Nano Bite: News stories related to nano-coatings
	•	July 2013: Spill a lot? NeverWet's Ready to Coat your Gear: The superhydrophobic nanotechnology-based coating, now available in stores, repels liquids with ease.
	•	May 2012: Nanotech Scientist Creates Waterproof, Magnetic, Antibacterial Paper: Scientists have created a nanotech process that can be applied as a coating to paper to make it waterproof, magnetic, or antibacterial. The compound creates a shell around each fiber of the paper, so the properties of the paper itself are not changed, it is the properties of the nanoparticles that are transferred to the material.
	•	April 2012: New Way to Stop the Bleeding: MIT engineers have developed a nanoscale biological coating that can halt bleeding nearly instantaneously, an advance that could dramatically improve survival rates for soldiers injured in battle.
	•	January 2012: Cotton Fabric Cleans Itself When Exposed to Ordinary Sunlight: Scientists are reporting development of a new cotton fabric that cleans itself of stains and bacteria when exposed to ordinary sunlight. The fabric uses a coating made of nanoparticles from a compound of titanium dioxide and nitrogen, the white material used in everything from white paint to sunscreen lotions. Titanium dioxide has been used to kill microbes in items such as self-cleaning windows and odor-free socks. Previous self-cleaning cotton fabrics only work when exposed to ultraviolet rays. This new fabric self-cleans when exposed to ordinary sunlight, and the coating remains intact after washing and drying.
	•	December 2011: New 'Super-Black' Material Absorbs Light Across Multiple Wavelength Bands: A team of NASA engineers has developed a carbon-nanotube coating that absorbs 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that strikes it. This "super-black" material could be used in spaceflight, where stray light would be absorbed, allowing for more accurate light readings from scientific instruments.
	•	June 2011: Finding a Needle in a Haystack: MIT researchers have created a detector that can pick up a single molecule of an explosive. They created these sensors by coating carbon nanotubes with protein fragments normally found in bee venom.

Nano Bite: News stories related to carbon materials
•	January 2015: Detecting Gases Wirelessly, Cheaply and Transmitting Information to a Smartphone. What if you could determine if fruit is ripe, if there's a hazard in the air, or even diagnose disease with a smartphone? Researchers from MIT have been developing unique gas-detecting sensors called chemiresistors, which, unlike commercially available sensors, require almost no energy and can function at ambient temperatures [video]. To make these wireless chemical sensors, or tags, MIT researchers modified the circuit by punching a hole in it and then reconnected it by using a pencil in which the graphite has been replaced with a carbon nanotube-based material and has been programmed for the detection of a specific chemical. The current changes within the sensor when a chemical is present, allowing a smartphone to detect these changes. These chemiresistors are making it possible to gather chemical information through a box or even a wall so that individuals do not have to come into contact with a potentially harmful chemical.
	•	May 2014: New Sensor Paves the Way for Night Vision Contact Lenses. Night vision capabilities may no longer be a fantasy of science-fiction film or require the use of clunky head gear. Scientists from the University of Michigan have engineered a super-thin infrared sensor comprised of thin layers of stacked carbon. Scientists separated these layers down to a single layer of graphene, which is known to be a strong, ultra-thin, super-conductor. By placing an insulating barrier between two layers of graphene and adding an electrical current to the bottom layer, scientists were able to boost the sensitivity of graphene enough in order to generate an electrical signal from infrared light. With its small size and operation at room temperature, scientists believe that this technology could someday be imbedded onto contact lenses or integrated into smart phone camera lenses.
	•	January 2014: Carbon Nanotubes on a Spider Silk Structure may be able to Conduct Electricity. Did you ever think a spider's silk web would be considered as a tough, conductive material used in electronic applications? One researcher from Florida State University found that water can be used to attach powdery carbon nanotubes onto spider silk, resulting in a high-grade, electrically conductive material with many functions such as a humidity sensor, a strain sensor, an actuator, and as an electrical wire.
	•	October 2013: Scientists Build First Nanotube Computer: Researchers at Stanford University unveiled the first working computer built entirely from carbon nanotube transistors. If perfected, this technology will allow a computer to work faster, and with smaller components and use much less energy.
	•	June 2013: One Box of Girl Scout Cookies Contains $15 Billion Worth of Graphene: Scientists can make graphene out of just about anything with carbon - even Girl Scout cookies. Graduate students from Rice University proved it when they invited a troop of Houston Girl Scouts to their lab to watch a graphine-from-shortbread cookie demonstration. The inspiration came from a meeting where it was mentioned that the lab had produced graphene from table sugar, and Girl Scout cookies happened to be served at the meeting.
	•	May 2013: Carbon Aerogel Supersponge Could Soak Up Oil Spills: Researchers claim to have produced the world's lightest aerogel. The feather-like aerogel is synthesized from a combination of carbon nanotubes and graphene and weighs in at 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter, 1/6 that of air. Researchers believe this aerogel could be used as an environmental remediation tool for cleaning up oil spills.
	•	March 2013: Weapons Maker Finds Cheap Way to Get Clean Water: Engineers at Lockheed Martin have found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce potable water. Using sheets of graphene, the process would filter saltwater through the membranes with holes small enough to block the salt molecules in the water.
	•	February 2013: EU invests $1.35 Billion to Find Practical Applications for Graphene: The Graphene research will investigate and exploit the unique properties of a revolutionary carbon-based material. The flagship research program will involve over 100 research groups, with 136 principal investigators including four Nobel laureates.
	•	November 2012: IBM Reports Nanotube Chip Breakthrough: IBM scientists are reporting they have been able to pattern an array of carbon nanotubes on the surface of a silicon wafer and use them to build hybrid chips with more than 10,000 working transistors. They believe this technology is likely to ensure that the basic digital switch at the heart of modern microchips will continue to shrink for more than a decade.
	•	August 2012: Aerographite is the Lightest Material Ever Made: With a density of less than .2 milligrams per cubic centimeter, aerographite was made from a network of hollow carbon nanotubes. The incredibly low density means that aerographite can be compressed by a factor of one thousand and then spring back to its original size. Aerographite's ability to conduct electricity has researchers hoping that it could contribute to an ultra-lightweight battery.
	•	June 2012: Jack Andraka, 15, Wins Intel Science Competition for Pancreatic Cancer Research: Andraka, a 15-year-old from Maryland, developed a test for pancreatic cancer that is 28 times cheaper and faster than current tests, and 100 times more sensitive. The test can detect cancer with 90% accuracy. Click here to watch Jack explain his prize-winning research, which makes good use of carbon nanotubes.
	•	April 2012: Meet Robojelly, the Hydrogen-Powered Jellyfish-Shaped Immortal Underwater Surveillance Robot: Researchers have created a soft robot that can mimic the motion and shape of jellyfish, using nickel-titanium shape memory alloys wrapped in multi-walled carbon nanotubes in a nano-platinum catalyst powder. The powder creates heat when exposed to hydrogen and water, which causes the shape memory alloy to change shape - creating an artificial muscle that could move indefinetely in the same manner as a jellyfish.
	•	February 2012: Miracle Material Graphene can Distill Booze, Says Study: An international team created a membrane from graphene oxide that blocks the passage of several gases and liquids, but lets water through. This unusual property could find use in filtration or barriers for selective removal of water from materials. In the meantime, researchers found that the evaporation of only the water from a bottle of vodka sealed with the membrane made the distilled solution stronger over time.
	•	November 2011: Stanford Researchers Build Transparent, Super-Stretchy Skin-Like Sensor: Researchers have used a transparent film of single-walled carbon nanotubes to create a transparent, highly-elastic skin-like pressure sensor. The nanotubes act as tiny springs, enabling the sensor to accurately measure the force on it. The researchers hope that this sensor could be used in touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs or robots.
	•	October 2011: Nanocables Light Way to the Future - Researchers Power Line-Voltage Light Bulb with Nanotube Wire: A power cable made entirely of iodine-doped double-walled carbon nanotubes is just as efficient as traditional power cables at one-sixth the weight of copper and silver, according to researchers.
	•	June 2011: Researchers Create Functioning Synapse Using Carbon Nanotubes: Engineering researchers at University of Southern California have built a carbon nanotube synapse circuit whose behavior in tests reproduces the function of a neuron input, the synapse, a building block of the brain. The team used an interdisciplinary approach combining circuit design with nanotechnology to address the complex problem of capturing brain function.
	•	May 2011: A Breakthrough on Paper That's Stronger Than Steel: A University of Technology Sydney research team has developed reproducible test results and nanostructural samples of graphene paper. These graphene nanosheet stacks consist of monolayer hexagonal carbon lattices and are placed in perfectly arranged laminar structures which give them exceptional thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. Compared to steel, the prepared graphene paper is six times lighter, five to six times lower density, two times harder with ten times higher tensile strength and thirteen times higher bending rigidity.
	•	May 2011: Solar Power Goes Viral: Researchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the nanoscale. The new research is based on findings that carbon nanotubes can enhance the efficiency of electron collection in solar cells. Researchers found that a genetically engineered version of a virus can be used to control the arrangement of carbon nanotubes on a surface, keeping the tubes separate so they cannot short out the circuits, and keeping the tubes apart so they do not clump, greatly increasing the efficiency of the solar cells.