nanoparticles

Detecting tiny biomarkers circulating in our bodies is problematic and costly. Researchers are developing a cost-effective detection device using nanotechnology.

Amid growing alarm over the plastic that pollutes our environment, biomedical and optics researchers are devising ways to quickly detect microplastics in drinking water to better understand their potential impacts on human health.

Nick Vamivakas, assistant professor of optics, thinks his team's work will make extremely sensitive instruments for sensing tiny forces and torques possible, and could also lead to a way to physically create larger-scale quantum systems known as macroscopic Schrödinger Cat states.

Therapeutic anti-bacterial agents intended to reduce dental plaque and prevent tooth decay are often removed by saliva and the act of swallowing before they can take effect. But a team of researchers has developed a way to keep the drugs from being washed away.

A collaboration between researchers from Canada, Europe, and Rochester has experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light’s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.