With the help of some microscopic canals, squishy materials and chemistry, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Stephen Morin is throwing a curve into the normally flat landscape of circuitry. If a processor is the brain of a computing device, then circuits are the nerves that help power and direct its other major organs: sensors, transmitters, receivers.…

Preparing the perfect nanoscale sandwich from oxygen-based ingredients was no picnic. But with the assistance of two Nebraska physicists, an international team of researchers has finally managed it — ending a nearly 15-year quest to observe a phenomenon that could help power and miniaturize a future generation of electronics. In 2004, researchers observed a gas…

Pinning DNA-sized ribbons of carbon to a gas sensor can boost its sensitivity far better than any other known carbon material, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The team developed a new form of nano-ribbon made from graphene, a 2-D honeycomb of carbon atoms. When the researchers integrated a film of the…

Water-repellent surfaces and coatings could make ice removal a literal breeze by forcing ice to grow up rather than just skate by, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and several Chinese institutions. The researchers discovered that ice grows differently on absorbent vs. water-repellent surfaces, demonstrating that a gust of air can blow…

Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard Medical School, and MIT have designed a smart bandage that could eventually heal chronic wounds or battlefield injuries with every fiber of its being. The bandage consists of electrically conductive fibers coated in a gel that can be individually loaded with infection-fighting antibiotics, tissue-regenerating growth factors, painkillers, or…