physical phenomenon called the spin Hall effect, that turns out to be useful for memory applications because it can switch magnetic poles back and forth.
Atomic-scale visualization of electron pairing in iron superconductors
May 4, 2012 4:05 am | News | CommentsBy measuring how strongly electrons are bound together to form Cooper pairs in an iron-based superconductor, scientists provide direct evidence supporting theories in which magnetism holds the key to this material’s ability to carry current with no resistance. This research strengthens confidence that this type of theory may one day be used to identify or design new materials with improved properties.
Portable device detects pathogens quickly
January 31, 2012 3:13 am | by Bill Steele, Cornell University | News | CommentsTwo Cornell professors will combine their inventions to develop a handheld pathogen detector that will give health care workers in the developing world speedy results to identify in the field such pathogens as tuberculosis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV.
Researchers provide new insight into how metals fail
January 23, 2012 10:37 am | News | CommentsThe eventual failure of metals can often be blamed on breaks, or voids, in the material's atomic lattice. They're at first invisible, but once enough of them link up, the metal eventually splits apart. Cornell University engineers, trying to better understand this process, have discovered that nanoscale voids behave differently than the larger ones that are hundreds of thousands of atoms in scale, studied through traditional physics.
Study uncovers how DNA unfolds for transcription
January 17, 2012 3:50 am | News | CommentsThe human genome contains some three billion base pairs that are tightly compacted into the nucleus of each cell. If a DNA strand were the thickness of a human hair, the entire human genome would be crammed into a space the size of a softball, but if it were unraveled and all the strands lined up, they would stretch from Ithaca, N.Y., to Boston. A Cornell University study teases out how cells undergo transcription.
Pentagon-backed 'time cloak' stops the clock
January 4, 2012 9:12 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsIt's one thing to make an object invisible, like Harry Potter's mythical cloak. But scientists at Cornell University have made an entire event impossible to see. They have invented a time masker.
