Nanotechnology | Penn Today

closeup of below-freezing liquid poured into a vessel.

Penn joins ‘cryo revolution’ by adding Nobel-winning microscope

The Singh Center’s Krios G3i, an electron microscope for studying samples at extremely low temperatures, allows researchers to look at cells, proteins, and nanoparticles like never before.

Microscopic view of lung cells expressing the synthetic mRNA

Nanoparticles can turn off genes in bone marrow

Using specialized nanoparticles, researchers from Penn Engineering and MIT have developed a way to turn off specific genes in cells of bone marrow, which play an important role in producing blood cells.

Engineers manipulate color on the nanoscale, making it disappear

A new system of nanoscale semiconductor strips uses structural color interactions to eliminate the strips’ intrinsic color entirely, with implications for holographic displays and optical sensors, or new types of microlasers and detectors.

‘Nanocardboard’ flyers could serve as Martian atmospheric probes

As NASA plans to launch its next Mars rover, Perseverance, this summer, Penn Engineers are now testing their ‘nanocardboard flyers’ ability to lift payloads.

liang feng, erica korb, and weijie su headshots

Three Penn faculty named 2020 Sloan Research Fellows

Engineer Liang Feng, neuroscientist Erica Korb, and statistician Weijie Su each received the competitive and prestigious award honoring early-career researchers.

flowers-haped microrobot approaches plastic beads, uses capillary forces to stick them to one of its petals, then releases them at the desired location by spinning in place.

Magnetic microrobots use capillary forces to coax particles into position

A new study shows how microscopic robots, remotely driven by magnetic fields, can use capillary forces to manipulate objects floating at the interface between two liquids.

New astronomical instrument on the hunt for exoplanets

A state-of-the-art instrument called NEID, from the Tohono O’odham word meaning “to see,” collected its “first light” and is poised to look for new planets outside the solar system.

Drops of liquid crystal molecules branch out into strange structures

Shaped by surface tension and elasticity, spherical drops of chain-like liquid crystal molecules transform upon cooling into complex shapes with long-reaching tendrils.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia science prize goes to climate change and electronics researchers from Penn, UCLA

Charles Kane and Eugene Mele of the School of Arts and Sciences have been honored with the John Scott Award, given annually to innovators in science, for their work developing ways to predict the behavior of atomic particles.

Two people standing in a lab space, holding headbands.

A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world

The portable EEG created by PIK Professor Michael Platt and postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan has potential applications from health care to sports performance.

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