IN FOCUS

Call for Papers—Two Journal of Materials Research Focus Issues If you are working in the two fields listed below, please be sure to submit a paper so it can be considered for inclusion in the always-popular JMR Focus Issues. The Materials Science of Additive Manufacturing—September 2014 Issue Guest editors: Todd A. Palmer, Pennsylvania State University; Jens Günster, BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing Germany; and Daniel Gunther, voxeljet AG, Germany Submission deadline: February 28, 2014   Optical Ceramics Science—October 2014 Issue Guest editors: Romain Gaume, University of Central Florida; Yiquan Wu, Alfred University; and Thomas Hartnett, Raytheon Company Submission Deadline: March 15, 2014   Visit the JMR Focus Issues web page for more details. 2014 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit April 21-25, 2014 San Francisco, California Pre-registration opens soon! Vist our registration page for details.

NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MATERIALS


Keep up with materials research news through MRS!
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Materials in Focus

Organic Polymer Transistor Selectively Detects Mercury in Seawater
Stanford University

by Tim Palucka

Image caption: Isoindigo-based organic polymer (PII2T-Si) OFET sensor fabricated on a flexible substrate. The fabricated OFET sensor can be used for the selective detection of heavy metal ions in the marine environment. Image credit: Oren Knopfmacher, Stanford University. Click to enlarge.

An organic polymer that is stable under water, even in harsh marine environments, could lead to a new family of sensors to monitor salinity changes, as well as pollutants such as mercury, in the oceans. Because the polymer can be deposited by the inexpensive spin-coating method, fabrication of transistors over large surface areas at low cost could also be possible, according to research performed at Stanford University. More

Read the abstract in Nature Communications.

Bio Focus

Novel Method Developed for Measuring Mechanical Stresses within Tissues
University of California, Santa Barbara

by Rachel Nuwer

Image caption: Image of cells in an embryonic mouse mandible (red and green) deforming an oil droplet (cyan). The deformation of the droplet allows scientists to obtain the squeezing and pulling forces generated by the cells around the droplet. Image credit: Otger Campas. Click to enlarge.

Despite the ubiquity and importance of mechanical forces for biological development, researchers previously had no way to measure them. Now, a new method described in Nature Methods uses oil microdroplets to quantify mechanical stresses in tissues, enabling researchers to measure these forces for the first time. "This tool will hopefully open up a new avenue for people to understand how genetics and physics interplay in the embryo," says Otger Campàs, a biophysicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and lead author of the paper. More

Read the abstract in Nature Methods.

Researchers Use Nanoparticles to Image a Broad Range of Tumors
University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center

by Joseph Bennington-Castro

Image caption: Researchers have designed unique nanoprobes that can find and image a broad range of tumors by targeting the high acidity and rapid blood vessel growth that's common in the tumor microenvironment. Image credit: Yiguang Wang. Click to enlarge.

In the last decade, researchers have designed nanoparticles that can detect certain cancer biomarkers. While effective, the technique's applications have been limited because the biomarkers vary significantly between organ site and cancer type. Now, researchers at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center have created nanoparticles that can zero in on common factors of the tumor microenvironment, allowing them to quickly and reliably image a number of different cancers in mice. More

Read the abstract in Nature Materials.

Industry Focus

Ultra-low temperature polarization-sensitive receiver for millimeter-wavelength Atacama Cosmology Telescope

Janis Research’s ultra low temperature (ULT) group is proud to announce that it has developed, in collaboration with multi-agency scientific collaboration team called ACTPol, a new pulse-tube cooled cryogenic platform for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). The ACT is a six-meter Gregorian telescope located at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 ft) on Cerro Toco, in Northern Chile, and is dedicated to studies of the structure and evolution of the early universe through direct observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation at different polarizations and with arcminute resolution. Its new focal plane contains 3000 polarization-sensitive transition edge senor (TES) bolometers, which must be cooled to below 100 mK to work. The new platform, together with new optical tubes and detectors developed by ACTPol collaboration, constitutes the telescope “light receiver” (camera). When fully deployed, its three light-sensing detector packages, as well as parts of the optical system, will be cooled by an integrated cryogen-free 3He – 4He dilution refrigerator developed by Janis Research. During its first season of operation in 2013, the first 150 GHz detector package array (PA1) was successfully tested on site and first light was received with detectors below 100 mK, which made this experiment the only CMB experiment to operate at such a low temperature. More

Image in Focus

Desert Landscape at Micron Scale

A scanning electron microscopy image of a GaAs substrate cleavage plane after nanowire growth. The hill and cliff structures result from imperfect alignment with the cleavage plane orientation while cleaving the substrate. Features that resemble cacti and bushes result from nanowire growth. During nanowire growth, the sides of the substrate (cleavage planes) are exposed to nanowire growth conditions and heterogeneous nucleation of nanowires may occur. The top of the substrate, where nanowires nucleate and grow in a controlled manner has the scientific importance; however, the side of the substrate can give rise to interesting images. This image was constructed by stitching two SEM images together and cropping the desired portion.

Credit: Sema Ermez, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

(A First Place Winner in the Science as Art competition at the 2013 MRS Fall Meeting)

Copyright for all Science as Art images belongs to the Materials Research Society. To request permission to re-use the images, please contact Anita Miller.

HAPPENINGS AT MRS

MRS News

40 Years, One Vision — The Future

On the occasion of the Materials Research Society's 40th Anniversary
in 2013, MRS President Tia Benson Tolle discussed the Society's future,
including the ever-increasing number of university chapters worldwide,
the growing diversity of our members, and the grassroots funding
opportunities made possible by the Materials Research Society Foundation.
Click the image to start the video.

Learn More About the First 40 years of MRS

Vist the MRS History page to acess an Interactive MRS History Timeline, videos highlighting the past and present of the society, articles on the history of MRS from the 20th Anniverary and 40th Anniversary issues of MRS Bulletin, and other historical content.

Of Interest to the Materials Science Community

Join the NISE Network for the 2014 Online Brown Bag conversations—a series of online training events, running from January through March, in preparation for NanoDays 2014 (March 29th to April 6th).

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a U.S. Government research and development initiative involving the nanotechnology-related activities of 20 department and agency units. The United States set the pace for nanotechnology innovation worldwide with the advent of the NNI in 2000. The NNI today consists of the individual and cooperative nanotechnology-related activities of federal agencies with a range of research and regulatory roles and responsibilities. To learn more about the NNI, click here.

MEETINGS UPDATE

Critical Meeting Deadlines

JUST PUBLISHED

MRS Communications

Research Letters:

Continuous dynamic analysis: evolution of elastic properties with strain
S. Basu, J.L. Hay, J.E. Swindeman and W.C. Oliver

Novel magnetic arrangement and structural phase transition induced by spin–lattice coupling in multiferroics
Satadeep Bhattacharjee, Dovran Rahmedov, Laurent Bellaiche and Dawei Wang

Creating textured surfaces using plasma electrolysis
Zhiling Zhang, Mukul Dubey, David Galipeau, Qi Hua Fan, James D. Hoefelmeyer and Ilham Y. Al-Qaradawi

Get your free Android App or iTunes App for MRS Communications for full mobile access to this journal.


MRS Bulletin

Materials for Biological Modulation, Sensing, and Imaging
January 2014

Guest editors: Hyunjoon Kong, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Joyce Y. Wong, Boston University

Biological cells are major building blocks of tissues and organs of living organisms. These cells are also being used as biomarkers for diagnosis and sources for regenerative medicine. To better understand and even regulate diverse activities of cells, materials capable of interacting with cells have been designed by integrating various material chemistry, characterization, and processing techniques. These materials are often integrated with various nano- and microscale engineering devices. This issue provides an overview of materials for biological modulation, sensing, and imaging and also discusses opportunities for the future development of multifunctional materials for sensing and therapies.

Introduction

Materials for biological modulation, sensing, and imaging
Hyunjoon Kong, University of Illinois– Urbana-Champaign, and Joyce Y. Wong, Boston University

Theme Articles

Biomaterial design motivated by characterization of natural extracellular matrices
Catherine K. Kuo and Michael L. Smith

Materials that harness and modulate the immune system
Jamal S. Lewis, Krishnendu Roy and Benjamin G. Keselowsky

Genetically encoded “smart” peptide polymers for biomedicine
Eric Mastria and Ashutosh Chilkoti

Theranostic nanomaterials for image-guided gene therapy
Seung Rim Hwang, Sook Hee Ku, Min Kyung Joo, Sun Hwa Kim and Ick Chan Kwon

Microvasculature: An essential component for organ-on-chip systems
Hyunjae Lee, Minhwan Chung and Noo Li Jeon

Translating chitosan to clinical delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs
Carla Pereira Gomes, Cátia Daniela Ferreira Lopes, Pedro Miguel Duarte Moreno, Aida Varela-Moreira, Maria José Alonso and Ana Paula Pêgo

Technical Feature

A perspective on coupled multiscale simulation and validation in nuclear materials
M.P. Short, D. Gaston, C.R. Stanek and S. Yip


Journal of Materials Research
Focus Issue: Synthesis of Nanostructured Functional Oxides
January 2014, Volume 29, Issue 1

A selection of papers:

Synthesis strategies for improving the performance of doped-BaZrO₃ materials in solid oxide fuel cell applications
Lei Bi and Enrico Traversa

Toward efficient solar water splitting over hematite photoelectrodes
Shaohua Shen

Nanostructural characterization of mesoporous hematite thin film photoanode used for water splitting
Ricardo H. Goncalves and Edson R. Leite

DIVERSIONS

Did You Know?

That in 1880 cellulose nitrate combs began to be mass produced? By the 1890s this caused a decline in the crafting of tortoiseshell and horn products. By 1920 celluloid replaced such combs, and its use continued until the 1950s (source: Plastics Historical Society).

Submit "Did You Know" and "Quiz" items for consideration by emailing the MRS Science News Editor.

Answer to the Quiz in the previous Materials360^®:
There was no quiz in the last issue of Materials360 Online.

NEW PRODUCTS FOCUS


Software Developments for Laser Diffraction Particle Sizing System

Malvern Instruments is marking the second anniversary of the Mastersizer 3000 laser diffraction particle sizing system with the introduction of a host of innovative software updates and an extension to the Mastersizer family, the Mastersizer 3000E. The Mastersizer 3000 delivers unique performance and productivity benefits, wrapped in a stylish, compact and practical instrument design. New software features now make it easier than ever to obtain accurate particle size information. They also deliver an interface experience that chimes with the app-led approach now common in so many areas of life. Mastersizer software is available in eight languages to ensure full accessability for users around the world.
[Contact: [email protected] or 508-768-6400]

Contact Resonance Viscoelastic Mapping Mode for AFMs

Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments company, announced Contact Resonance Viscoelastic Mapping Mode, an option available exclusively for Asylum’s Cypher™ and MFP-3D™ Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs). Contact Resonance (CR) enables high resolution, quantitative imaging of both elastic storage modulus and viscoelastic loss modulus. The technique is particularly well suited for characterizing moderate to high modulus materials in the range of about 1GPa to 200GPA for materials such as composites, thin films, biomaterials, polymer blends, and even ceramics and metals. Exclusive Asylum hardware and software developments have made contact resonance imaging significantly faster, more quantitative, simpler to use, and applicable to a wider range of materials.
[Contact: [email protected] or 805-696-6466]

[To suggest items for inclusion in Industry News and New Products Focus, please contact Mary Kaufold at 724-779-2755]

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