How much does life weigh?

New cell scale with high resolution

27-Oct-2017 - ETH researchers have developed a scale for measuring cells. It allows the weight of individual living cells, and any changes in this weight, to be determined quickly and accurately for the first time. The invention has also aroused significant interest both in and outside the field of ...

A traffic cop for the cell surface

Researchers illuminate a basic biological process

01-Mar-2017 - On the surfaces of our trillions of cells is a complex crowd of molecules moving around, talking to each other, occasionally segregating themselves, and triggering basic functions ranging from pain sensation to insulin release. The structures that organize this microscopic traffic jam are no ...

Measuring Planck's constant, watt balance brings world closer to new kilogram

22-Jun-2016 - A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step closer toward a new and improved definition of the kilogram. The scale, called the NIST-4 watt balance, has conducted its first ...

Scientists gain new insights into atomic disordering of complex metal oxides

09-Mar-2016 - A study led by the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could soon pay dividends in the development of materials with energy-related applications. Three UT researchers—Maik Lang, assistant professor of nuclear engineering ; Haidong Zhou, assistant ...

Quartz crystal microbalances enable new microscale analytic technique

30-Nov-2010 - A new chemical analysis technique developed by a research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses the shifting ultrasonic pitch of a small quartz crystal to test the purity of only a few micrograms of material. Since it works with samples close to a thousand times ...

Microchip patented which separates and extracts tumor cells in the blood

25-Oct-2010 - Ikerlan-IK4 and Mondragón Unibertsitatea are taking part in a project initiated by the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, and which has developed a microchip capable of separating and extracting tumour cells in the blood stream by means of ultrasonic waves. The Foundation General Hospital ...

MRI zooms in on microscopic flow

12-Oct-2010 - "Better and faster results!" is the clarion call for scientists and engineers to continually strive to improve their research tools. Of the tools used to study material structures at the atomic and molecular scales, there is none finer than Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its ...

Fuel cells in operation: A closer look

11-Oct-2010 - Measuring a fuel cell's overall performance is relatively easy, but measuring its components individually as they work together is a challenge. That's because one of the best experimental techniques for investigating the details of an electrochemical device while it's operating is x-ray ...

Watching electrons move in real time

28-Sep-2010 - At its most basic level, understanding chemistry means understanding what electrons are doing. Research published in The Journal of Chemical Physics not only maps the movement of electrons in real time but also observes a concerted electron and proton transfer that is quite different from any ...

Nano antenna concentrates light

Intensity increases 1,000-fold in Rice lab's experiment

23-Sep-2010 - Everybody who's ever used a TV, radio or cell phone knows what an antenna does: It captures the aerial signals that make those devices practical. A lab at Rice University has built an antenna that captures light in the same way, at a small scale that has big potential. Condensed matter physicist ...