ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

Researchers used liquid gallium to create an antiviral and antimicrobial coating and tested it on a range of fabrics, including face masks. The coating adhered more strongly to fabric than some conventional metal coatings, and eradicated 99% of several common pathogens within five minutes.

Scientists develop stronger and tougher glass, inspired by the inner layer of mollusk shells. Instead of shattering upon impact, the new material has the resiliency of plastic and could be used to improve cell phone screens in the future, among other applications.

In the last few decades, metal 3D printing has spearheaded the efforts in creating custom parts of intricate shapes and high functionality. But as additive manufacturers have included more alloys for their 3D printing needs, so have the challenges in creating uniform, defect-free parts.

Researchers have found a way to make 'single-crystal flake' devices that are so thin and free of defects, they have the potential to outperform components used today in quantum computer circuits.

Researchers have succeeded in creating tiny vehicles powered by nothing but light. By layering an optical metasurface onto a microscopic particle, and then using a light source to control it, they succeeded in moving the tiny vehicles in a variety of complex and precise ways -- and even using them to transport other objects.

Researchers have developed a new computational tool that can identify pathways related to diseases, including breast and prostate cancer, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Researchers describe how a unique combination of new hardware and software allows defects in solar panels to be clearly imaged and analyzed even in bright light.

Light-to-frequency conversion circuits (LFCs) are often used to overcome setbacks faced by conventional ultra-low power light sensors. However, use of LFCs can lead to chip area wastage and poor performance of photosensors. Researchers have now developed a highly photosensitive LFC with improved chip area economy, high tuneability, and superior compatibility with flexible electronics. This novel photodetector system can be used in the newly envisioned Internet-of-things (IOT) sensor systems.

A new sensor can detect not only whether a virus is present, but whether it's infectious -- an important distinction for containing viral spread. Researchers demonstrated the sensor, which integrates specially designed DNA fragments and nanopore sensing, with two key viruses that cause infections worldwide: the human adenovirus and the virus that causes COVID-19.

Researchers have developed a microneedle patch that delivers a COVID-19 DNA vaccine into the skin, causing strong immune responses in cells and mice. Importantly, the patch can be stored for over 30 days at room temperature.

When you shrink down to very small scales, heat doesn't always behave the way you think it should. Now, new findings from the nano realm could help researchers to gain a better handle on the flow of heat in electronic devices.