ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

An easy-to-use device promises to help scientists better understand natural and human-designed nanotechnologies -- and identify new drugs.

Researchers report the creation of an artificial molecule with superpowers. It has the potential to revolutionize nanotechnology -- and it also explains one of Nature's intriguing enigmas; why do we have a right hand and a left hand? The researchers describe their supermolecule as a marriage between DNA and peptides.

A research team has visualized the three-dimensional structure of the surface of catalyst nanoparticles at atomic resolution. This structure plays a decisive role in the activity and stability of the particles. The detailed insights were achieved with a combination of atom probe tomography, spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Nanoparticle catalysts can be used, for example, in the production of hydrogen for the chemical industry. To optimize the performance of future catalysts, it is essential to understand how it is affected by the three-dimensional structure.