Feature Channels: Chemistry

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On October 23 at 1pm, top USDA and academic researchers will address agriculture and climate in a special session of the Soil Science Society of America’s annual meeting. And they’ll take on a third, largely new aspect of climate change and agriculture: how nitrogen pollution compounds climate change, and vice versa. The work draws from a new special report to the United States’ National Climate Assessment published in the journal Biogeochemistry.

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A research team led by Iowa State University's Laura Jarboe is working to develop hungry, robust microbes that can ferment biofuels from the bio-oil produced by rapidly heating biomass such as corn stalks and sawdust.

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A team of Weizmann Institute researchers combined two low-temperature supersonic beams to produce chemical reactions in quantum conditions, near absolute zero. The method, a first, confirms longstanding theories.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan have determined how the hormone leptin, an important regulator of metabolism and body weight, interacts with a key receptor in the brain.

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An international team of scientists led by Indiana University chemist Michael S. VanNieuwenhze and biologist Yves Brun has discovered a revolutionary new method for coloring the cell wall of bacterial cells to determine how they grow, in turn providing a new, much-needed tool for the development of new antibiotics.

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Until recently, medical researchers had little hope of manipulating naïve T cells to study their crucial roles in immune function because they were largely impenetrable. Now, researchers have made a master key, able to get into naïve T cells to deliver bio-active cargo such as synthetic molecules.

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A University of Michigan biophysical chemist and his colleagues have discovered the smallest and fastest-known molecular switches made of RNA, the chemical cousin of DNA. The researchers say these rare, fleeting structures are prime targets for the development of new antiviral and antibiotic drugs.

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Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical widely used in the making of plastic products ranging from bottles and food can linings to toys and water supply lines. When these plastics degrade, BPA is released into the environment and routinely ingested. New research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests it’s the metabolic changes that take place once BPA is broken down inside the body that pose the greater health threat.

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Global health researchers are working on cheap systems like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases. A new chemical technique makes medically interesting molecules stick to regular paper -- a possible route to building such paper-based diagnostics from paper you could buy at an office-supply store.

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Adah Almutairi, PhD, associate professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Department of NanoEngineering, and the Materials Science and Engineering Program at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues have developed the first degradable polymer that is extremely sensitive to low but biologically relevant concentrations of hydrogen peroxide.

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Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have revealed a significant association between obesity and children and adolescents with higher concentrations of urinary bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic chemical recently banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from sippy cups and baby bottles. Still, the chemical continues to be used in aluminum cans, such as those containing soda.

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In the fight against cancer, knowing the enemy’s identity is crucial for diagnosis and treatment, especially in metastatic cancers that spread between organs and tissues. Now chemists have developed a rapid, sensitive way to detect microscopic levels of many metastatic cell types in living tissue.

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In 2010 malaria caused an estimated 665,000 deaths, mostly among African children. Now, chemists at Indiana University have developed a new synthesis for the world's most useful antimalarial drug, artemisinin, giving hope that fully synthetic artemisinin might help reduce the cost of the live-saving drug in the future.

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Art and science come together in a student photography exhibit at Keuka College.

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University of Utah engineers mapped white blood cells called eonsinophils and showed an existing diagnostic method may overlook an elusive digestive disorder that causes swelling in the esophagus and painful swallowing.

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Chemical residues in prehistoric Native American ceramic vessels are believed to offer the earliest known evidence for black drink consumption. Undergraduate students worked with chemists at Millsaps College's Keck Center, the only archaeometric laboratory in the United States devoted exclusively to undergraduate research and study, to conduct the chemical analysis for the study.

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Scientists have restored the sense of smell in mice through gene therapy for the first time -- a hopeful sign for people who can’t smell anything from birth or lose it due to disease. The achievement in curing congenital anosmia may also aid research on other conditions that also stem from problems with the cilia.

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Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their “sloppy” and “promiscuous” ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego, who reported in the journal Science what a few enzymologists have suspected for years: many enzymes are still pretty sloppy and promiscuous, catalyzing multiple chemical reactions in living cells, for reasons that were previously not well understood.

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A new “smart catheter” that senses the start of an infection, and automatically releases an anti-bacterial substance, is being developed to combat the problem of catheter-related blood and urinary tract infections, scientists reported here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Rather than trying to kill bacteria outright with drugs, Université de Montréal researchers have discovered a way to disarm bacteria that may allow the body's own defense mechanisms to destroy them.

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Like recruiters pitching military service to a throng of people, scientists are developing drugs to recruit disease-fighting proteins present naturally in everyone’s blood in medicine’s war on infections, cancer and a range of other diseases. They reported on the latest advances in this new approach here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Scientists today unveiled new technology intended to move soybeans, second only to corn as the top food crop in the U.S., along the same use-to-all path of corn and crude oil as a raw material for a wider portfolio of products. They described it - a new integrated soybean biorefinery - at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, being held here through Thursday.

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Stowers scientists manipulate the Set2 pathway to show how genes are faithfully copied.

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Almost 30 years after discovery of a link between alcohol consumption and certain forms of cancer, scientists are reporting the first evidence from research on people explaining how the popular beverage may be carcinogenic. The results, which have special implications for hundreds of millions of people of Asian descent, were reported here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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A solution finally may be at hand for the number one consumer gripe about America’s favorite fresh fruit, bananas, and their tendency to ripen, soften and rot into an unappetizing mush, seemingly in the blink of an eye. Scientists speaking here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, described efforts to develop a spray-on coating that would delay the ripening of bananas.

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At the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, scientists today reported identification of the first substance in smokeless tobacco that is a strong oral carcinogen, a health risk for the 9 million users of chewing tobacco, snuff and related products in the U.S., and called upon the federal government to regulate or ban the substance.

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In a study by UW-Madison chemistry Professor Helen Blackwell and her colleagues, and published online in the journal ACS Chemical Biology, certain small molecule chemicals that can disrupt quorum sensing in A. baumanni have been identified, providing a glimmer of hope that the stubborn pathogen can be tamed.

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Promising results were reported here today from a proof-of-concept clinical trial of an “anti-hunger” ingredient for yogurt, fruit shakes, smoothies and other foods that would make people feel full longer and ease the craving to eat. Scientists described the ingredient, a new version of a food additive that has been in use for more than 50 years, at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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As a step toward designing the first effective anti-HIV vaccine, scientists are reporting new insights into how a family of rare, highly potent antibodies bind to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and neutralize it — stop it from infecting human cells. They described the antibodies, which were isolated from people infected with HIV and can neutralize a wide range of HIV strains, today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Strong scientific evidence suggests that high levels of a blood protein called galectin-3 may increase the risk of heart attacks, cancer and other diseases, and help forecast the outcome of those diseases, a scientist reported here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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With millions of people already weather-worn after a summer punctuated by record heat, and some of the hottest days still ahead, the American Chemical Society today is hosting a special briefing, “What to Eat to Beat the Heat.” It is part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the ACS, which is the world’s largest scientific society.

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With enough sunlight falling on home roofs to supply at least half of America’s electricity, scientists today described advances toward the less-expensive solar energy technology needed to roof many of those homes with shingles that generate electricity. Their report was part of a symposium on sustainability at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.

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Scientists are developing profiles of the contents of individual brain cells in a search for the root causes of chronic pain, memory loss and other maladies that affect millions of people. They described the latest results of a one-by-one exploration of selected cells or “neurons” from among the millions present in an animal’s brain at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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A scientific instrument featured on CSI and CSI: Miami for instant fingerprint analysis is forging another life in real-world medicine, helping during brain surgery and ensuring that cancer patients get effective doses of chemotherapy, a scientist said here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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The focus of nutrition for good health is quietly shifting to include consumption of food ingredients specifically designed to nourish the non-human cells that comprise 80 percent of the cells in the typical person, an authority on the topic said here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Scientists today reported progress toward a 40-year-old dream of extracting uranium for nuclear power from seawater, which holds at least 4 billion tons of the precious material. They described some of the most promising technology and an economic analysis. Their reports were part of a symposium at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, being held here through Thursday.

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A new made-in-the-lab material designed to rejuvenate the human voice, restoring the flexibility that vocal cords lose with age and disease, is emerging from a collaboration between scientists and physicians, a scientist heading the development team said here today as he delivered the Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry lecture at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Progress toward a new emergency treatment for internal bleeding - counterpart to the tourniquets, pressure bandages and Quick Clot products that keep people from bleeding to death from external wounds - was reported here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Already ranked by some as number one in nutrition among vegetables, the traditional sweet potato can be nutritionally supercharged with a simple, inexpensive electric current treatment that increases its content of healthful polyphenols or antioxidants by 60 percent, scientists said here today. Their report on the first electrical enhancement of sweet potatoes, a dietary staple since prehistoric times, was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Scientists today described development of a new fuel mixture to ease the major air pollution and cost problems facing cruise ships, oil tankers and container ships. These vessels tend to burn the cheapest and most highly polluting form of diesel fuel. Their report was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.

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Coconut water really does deserve its popular reputation as Mother Nature’s own sports drink, a new scientific analysis of the much-hyped natural beverage concluded here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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A new process for converting municipal waste, algae, corn stalks and similar material to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel is showing the same promise in larger plants as it did in laboratory-scale devices, the developers reported here today. It was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, which continues through Thursday.

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People in ancient Rome 2,000 years ago had better access to clean water and sanitation that keeps disease-causing human excrement out of contact with people than many residents of the 21st century, a scientist said here today. Women in developing countries could play a major role in remedying the situation, if given the chance, she said at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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With concerns about the possible health and environmental effects of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon disaster still fresh in mind, scientists today described a new dispersant made from edible ingredients that both breaks up oil slicks and keeps oil from sticking to the feathers of birds. They reported on the dispersant at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, being held here this week.

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With 1.3 billion tons of food trashed, dumped in landfills and otherwise wasted around the world every year, scientists today described development and successful laboratory testing of a new “biorefinery” intended to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products. They described the research at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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A symposium that showcases chemistry’s pivotal role in righting some of the highest-profile cases of innocent people proven guilty unfolds today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. It features presentations by forensic scientists, attorneys and others who used science to right wrongs, freeing innocent people and saving the lives of prisoners on death row.

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Scientists are trying to open a new front in the battle against gum disease, the leading cause of tooth loss in adults and sometimes termed the most serious oral health problem of the 21st century. They described another treatment approach for the condition in a report here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Using information about the unique mating practices of the male malaria mosquito - which, unlike any other insect, inserts a plug to seal its sperm inside the female - scientists are zeroing in on a birth-control drug for Anopheles mosquitoes, deadly carriers of the disease that threatens 3 billion people, has infected more than 215 million and kills 655,000 annually.

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Scientists have found that Mother Nature uses DNA as a wire to detect the constantly occurring genetic damage and mistakes that can result in diseases like cancer. That topic - DNA wires and their potential use in identifying people at risk for certain diseases - is the focus of a plenary talk here today during the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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In a thrust against the major problem of counterfeit medicines sold in developing countries, which causes thousands of illnesses and deaths annually, scientists today described development of a simple, paper-strip test that people could use to identify counterfeit versions of one of the most-frequently faked medicines in the world. They described the research at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.