"Tougher than stainless steel and even the previous record holder, bulletproof Kevlar, a new, transparent material developed by scientists in Israel is the hardest organic nanostructure known to man. Inspired by an unlikely source -- the beta-amyloid proteins found in patients with Alzheimer's disease -- the new material could be applied to make steel tougher and may also lead to cheaper and lighter body armor.

Man and machine can now be linked more intimately than ever, according to a new article in the journal ACS Nano Letters. Scientists have embedded a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane and powered it using the cell's own fuel.

The research could lead to new types of man-machine interactions where embedded devices could relay information about the inner workings of disease-related proteins inside the cell membrane, and eventually lead to new ways to read, and even influence, brain or nerve cells.