Silver has been used as biocide for medical purposes since the 1930s. Today nanometric size silver particles are used to prevent unpleasant odour caused by bacteria in sport shirts or socks .

Gold nanoparticles ( AuNPs ) present the many advantages of displaying relative biocompatibility, high light absorption and strong optical scattering properties. They are therefore good candidates to be used as probes for cancer imaging .

Chances of survival of prostate cancer depend strongly on the stage at which the disease is diagnosed. Now scientists have developed new methods relying on an electronic nose and optoacoustics to improve the diagnosis techniques and avoid fatal treatment delays.

If you wear glasses, you are probably reading this article by looking through a tiny, transparent layer of nanomaterial.

More than a century after their discovery, X-rays still claim their place in medicine and science.

Within the European Research Project Fiblys, they have therefore redesigned their microscope to a fully functional nano-laboratory.

In the European funded project FIBLYS (or FIB anaLYSis) three industry and four research partners from Czech Republic, France, Germany and Switzerland have created a multi-nano tool named FIBLYS .

Dr. Christian Mittermayr from Lambda GmbH is the Coordinator of the EU research project DINAMICS, involving major European stakeholders from the relevant branches, end users and production system suppliers, ICT providers, SMEs and academic and research institutes.

An artificial device in the form of a retinal prosthesis can replace dead photoreceptor cells by electrically stimulating the remaining neurons. Two examples of retinal prostheses are digital camera-type electrode arrays and photodiode arrays .

The sun has enough power to supply the whole earth with energy. But as long as renewable energy is more expensive than energy produced by coal or nuclear plants, solar energy won’t be first choice.

Membranes for water purification are used in many applications and different types of membranes are being developed at the moment. No membrane can filter and purify water entirely, but improvements using novel kinds of membranes are made.

Prof Ivo Rangelow from the University of Ilmenau is the Scientific Vice Coordinator of the EU research project PRONANO. Researchers of the European project PRONANO have developed a new technology to examine surfaces at the atomic level.

Dr. Brigitte Angres and Dr. Helmut Wurst earlier worked on the development of synthetic hydrogels in 3-D cell culture at the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen in Germany, with financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Many researchers culture cells in flat dishes, two-dimensional culture systems. A disadvantage is that the cells behave differently than they would in a living organism.

Researchers from the Institute of Micro- and Nanotechnologies in Ilmenau, Germany have developed the new scanning device with a set of highly sensitive needles or cantilevers , each of which is only a few microns wide.

A cantilever is a very thin single needle currently used for quality control at the nanoscale, but to improve and speed up the process scientists are developing an array of needles, a cantilever array, functioning simultaneously.

Researchers who need help with bringing their innovations to the market can get assistance from established offices of technology transfer .

The filter could be used to recycle sewage on a space station, but the main focus is the use of ultra pure water in the fabrication of semiconductors.

Some laboratories have achieved impressive efficiencies under concentrated sunlight. SunPower Corp. is much closer to the market. The California-based company recently produced a record-setting 24.