Fresh Science

Joseph J. Richardson – University of Melbourne Nanotechnology-infused plants could monitor and improve air quality in our cities, according to Australian researchers. Joseph Richardson of the University of Melbourne has used an ancient flower-dyeing technique to grow advanced nanomaterials inside plants to detect and absorb pollution. These bionic plants act like sponges that soak up…

New techniques reveal dragonfly wing’s sterile surfaces that could benefit surgery Australia is well known for its deadly creatures. But there’s one that’s harmless to humans and deadly to bacteria: the dragonfly! Hospitals have a huge problem with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Could the dragonfly hold the answer to stop bacteria in its tracks only the force…

Longer shelf lives for creams and lotions, and better control over how and where the active ingredients they contain are released. Those are the potential benefits of using specially engineered nanoparticles—so small that about a thousand of them could fit across a human hair—to create the emulsions on which such cosmetic and therapeutic products are based, says Nasrin Eskander from the University of South Australia’s Ian Wark Research Institute.

Imagine printing your own room lighting, lasers, or solar cells from inks you buy at the local newsagent. Jacek Jasieniak and his colleagues at CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and the University of Padua in Italy, have moved a step closer to such a future, by developing liquid inks to print devices known as quantum dots.