Recent findings by medical researchers indicate that naturally occurring nanotubes may serve as tunnels that protect retroviruses and bacteria in transit from diseased to healthy cells — a fact that may explain why vaccines fare poorly against some invaders.

Thanks to the rising trend toward miniaturization, carbon nanotubes – which are about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair and possess several unique and very useful properties – have become the choice candidates for use as building blocks in nanosized electronic and mechanical devices. But it is precisely their infinitesimal dimensions, as well as their tendency to clump together, that make it difficult for scientists to manipulate nanotubes.

Researchers at Purdue University are the first to precisely measure the forces required to peel tiny nanotubes off of other materials, opening up the possibility of creating standards for nano-manufacturing and harnessing a gecko's ability to walk up walls.

Duke University chemists have found a way to grow long, straight cylinders only a few atoms thick in very large numbers, removing a major roadblock in the pursuit of nano-scale electronics.

After powering the micro-electronics revolution, silicon could carve out an important new role in speeding the debut of ultra-clean fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen, researchers in China suggest. Their calculations show for the first time that silicon nanotubes can store hydrogen more efficiently than their carbon nanotube counterparts.

A new method that uses nanotechnology to rapidly measure minute amounts of insulin is a major step toward developing the ability to assess the health of the body’s insulin-producing cells in real time.

When it comes to scientific breakthroughs, we usually leave the coverage to our science writers, because they have a fighting chance of understanding them.

Carbon nanotubes are attractive candidates for use as the active elements in the next generation of electronic devices. However, it has proven incredibly difficult to align nanotubes within device architectures.

Computers and electronic devices of the future will utilise technologies not currently available. An example of such a technology is the use of carbon nanotubes as interconnects for computer chips. This is now a step closer to reality with some new work from nanotechnology researchers within the Materials Ireland Polymer Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin.

There is nothing new about combining two materials to make a composite material with more desirable properties than the originals. Fibreglass has been a mainstay of the marine industry for decades and the construction industry is built on reinforced concrete.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed new ways to make or modify nanorods and nanotubes of titanium oxide, a material used in a variety of industrial and medical applications. The methods and new titanium oxide materials may lead to improved catalysts for hydrogen production, more efficient solar cells, and more protective sunscreens.

Mimicking the agile gecko, with its uncanny ability to run up walls and across ceilings, has long been a goal of materials scientists. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Akron have taken one sticky step in the right direction, creating synthetic "gecko tape" with four times the sticking power of the real thing.