Highlights
Aug 23, 2012
Periciliary Brush Keeps Lungs Healthy
Brian Button, Li-Heng Cai, Camille Ehre, Mehmet Kesimer, David B. Hill, John K. Sheehan, Richard C. Boucher, and Michael Rubinstein
Mucus clearance is the primary defense
mechanism that protects airways from inhaled infectious and toxic agents. In
the current Gel-on-Liquid mucus clearance model mucus gel is propelled on top
of a “watery” periciliary layer surrounding the cilia. However,
this model fails to explain the formation of distinct mucus layer in health or
why mucus clearance fails in disease. We propose a Gel-on-Brush model in which
the periciliary
layer is occupied by membrane spanning mucins and mucopolysaccharides densely tethered to the airway surface.
Aug 23, 2012
Summer School on “Polymers in Soft and Biological Matter"
Dr. Michael Rubinstein, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Founded by physical chemists like Flory and brought into the mainstream of theoretical physics by visionaries like de Gennes, over the last eighty years polymer physics has grown into a mature, rich, and exciting discipline. Now expanded to include also colloids, liquid crystals, interfaces, etc, polymer and soft matter physics span fundamental statistical mechanics and field theory, most advanced materials, as well as technological and biological frontiers.
Aug 10, 2012
Binary Colloidal Structures Assembled through Ising Interactions
K. Khalil (1); A. Sagastegui (1); Y. Li (2); M. A. Tahir (1); J. E. S. Socolar (3); B. J. Wiley (4) and B. B. Yellen (1, 2) Duke University: (1) Depts. of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, (3) Physics and (4) Chemistry University of Michigan – (2) Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Assembling microscopic particles
into macroscopic structures can open new pathways for producing complex
materials that cannot be produced by lithographic methods.
Although
several methods for assembling colloidal particles exist, including controlled
drying, ionic interactions, and dipolar interactions, a general pathway for
producing a wider variety of structures remains a fundamental challenge. Here a versatile colloidal assembly system is
demonstrated in which the design rules can be tuned to yield over 20 different
Jul 31, 2012
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Science Show from Puerto Rico Wows Madison Audiences
In July, 2012, the UW-MRSEC hosted graduate students from the University of Puerto Rico
Mayaguez. While in Madison, Wisconsin the students performed their Science on
Wheels (Ciencias en Ruedas) show at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the
UW-Madison campus. The show teaches students about chemistry and physics
using loud, exciting, highly visual content including explosions, water cannons, liquid
nitrogen balloons and more.
Jul 28, 2012
Ohio State University
Ohio State researchers discover Giant spin Seebeck effect
C. M. Jaworski, R. C. Myers, E. Johnston-Halperin & J. P. Heremans, The Ohio State University
Giant spin-Seebeck effect could
provide power from waste heat
Jul 6, 2012
Optical Topological Transition in Metamaterials
Manipulating the topology of iso-frequency surface provides a new approach for control of light-matter interaction. This is demonstrated using anisotropic metamaterials consisting of metal-dielectric layers.
Jul 6, 2012
A high-performance, metal-free metamaterial in the near-IR
Gururaj V. Naik, Jingjing Liu, Alexander V. Kildishev, Vladimir M. Shalaev and Alexandra Boltasseva School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Metals have many
disadvantages as components of optical metamaterials. Semiconductor-based materials overcome these problems.
We build a high performance, all-semiconductor-based metamaterial by replacing metal
with heavily-doped zinc oxide and demonstrate negative refraction in this
near-infrared metamaterial. This demonstration
could lead to real-world metamaterial devices and unravel
many new physical phenomena.
Jun 25, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder
Moving and Rotating Particles with Low Light Levels
LCMRC researchers have developed a method for manipulating particles by light without touching them by using liquid crystals as a light-controlled host fluid. The LC host reduces the illumination required by factors up to 10,000X relative to direct manipulation with optical tweezers, to the extent that lasers are no longer needed for many applications. LCMRC designed and synthesized photosensitive azobenzene monolayers control the LC orientation, which in turn moves the particles.
Jun 25, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder
Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal-Based Pico-Projectors
Center researchers are collaborating with spin-off Displaytech (now part of Micron Technologies) to develop ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) materials for application in picoprojectors. The high-quality time sequential color and high brightness enabled by FLC switching speed, and high fill factor and ultra-small pixels achievable with FLCs makes FLC-on-silicon the choice display technology for picoprojectors.
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