Researchers at Purdue University have developed new heterostructures that could make optoelectrical devices, such as solar panels and sensors, more efficient.

Heterostructures are made by stacking layers of two-dimensional materials. The researchers stacked two very thin materials, tungsten disulfide and graphene, to see if they would work together to create electricity.

Purdue University researchers studying whether concrete is made stronger by infusing it with microscopic-sized nanocrystals from wood are moving from the laboratory to the real world with a bridge that will be built in California this spring.

The researchers have been working with cellulose nanocrystals, byproducts generated by the paper, bioenergy, agriculture and pulp industries, to find the best mixture to strengthen concrete, the most common man-made material in the world.

Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-1 is predicted to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in late April, but where or when it will reach the surface is hard to say.

“Debris comes into Earth’s atmosphere all the time,” said Jay Melosh, a professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue University. “With a spacecraft like this, most of the material burns up high in the atmosphere, but a few denser things might come down.”

Tiangong-1 was the first operational component of the Tiangong program, a larger, modular space station intended to be in space by 2023. It was originally planned to be deorbited in 2013, but never came down. In March 2016, the China National Space Administration announced it had lost contact with the lab.

Purdue researchers are developing and commercializing a targeted drug combination that once injected into a patient could speed up and improve bone fracture healing, and significantly cut recovery costs.

Novosteo Inc., a startup developing the technology, was co-founded by father and son team Philip Low, the Purdue Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Stewart Low, a postdoctoral staff member in Purdue’s Department of Chemistry.

Amy Wright, assistant director of financial affairs for the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships (EVPRP) Office, and Donna Brown, assistant director of financial affairs for Discovery Park, are the inaugural recipients of the Stacy L. Brown Outstanding Performance Award.

The award was established last year by the EVPRP in memory of Brown, who served as the office’s director of financial affairs until her death in 2017.

Death by termite: Purdue entomologist uses natural cravings to control invasive ants

The midgut of a mosquito may hold the key to preventing mosquito-borne diseases like Zika and Dengue, according to research published in PLOS Pathogens.

A mosquito’s ability to replicate and transmit a virus depends on the metabolic environment of tissues in its midgut: the primary site of infection. By targeting the sphingolipid pathway, which links together several pathways important for cell signaling and subcellular structure that are altered by virus infection, researchers could devise strategies that stall viral replication in the mosquito and prevent its transmission to humans.

A new type of all-terrain microbot that moves by tumbling could help usher in tiny machines for various applications.

The “microscale magnetic tumbling robot,” or ?TUM (microTUM), is about 400 by 800 microns, or millionths of a meter, smaller than the head of a pin. A continuously rotating magnetic field propels the microbot in an end-over-end or sideways tumbling motion, which helps the microbot traverse uneven surfaces such as bumps and trenches, a difficult feat for other forms of motion.

New research has demonstrated how the nano-architecture of a silkworm’s fiber causes “Anderson localization of light,” a discovery that could lead to various innovations and a better understanding of light transport and heat transfer.

Researchers have demonstrated how to create a super-strong aluminum alloy that rivals the strength of stainless steel, an advance with potential industrial applications.

Purdue University is part of a team led by the University of Dayton Research Institute, funded with a $9.8 million, three-year contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory, for research and development in materials and structures for reusable hypersonic vehicles.

Hypersonic vehicles, which travel at speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, experience significant thermal and aerodynamic loads, said Steven P. Schneider, a professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

A consortium of Purdue University researchers, industry members from pharmaceutical and food processing sectors, as well as equipment makers and others, are working together at the Advanced Lyophilization Technology Hub, or LyoHub, at Purdue to modernize a process that has not changed fundamentally in 70 years even though it has a worldwide annual market of about $16 billion. The freeze-drying process, formally known as lyophilization, is used to make everything from lifesaving drugs and biotech products to foods.