Author Archives: rberkowitz

The Emperor’s New Photonics Clothes

Posted on January 27, 2016 by rberkowitz

How wearable technologies for applications such as media, sports, logistics, and medicine are improving in terms of design and functionality. Continue reading →

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Indiana University: Using Bacteria to Produce Hydrogen Sustainably

Posted on January 26, 2016 by rberkowitz

Scientists at Indiana University (IU), Bloomington, have created a highly efficient biomaterial that catalyses hydrogen formation, by encapsulating bacterial genes within a self-assembled protective viral shell. Continue reading →

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Fluorescent Colloidal Nanomaterial Rapidly Internalized into Living Cells

Posted on January 26, 2016 by rberkowitz

Researchers have successfully incorporated colloidal nanoplatelets, a disc-like variation on spherical quantum dots, in a biological system. The new “lipoprotein nanoplatelets” were found to be rapidly internalized into living cells while retaining their fluorescence, making them uniquely valuable in live-cell imaging and labelling. Continue reading →

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Cambridge University: Moving closer to the ‘ultimate’ lithium-air battery

Posted on January 22, 2016 by rberkowitz

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have overcome some challenges in lithium-air batteries efficiency and performance and demonstrated a cell that is over 90% efficient. Continue reading →

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MIT: Graphene filter to improve desalination efficiency

Posted on January 19, 2016 by rberkowitz

California’s drought has led the state to accelerate the construction of desalination plants; however, reclaiming seawater is a prohibitively expensive and energy. Now, an MIT team has developed a novel graphene filter that could greatly improve the efficiency of the … Continue reading →

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Not Like the Others

Posted on January 15, 2016 by rberkowitz

NASA’s Dawn mission to Ceres has provided an unexpected picture of asteroid formation. Continue reading →

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Simple Technique Produces Pure, High-Quality Nanodiamonds

Posted on January 13, 2016 by rberkowitz

Nanodiamonds, or pure diamonds with a length scale less than a micrometer, are a materials scientist’s best friend in areas such as imaging, spintronics, and quantum computing. Now, researchers have overcome key challenges and developed a straightforward way of producing extremely … Continue reading →

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MRS Bulletin: Photonic Crystal Nanolasers

Posted on January 8, 2016 by rberkowitz

‘Photonic-crystal nanolasers shown to be highly sensitive biosensors’ printed in Materials News section of January 2016 MRS Bulletin. Continue reading →

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Aviation in an Additive Age

Posted on January 6, 2016 by rberkowitz

Assessing the role played by additive manufacturing in aircraft production. Continue reading →

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Some Like it Hot: Simulating Single Particle Excitations

Posted on December 17, 2015 by rberkowitz

Understanding and manipulating plasmons is important for their potential use in photovoltaics, solar cell water splitting, and sunlight-induced fuel production from CO2. Now, for the first time, the interplay between the plasmon mode and the single particle excitation within a small metal cluster has been simulated directly. Read more at Berkeley Lab…my last embargo-held press release written while full-time at LBNL, despite the byline! Continue reading →

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