Colleges develop diatom-like nanostructure

WASHINGTON - American and Chinese scientists have designed a diatom-like nanostructure that is inspired by the tiny, unicellular creature with multiple range of forms and producing close to a quarter of the oxygen on Earth.

A study published on July 16 in the journal Nature revealed that silica deposition could be effectively applied to synthetic, DNA-based architectures, improving their elasticity and durability.

It may ultimately have applications in new optical systems, semiconductor nanolithography, nano-electronics, nano-robotics and medical applications, such as drug delivery.