Northwestern University
Complex networks, animal or computer, share similar skeletons
June 4, 2012 3:48 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern University researchers are the first to discover that very different complex networks—ranging from global air traffic to neural networks—share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do.
Mystifying materials
May 24, 2012 5:39 am | News | CommentsIt's not magic, but new materials designed by two Northwestern University researchers seem to exhibit magical properties. Some contract when they should expand, and others expand when they should contract.
Argonne, universities partner to design advanced materials
May 16, 2012 9:24 am | News | CommentsArgonne National Laboratory announced major new efforts with Northwestern University and the University of Chicago to advance the research and development of new materials to help solve the nation’s challenges in the fields of energy, health, and security.
New X-ray bionanoprobe enables study of cryogenically preserved samples
April 25, 2012 4:23 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Northwestern University's Department of Radiation Oncology and Argonne National Laboratory recently deployed a new non-destructive X-ray microscopy solution from Xradia to image cryogenically preserved cells and advance studies of intra-cellular biology.
Influencing stem cell fate
March 6, 2012 10:04 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone.
Lubricant mystery solved; longer joint life possible
February 14, 2012 11:11 am | Articles | CommentsProsthetic materials for hips, which include metals, polymers, and ceramics, have a lifetime typically exceeding 10 years. However, beyond 10 years the failure rate generally increases. Engineers and physicians have discovered that graphitic carbon is a key element in a lubricating layer that forms on metal-on-metal hip implants.
Researchers develop new method for creating tissue engineering scaffolds
February 13, 2012 5:04 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Northwestern University have developed a new method for creating scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, providing an alternative that is more flexible and less time-intensive than current technology.
A therapist in your pocket
February 7, 2012 8:59 am | News | CommentsBrooding in your apartment on Saturday afternoon? A new smart phone intuits when you're depressed and will nudge you to call or go out with friends. It's the future of therapy at a new Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine center where scientists are inventing Web-based, mobile, virtual technologies to treat depression and other mood disorders.
Disappearing gold a boon for nanolattices
January 27, 2012 8:05 am | News | CommentsWhen gold vanishes from a very important location, it usually means trouble. At the nanoscale, however, it could provide more knowledge about certain types of materials. A recent discovery that enables scientists to replace gold nanoparticles with dummy "spacers" has allowed scientists to create materials with never-before-seen structures, which may lead to new properties.
Tiny roundworm points to big promise
January 6, 2012 10:16 am | News | CommentsTwo related studies from Northwestern University offer new strategies for tackling the challenges of preventing and treating diseases of protein folding. The research identified new genes and pathways that prevent protein misfolding and toxic aggregation, keeping cells healthy, and also identified small molecules with therapeutic potential that restore health to damaged cells, providing new targets for drug development.
A 3D view of 1D nanostructures
January 6, 2012 4:23 am | News | CommentsJust 100 nm in diameter, nanowires are often considered one-dimensional. But researchers at Northwestern University have recently reported that individual gallium nitride nanowires show strong piezoelectricity—a type of charge-generation caused by mechanical stress—in three dimensions.
Study: Scientists are doing their most creative work later in life
December 7, 2011 3:16 pm | News | CommentsNew research from Northwestern University and Ohio State University shows that the average age at which Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine do their prize-winning work is increasing. The trend may have less to do with longer life spans than with how researchers are trained.
Unlocking algal secrets may help clean up radioactive isotopes
December 1, 2011 3:33 am | News | CommentsUsing the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, a group of Northwestern University and Argonne scientists have figured out the secrets of algae that can preferentially take up strontium over calcium—a task so difficult that it's not easily done even in a laboratory. The algae could form the basis of new technologies to clean up contaminated land or water.
Porous crystals for natural gas storage
November 7, 2011 3:33 am | News | CommentsPorous crystals called metal-organic frameworks, with their nanoscopic pores and incredibly high surface areas, are excellent materials for natural gas storage. But with millions of different structures possible, where does one focus?
Next-generation superlattice cameras add more 'color' to night vision
October 20, 2011 5:24 am | News | CommentsRecent breakthroughs have enabled scientists from the Northwestern University's Center for Quantum Devices to build cameras that can see more than one optical waveband or "color" in the dark. The semiconducting material used in the cameras—called type-II superlattices—can be tuned to absorb a wide range of infrared wavelengths, and now, a number of distinct infrared bands at the same time.
Brain smells what it expects, not what it sniffs
October 7, 2011 12:20 pm | News | CommentsNew research from Northwestern University offers strong evidence that the brain uses predictive coding to generate “predictive templates” of specific smells—setting up a mental expectation of a scent before it hits your nostrils.
Researchers realize high-power, narrowband terahertz source
September 30, 2011 11:05 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Northwestern University have developed a simpler way to generate single-chip terahertz radiation, a discovery that could soon allow for more rapid security screening, border protection, high sensitivity biological/chemical analysis, agricultural inspection, and astronomical applications.
Solar cell technology gives light waves 'amnesia'
September 27, 2011 4:10 am | News | CommentsFor years, scientists have dealt with the problem of trying to increase the efficiency and drive down the cost of solar cells. Now researchers have hit upon a new idea—trying to give the light collected by solar cells a bit of "amnesia." At Argonne National Laboratory, researchers have investigated the use of fluorescent plastics called luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) that can be used to lower the cost of electricity from solar cells.
Carbon dioxide sponge is carbon-neutral and edible
September 23, 2011 12:04 pm | by Megan Fellman | News | CommentsA year ago Northwestern University chemists published their recipe for a new class of nanostructures made of sugar, salt and alcohol. Now, the same team has discovered the edible compounds can efficiently detect, capture and store carbon dioxide.
Nanostructure mimics natural protein to promote blood vessel growth
August 3, 2011 5:09 am | by Pat Vaughan Tremmel | News | CommentsIschemia, in which tissue deprived of oxygen, is a serious health condition that can lead to damaged organs or amputation. A new artificial structure has been built, however, that, like the natural protein it mimics, can trigger a cascade of complex events that promote the growth of new blood vessels.
New algorithm helps control complex networks
May 12, 2011 8:08 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAt first glance, a diagram of the complex network of genes that regulate cellular metabolism might seem hopelessly complex, and efforts to control such a system futile. However, an MIT researcher has come up with a new computational model that can analyze any type of complex network—biological, social, or electronic—and reveal the critical points that can be used to control the entire system.
Biologists find new chink in staph's armor
March 25, 2011 5:50 am | News | CommentsThe battle against deadly staph infections is closer to victory as Illinois researchers have uncovered secrets of how the bacterium protects itself from human immune attacks, which could lead to more effective anti-staph therapies.
New switching device could help build ultrafast quantum Internet
March 11, 2011 5:51 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern Univ. researchers have developed a new switching device that takes quantum communication to a new level. The device is a practical step toward creating a network that takes advantage of the mysterious world of quantum mechanics.
Tiny gems: The next big step in battling cancer
March 10, 2011 4:23 am | News | CommentsChemotherapy drug resistance contributes to treatment failure in more than 90% of metastatic cancers. Overcoming this hurdle would improve cancer survival rates. Dean Ho, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Northwestern Univ., believes a tiny carbon particle called a nanodiamond may offer an effective drug delivery solution for hard-to-treat cancers.
Making a point: New method developed for rapid prototyping of nanoscale devices
January 27, 2011 5:36 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern Univ. researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly prototyping nanoscale devices and structures that is so inexpensive the "print head" can be thrown away when done.
