MRI

By Mariah R. Lucas

Self-propelled nanoparticles could potentially advance drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip systems — but they are prone to go rogue with random, directionless movements. Now, an international team of researchers has developed an approach to rein in the synthetic particles.

By Jamie Oberdick and Ashley WennersHerron

Moore's Law, a fundamental scaling principle for electronic devices, forecasts that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years, ensuring more computing power — but a limit exists.

Today's most advanced chips house nearly 50 billion transistors within a space no larger than your thumbnail. The task of cramming even more transistors into that confined area has become more and more difficult, according to Penn State researchers.

By Jamie Oberdick

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Six Penn State materials researchers have received the 2023 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award, covering a wide range of research with societal impact. The award is presented by the Materials Research Institute (MRI) and recognizes recent interdisciplinary materials research at Penn State that yields innovative and unexpected results.  

By Adrienne Berard

Dental plaque, gut bacteria and the slippery sheen on river rocks are all examples of biofilms, organized communities of microorganisms that colonize our bodies and the world around us. A new study led by Penn State researchers reveals exactly how growing biofilms shape their environments and fine-tune their internal architecture to fit their surroundings. The findings may have implications for a wide variety of applications, from fighting disease to engineering new types of living active materials.

For the first time, researchers demonstrate how to electronically alter the direction of electron flow in promising materials for quantum computing

By Gail McCormick