At a technical breakfast, Romain Quidant presented his research into the detection and treatment of cancer using gold nanoparticles illuminated with laser light. Quidant, who was recently awarded the Fresnel Prize 2009 that recognizes the highest level of excellence amongst emerging researchers in the field of photonics, is an ICREA researcher at the UPC's Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and a fellow of the Cellex Foundation Barcelona.

Metal nanodots are useful in many fields such as catalysis, environmental remediation, DNA detection and high-density data storage, to give just a few examples. Periodic arrays are required for certain applications and major fabrication methods include self-assembly-based wet chemical processes and lithography-based nanopatterning.

The team previously discovered an "attractive" force of light and showed how it could be manipulated to move components in semiconducting micro- and nano-electrical systems—tiny mechanical switches on a chip. The scientists have now uncovered a complementary repulsive force. Researchers had theorized the existence of both the attractive and repulsive forces since 2005, but the latter had remained unproven until now. The team, led by Hong Tang, assistant professor at Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science, reports its findings in the July 13 edition of Nature Photonics's advanced online publication.

Since its discovery just a few years ago, graphene has climbed to the top of the heap of new super-materials poised to transform the electronics and nanotechnology landscape. As N.J. Tao, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University explains, this two-dimensional honeycomb structure of carbon atoms is exceptionally strong and versatile. Its unusual properties make it ideal for applications that are pushing the existing limits of microchips, chemical sensing instruments, biosensors, ultracapacitance devices, flexible displays and other innovations.

Researchers at Caltech have shown that an NEMS device can be used to detect the mass of protein molecules. The sensor could easily be scaled up and used to detect the masses of millions of proteins in an instant.

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have overcome a hurdle in quantum computer development, having devised* a viable way to manipulate a single "bit" in a quantum processor without disturbing the information stored in its neighbors. The approach, which makes novel use of polarized light to create "effective" magnetic fields, could bring the long-sought computers a step closer to reality.

A team of researchers from DuPont and Lehigh University has reported a breakthrough in the quest to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that are suitable for use in electronics, medicine and other applications.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and colleagues at Tianjin University, China, have succeeded in making a bone-like material with graded mineral content. The new scaffold, which consists of calcium phosphate on a mat of nanofibres, could be ideal for connective tissue engineering because its mechanical stiffness varies continuously across the surface – a prerequisite for connecting two different biological materials, such as tendon and bone, together.

From the motion sensor to the computer chip - in many products of daily life components are used whose functioning is based on smallest structures of the size of thousandths - or even millionths - of millimetres. These micro and nano structures must be manufactured and assembled with the highest precision so that in the end, the overall system will function smoothly. Thereby, details are important - and therefore scientists at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have developed a metrological scanning probe microscope into a micro and nano coordinate measuring instrument. This now allows dimensional quantities with nanometer resolution also to be measured on three-dimensional objects in an extraordinarily large measurement range of 25 mm x 25 mm x 5 mm. The new device is already extensively being used at PTB - to a large part for calibration orders from industry and research.

Researchers from across Europe have united to build the largest quantum key distribution network ever built. The efforts of 41 research and industrial organisations were realised as secure, quantum encrypted information was sent over an eight node, mesh network.