A team led by Yale University researchers has successfully implemented simple algorithms using a quantum processor based on microwave solid-state technology--similar to that found in computers and cell phones. The new processor is far from conventional, however, in that it uses the potent power of quantum mechanics to bring the dream of quantum computing a small but significant step closer to reality.

Bilayer graphene can be used to make good tunnel field effect transistors (TFETs) for integrated circuits according to new calculations by researchers in Italy. The devices can easily be switched on and off thanks to their high on-off current, even at low supply voltages.

Two new construction manuals are now available for the world's smallest lamps. Based on these protocols, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have tailor-made nanoparticles that can be used as position lights on cell proteins and, possibly in the future as well, as light sources for display screens or for optical information technology. The researchers produced cadmium sulphide particles in microscopically small membrane bubbles. Depending on which of the construction manuals they follow, the particles can be 4 or 50 nanometres in size. Because the membrane bubbles have the same size as living cells, the scientists' work also provides an indication as to how nanostructures could arise in nature. (Small, published online: June 8, 2009/DOI: 10.1002/smll.200900560)

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based pressure sensors offer the advantages of ultra-low-power operation, wide dynamic range and ease of integration with microcavities for vacuum microelectronics, compared with conventional thermal conductivity gauges such as Pirani or thermocouple devices.

At the quantum level, the atoms that make up matter and the photons that make up light behave in a number of seemingly bizarre ways. Particles can exist in "superposition," in more than one state at the same time (as long as we don't look), a situation that permitted Schrödinger's famed cat to be simultaneously alive and dead; matter can be "entangled"—Albert Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance"—such that one thing influences another thing, regardless of how far apart the two are.

Researchers in the US have shown that a universal structure can be used to make hybrid organic-quantum-dot light-emitting devices that emit over the entire visible spectrum. The LEDs are made from semiconducting ZnCdS and ZnCdSe and might find use in RGB flat-panel displays in which red, green and blue QD pixels are deposited in one simple, inexpensive step.

Biophysicists long for an ideal material—something more structured and less sticky than a standard glass surface—to anchor and position individual biomolecules. Gold is an alluring possibility, with its simple chemistry and the ease with which it can be patterned. Unfortunately, gold also tends to be sticky and can be melted by lasers. Now, biophysicists at JILA have made gold more precious than ever—at least as a research tool—by creating nonstick gold surfaces and laser-safe gold nanoposts, a potential boon to laser trapping of biomolecules.

An early sign that a breast tumour has turned metastatic is the detection of cancer cells in nearby lymph nodes. This can be achieved by locating the first nodes that escaping cells will drain into and then biopsying a few of these sentinel lymph nodes. If the results are positive, all lymph nodes under the arm will be removed. If negative, then patients are spared the extra surgery.

Scientists from A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), led by Professor Christian Joachim,  have scored a breakthrough in nanotechnology by becoming the first in the world to invent a molecular gear of the size of 1.2nm whose rotation can be deliberately controlled. This achievement marks a radical shift in the scientific progress of molecular machines and is published on 15 June 2009 in Nature Materials, one of the most prestigious journals in materials science.