This nanotube has a nose for oxygen

A light-activated high-performance sensor can precisely detect oxygen in complex gas mixtures

13-Mar-2025 - ETH researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made of carbon nanotubes that can selectively, efficiently and reliably measure minute quantities of oxygen in gas mixtures under light. The detector could be widely used in industry, medicine and environmental monitoring. Oxygen is essential for ...

Researchers develop sensors for the “charge” of biological cells

Biosensors show the ratio of NADPH to NADP⁺ in living cells in real time for the first time

06-Jan-2025 - Biological cells have many vital functions in the organism. For example, they produce proteins, carbohydrates and fats. But they are also responsible for detoxifying harmful molecules and transmitting signals and immune defence steps. A so-called redox potential is required to drive these ...

Watching energy materials as they form

Eyes glued to a live transmission from inside a reaction vessel, researchers watch chemical reactions at work

20-Jun-2024 - Shooting a movie in the lab requires special equipment. Especially when the actors are molecules – invisible to the naked eye – reacting with each other. “Imagine trying to film tiny lava flows during a volcanic eruption. Your smartphone camera wouldn’t be up to the job. First, you’d need to ...

Scientists accelerate spectroscopic analysis

"This innovation expands the application of compressed sensing to real-time spectroscopic measurement"

26-Apr-2024 - Ultrafast laser spectroscopy allows the ascertainment of dynamics over extremely short time scales, making it a very useful tool in many scientific and industrial applications. A major disadvantage is the considerable measuring time this technique usually requires, which often leads to lengthy ...

Sensors made from ‘frozen smoke’ can detect toxic formaldehyde in homes and offices

The proof-of-concept sensors could be adapted to detect a wide range of hazardous gases

14-Feb-2024 - Researchers have developed a sensor made from ‘frozen smoke’ that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect formaldehyde in real time at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, far beyond the sensitivity of most indoor air quality sensors. The researchers, from the University of ...

Researchers visualise activity of CRISPR genetic scissors

New method allows precise observation of gene recognition

14-Jul-2023 - Scientists at Leipzig University, in collaboration with colleagues at Vilnius University in Lithuania, have developed a new method to measure the smallest twists and torques of molecules within milliseconds. The method makes it possible to track the gene recognition of CRISPR-Cas protein ...

Electronic quantum dance in molecules

Scientists watch moving charge density in real-time

08-Jun-2022 - An international research team led by DESY scientist Tim Laarmann has for the first time been able to monitor the quantum mechanically evolving electron charge distribution in glycine molecules via direct real-time measurement. The results – obtained at DESY´s brilliant free-electron laser FLASH ...

Real-time layer thickness measurement with terahertz

18-Apr-2018 - Terahertz is a key technology for non-destructive material testing. Major advantages are examinations without physical contact and the analysis of complex systems with a low contrast range, in which established methods like ultrasonic usually fail. The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI has ...

Rapid diagnosis of diseases with novel blood test

06-Mar-2018 - Prof. Dr. Jochen Guck, research group leader at the Biotechnology Center of TU Dresden (BIOTEC), together with medical colleagues from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden and partnering institutes from Dresden (Germany), Cambridge (UK), Glasgow (UK), and Stockholm (Sweden) use a ...

Messenger substance live on show

Important messenger substance in human cells measured 'live' for the first time

12-Apr-2016 - Scientists have succeeded in making real-time measurements of changes in the concentration of the important messenger substance nitric oxide (NO) in human cells for the first time. The breakthrough, which has been published in the journal "Nature Communications", was achieved by fusing two ...