Feature Channels: Chemistry

• share
• favorite_border

Drug counterfeiting is so common in some developing countries that patients with serious diseases in Southeast Asia and elsewhere have been more likely to get a fake drug than one with ingredients that really treat their illness, a scientist involved in combating the problem said here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

• share
• favorite_border

A major improvement in the world’s lightest solid material and best solid insulating material, described here today, may put more of this space-age wonder into insulated clothing, refrigerators with thinner walls that hold more food, building insulation and other products. The report was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

• share
• favorite_border

New evidence reveals the possibility of mood-enhancing effects associated with some flavors, stemming at least in part from natural ingredients bearing a striking chemical similarity to valproic acid, a widely used prescription mood-stabilizing drug, scientists reported here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. This effect joins those previously reported for chocolate, teas and some other known comfort foods.

• share
• favorite_border

In a stride toward better health in later life, scientists reported today that resveratrol, the so-called “miracle molecule” found in red wine, might help improve mobility and prevent life-threatening falls among older people. The finding, believed to be the first of its kind, was presented today to some 14,000 scientists and others gathered at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and Emory University has uncovered fundamental details about the hexamer structures that make up the tiniest droplets of water, the key component of life – and one that scientists still don’t fully understand.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers for the first time have shown that members of a family of enzymes known as cathepsins – which are implicated in many disease processes – may attack one another instead of the bodily proteins they normally degrade.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins scientists have decoded for the first time the “stability blueprint” of an enzyme that resides in a cell’s membrane, mapping which parts of the enzyme are important for its shape and function. These studies, published in advance online on June 14 in Structure and on July 15 in Nature Chemical Biology, could eventually lead to the development of drugs to treat malaria and other parasitic diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

New findings on the growth of ice clusters in Polar Stratospheric Clouds could help clarify the process of ozone depletion in the atmosphere.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have identified a unique mechanism in bacteria that has the potential to serve as a target for developing new antibiotics for diseases such as AIDS and soft tissue infections including respiratory and urogenital tracts, which are currently difficult to treat.

• share
• favorite_border

Inspired by a European study, a team of Stony Brook University researchers looked into the potential impact of healthy human skin tissue (in vitro) being exposed to ultraviolet rays emitted from compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The results, “The Effects of UV Emission from CFL Exposure on Human Dermal Fibroblasts and Keratinocytes in Vitro,” were published in the June issue of the journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology.

• share
• favorite_border

Inspired by nature, an international research team has created synthetic pores that mimic the activity of cellular ion channels, which play a vital role in human health by severely restricting the types of materials allowed to enter cells.

• share
• favorite_border

U of S researchers have discovered the chemical pathway that Cannabis sativa uses to create bioactive compounds, paving the way for the development of marijuana varieties to produce pharmaceuticals or cannabinoid-free industrial hemp.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have long known that the body rids itself of excess copper and various other minerals by collecting them in the liver and excreting them through the liver’s bile. However, a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published June 22 in PLoS One suggests that when this route is impaired there’s another exit route just for copper: A molecule sequesters only that mineral and routes it from the body through urine.

• share
• favorite_border

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered a chemical that offers a completely new and promising direction for the development of drugs to treat metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes—a major public health concern in the United States due to the current obesity epidemic.

• share
• favorite_border

Research on the Water Oxidation Reaction in Plants and Bacteria Helps Solve an Important Piece of the Solar Energy Conversion Puzzle; Represents a Major Step Toward a New Generation of Photovoltaics

• share
• favorite_border

“Paper of the week” shows that a master regulator protein brings plethora of coactivators to gene expression sites.

• share
• favorite_border

A chemistry professor describes how fireworks make those colors that keep eyes glued to the sky.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a new tool allowing proteins in a living cell to be manipulated in real time, researchers at Johns Hopkins have stumbled across the answer to a longstanding debate about where and how a certain protein is turned on in the cell. Reporting in the February 2012 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, scientists show that protein kinase A is also activated in the nucleus rather than inside the cell’s body, a challenge to traditional beliefs.

• share
• favorite_border

A key component found in an ancient anaerobic microorganism may serve as a sensor to detect potentially fatal oxygen, a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have found. This helps researchers learn more about the function of these components, called iron-sulfur clusters, which occur in different parts of cells in all living creatures.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists are racing to sequence DNA faster and cheaper than ever by passing strands of the genetic material through molecule-sized pores. Now, University of Utah scientists have adapted this “nanopore” method to find DNA damage that can lead to mutations and disease.

• share
• favorite_border

New findings from the Monell Center suggest that sucrose and menthol, ingredients commonly regarded as flavorings in cough drops or syrup, each act independently to reduce coughing. Implications range from medicinal to tobacco products.

• share
• favorite_border

A new set of computer models has successfully predicted negative side effects in hundreds of current drugs, based on the similarity between their chemical structures and those molecules known to cause side effects, according to a paper appearing online this week in the journal Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

An unappreciated aspect of chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides could be key in developing more efficient energy systems, including more productive solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells efficient enough for automobiles.

• share
• favorite_border

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified an immune system deficiency whose presence shows someone is up to four times likelier to die than a person without it. The glitch involves an antibody molecule called a free light chain; people whose immune systems produce too much of the molecule are far more likely to die of a life-threatening illness such as cancer, diabetes and cardiac and respiratory disease than those whose bodies make normal levels. The study is published in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

• share
• favorite_border

Georgia Tech researchers used experiments and numerical calculations to show that iron, in the absence of oxygen, can substitute for magnesium in RNA binding, folding and catalysis. The findings suggest that 3 billion years ago, on the early earth, iron did the chemical work now done by magnesium.

• share
• favorite_border

New findings from the Monell Center reveal that humans can identify the age of other humans based on differences in body odor.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Arizona State University and NASA are developing a new approach to the medical challenge of detecting bone loss by applying a technique that originated in the Earth sciences. Their findings are presented in a paper published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of May 28, 2012.

• share
• favorite_border

Writing this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a Wisconsin group describes a new high-throughput method to identify electrocatalysts for water oxidation.

• share
• favorite_border

Materials scientist Yun Hang Hu has discovered a chemical reaction that gobbles up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and produces a couple of useful compounds. And, by the way, it releases energy.

• share
• favorite_border

Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, and Rafal Podeszwa of the University of Silesia Institute of Chemistry in Poland have developed and validated a more accurate method for predicting the interaction energy of large molecules, such as biomolecules used to develop new drugs.

• share
• favorite_border

Using newly developed imaging technology, University of Virginia chemist Brooks Pate and co-authors have confirmed years of theoretical assumptions about water molecules, the most abundant and one of the most frequently studied substances on Earth.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of researchers has discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions—such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis—in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting materials.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that the single protein -- alpha 2 delta -- exerts a spigot-like function, controlling the volume of neurotransmitters and other chemicals that flow between the synapses of brain neurons. The study, published online in Nature, shows how brain cells talk to each other through these signals, relaying thoughts, feelings and action, and this powerful molecule plays a crucial role in regulating effective communication.

• share
• favorite_border

Vanderbilt researchers have boosted the efficiency of a novel source of white light called quantum dots more than tenfold, making them of potential interest for commercial applications.

• share
• favorite_border

As vacationers prepare to spend time outdoors this summer, many of them will pack plenty of sunscreen in hopes it will protect their bodies from overexposure, and possibly from skin cancer. But researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are discovering that sunscreen may not be so safe after all.

• share
• favorite_border

Ask Texas A&M University chemist Hong-Cai “Joe” Zhou to describe his research in simple terms, and more often than not, he’ll draw on a favorite analogy from childhood: playing with LEGOs. But if you’re tempted to view his work as child’s play, you might want to think again. The building blocks he and his group specialize in actually are a recently developed, increasingly versatile class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOF).

• share
• favorite_border

A team of chemical engineers led by Paul J. Dauenhauer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a new, high-yield method of making the key ingredient used to make plastic bottles from biomass. The process currently creates the chemical p-xylene with an efficient yield of 75-percent.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a rapid testing method using a simple paper strip that can detect E. coli in recreational water within minutes. The new tool can close the gap between outbreak and detection, improving public safety.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study in PLoS Computational Biology, two Santa Fe Institute researchers trace the development of life-sustaining chemistry to the earliest forms of life on Earth.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from New York University and the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart reveal how protons move in phosphoric acid in a Nature Chemistry study that sheds new light on the workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte.

• share
• favorite_border

Hitting the gas on a molecular rotor.

• share
• favorite_border

Research to green alternative energy technologies has led to a dye-sensitized solar cell that uses a bacteria and dye to generate energy. It is also friendlier to the environment and living organisms.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Montreal’s Sainte-Justine Hospital have identified how neural cells are able to build up resistance to opioid pain drugs within hours.

• share
• favorite_border

One of the outstanding questions of the early Earth is how ancient organisms made the transition from anoxygenic (no oxygen produced) to oxygenic photosynthesis. A team of scientists from Arizona State University has moved closer to solving this conundrum.

• share
• favorite_border

The food that inspires wariness is on course for inspiring even more wonder from a medical standpoint as scientists today reported the latest evidence that chili peppers are a heart-healthy food with potential to protect against the No. 1 cause of death in the developed world. The report was part of the 243rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists, public safety and law enforcement officials will hold a special session here on Monday, March 26, to reveal the behind-the-scenes planning that culminated in the December 9, 2010, burning of the infamous “bomb house” in Escondido, Calif. The session, titled “How to ‘safely’ burn down a house,” is part of the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The presentation is among more than 11,700 that will be delivered at the meeting, being held here through Thursday.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, today documented significant progress toward conserving energy and water, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste generation at its internationally known annual meetings during 2011.

• share
• favorite_border

A two-drug combination is one of the most promising advances in decades for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) — a disease that kills 2 million people annually — a scientist reported today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The treatment, which combines two medications already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), delivers a knockout punch to forms of TB that shrug off other antibiotics.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team has determined the structure of the kappa-opioid receptor—site of action of the widely abused hallucinogen Salvia divinorum – solving longstanding scientific mysteries and offering new insights for treating drug addiction, chronic pain and depression.