Scixel goes to China

Dr. Lanza’s research activity is somewhat beyond understanding. At least beyond our understanding. Here is a good example: his new book on Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy, where he, together with leading researchers, provides a global perspective on the subject and covers novel strategies, configurations and setups where new information will be obtained with the help of CAFM.

Graphene, now in full colour

Researchers from the Graphene Flagship at TU Delft have found a new potential application for graphene: mechanical pixels. By applying a pressure difference across graphene membranes, the perceived color of the graphene can be shifted continuously from red to blue.

In this simulation, requested by Santiago Cartamil and performed by Scixel, graphene changes its colour depending on its own deformation. These pixels, which do not emit light themselves but are visible in sunlight, could lead to energy-efficient colour displays that can be used in devices such as e-books and smart watches.
Are we witnessing a change of paradigm?

Molecular selfies

People at the ICFO have rocked the boat again. This time by taking pictures of chemical reactions with unprecedent space and time resolution. And we were lucky enough to make this picture for them, representing the process.

No surprise this research has been published in Science.

And Now for Something Completely Different… Circles

Circles is a powerful short movie based on a poem, based on a piece of music. Just the piece of music survived.
We also wanted to mix two techniques: 3D plus rough pencil traditional animation.

This is a side project of Scixel with two purposes: to sharpen our skills and to save money on therapists sessions.

1D charge density waves

Another milestone in the understanding of 2D semiconductors. S. Barja (Berkeley) , M. M. Ugeda (CIC Nanogune) et al. have observed the formation of one-dimensional charge density waves along mirror twin boundaries in MoSe2. This research opens the door to the study of charge transport in this type of materials.

Sadly, the picture didn’t make it to the cover of Nature Physics, but both the research and the picture are beautiful enough to show off a little.

GEFES thesis price

The Grupo Especializado de Física del Estado Sólido at Real Sociedad Española de Física has asked for help in the announcement of their new prizes for the best thesis in condensed matter physics.

Van der Waals at its best!

Physicists measure van der Waals forces of individual atoms for the first time. Prof. Ernst Meyer et al, have succeeded in measuring the very weak van der Waals forces between individual atoms for the first time. To do this, they fixed individual noble gas atoms within a molecular network and determined the interactions with a single xenon atom that they had positioned at the tip of an atomic force microscope.

Prof. Ernst Meyer asked Scixel for a visual representation of their work, published in Nature Communications.

On fuelling biological machines

If I got this right, Dr. Ivan Lopez Montero et al, had fuelled ATPases by placing them in a lipid membrane over a modified metallic surface. Using this surface as an electrode, now they can make ATPase work creating ATP molecules wherever they are needed… Yes, I’m not kidding.

This is the kind of research that make you fantasize about the near future. Not surprise that their work made the cover of Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Pushing AFM capabilities to the limit

AFM was invented 35 years ago. Then, its capabilities were already impressive. But 35 years later, researchers have boosted its sensitivity and amazingly spread its spectrum of the quantities measured. Ricardo Garcia’s group, ForceTool, has participated in this process in a prominent position. In this last work , they’ve pushed these boundaries yet a little further.

This work is the result of the collaboration of Pataata and Scixel. We are expecting it to be just the first of many.