Feature Channels: Chemistry

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Silver nanoparticles are being used in clothing for their anti-odor abilities but some of this silver comes off when the clothes are laundered. The wastewater from this process could end up in the environment, possibly harming aquatic life, so researchers have attempted to recover the silver. Now, one group reports in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering that detergent chemistry plays a significant role in how much of this silver can be removed from laundry wastewater.

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A dark exciton can store information in its spin state, analogous to how a regular, classical bit stores information in its off or on state, but dark excitons do not emit light, making it hard to determine their spins and use them for quantum information processing. In new experiments, however, researchers can read the spin states of dark excitons, and do it more efficiently than before. Their demonstration, described in APL Photonics, can help researchers scale up dark exciton systems to build larger devices for quantum computing.

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To make modern-day fuel cells less expensive and more powerful, a team led by John Hopkins chemical engineers has drawn inspiration from the ancient Egyptian tradition of gilding.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and engineers have developed a “brain-on-a-chip” device that could be used to test and predict the effects of biological and chemical agents, disease, or pharmaceutical drugs on the brain over time without the need for human or animal subjects.

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Geneseo-based startup company Verdimine has signed an exclusive license agreement with the Research Foundation for The State University of New York to employ a proprietary green chemistry process that improves safety and efficiency in manufacturing specialty chemicals across many industries.

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News Release RICHLAND, Wash. — As cars become more fuel-efficient, less heat is wasted in the exhaust, which makes it harder to clean up the pollutants are emitted. But researchers have recently created a catalyst capable of reducing pollutants at the lower temperatures expected in advanced engines. Their work, published this week in Science magazine, a leading peer-reviewed research journal, presents a new way to create a more powerful catalyst while using smaller amounts of platinum, the most expensive component of emission-control catalysts.

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Scientists at Johns Hopkins have used supercomputers to create an atomic scale map that tracks how the signaling chemical glutamate binds to a neuron in the brain. The findings, say the scientists, shed light on the dynamic physics of the chemical’s pathway, as well as the speed of nerve cell communications.

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Unexpectedly, a little chemical substitution stabilizes unusual magnetic phase of vortexes called skyrmions.

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Through its awards, SOT honors more than two dozen groundbreaking scientists, emerging leaders, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students who are advancing the science of toxicology. The SOT Awards also recognize the contributions of educators and science communicators as they work to encourage students to pursue STEM careers and improve public understanding of the connection between scientific research and public health.

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To prevent water and ice from making our shoes soggy, frosting our car windows and weighing down power lines with icicles, scientists have been exploring new coatings that can repel water. Now one team has developed a way to direct where the water goes when it’s pushed away. Their report appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

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The 2009 film “Avatar” created a lush imaginary world, illuminated by magical, glowing plants. Now researchers are starting to bring this spellbinding vision to life to help reduce our dependence on artificial lighting. They report in ACS’ journal Nano Letters a way to infuse plants with the luminescence of fireflies.

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By using an electrochemical etching process on a common stainless steel alloy, researchers have created a nanotextured surface that kills bacteria while not harming mammalian cells. If additional research supports early test results, the process might be used to attack microbial contamination on implantable medical devices and on food processing equipment made with the metal.

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A molecular-sized brush that looks like a shoe brush has properties with great potential for the materials industry and medicine, but polyelectrolyte brushes can be sensitive, and getting them to work right tricky. New research shows what can make them break down, but also what can get them to systematically recover.

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Jeffery Kelly, Ph.D., co-chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has been named a fellow of the esteemed National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced today.

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Researchers have identified a promising new strategy to fight infections and cancer. They uncovered a novel function for a protein known as “Runx3” that is key to the development of killer T cells—immune cells important for fighting infections and cancer.

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Research and development around new applications and industries based on the advanced material graphene – hailed as the “miracle material of the 21st century” – is the focus of a new Graphene Research Hub being launched at the University of Adelaide today.

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The Society of Toxicology (SOT) has approved a new Issue Statement on the issues and complexities associated with understanding the health risk from low-level arsenic exposure.

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For decades, scientists have been trying to make a true molecular chain: a repeated set of tiny rings interlocked together. In a study in Science published online Nov. 30, University of Chicago researchers announced the first confirmed method to craft such a molecular chain.

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A team of scientists and engineers at USC has developed an on-the-spot, temperature-sensitive gel that could seal eye injuries on the battlefield.

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Five student teams from Wichita State won the university's second annual Koch Innovation Challenge.

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Strong odors are an indicator that food has gone bad, but there could soon be a new way to sniff foul smells earlier on. As reported in ACS Nano, researchers have developed a bioelectronic “nose” that can specifically detect a key decay compound at low levels, enabling people to potentially take action before the stink spreads. It can detect rotting food, as well as be used to help find victims of natural disasters or crimes.

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Wildfires, cigarette smoking and vehicles all emit a potentially harmful compound called isocyanic acid. The substance has been linked to several health conditions, including heart disease and cataracts. Scientists investigating sources of the compound have now identified off-road diesel vehicles in oil sands production in Alberta, Canada, as a major contributor to regional levels of the pollutant. Their report appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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Most people agree that chocolate tastes great, but is there a way to make it taste even better? Perhaps, according to scientists who looked at different conditions that can put a strain on cocoa trees. Reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they say that although the agricultural method used to grow cocoa trees doesn’t matter that much, the specific weather conditions do.

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Scientists at the University of Washington show for the first time that the complex distribution of molecules within a membrane of a living yeast cell arises through demixing.

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Proteins are huge molecules whose function depends on how they fold into intricate structures. To understand how these molecules work, researchers use computer modeling to calculate how proteins fold. Now, a new algorithm can accelerate those vital simulations, enabling them to model phenomena that were previously out of reach. The results can eventually help scientists better understand and treat diseases like Alzheimer's. The work is described this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a chemical that suppresses the lethal form of a parasitic infection caused by roundworms that affects up to 100 million people and usually causes only mild symptoms.

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Iowa State's Robbyn Annand is studying how a hybrid of electrochemical and microfluidic technologies could be used to improve the dialysis equipment that cleans salt, waste and water from blood. That technology could enable a wearable, artificial kidney.

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Two researchers in the department of anatomy and cell biology in the UIC College of Medicine have received a seed grant to develop a new drug delivery method that holds promise in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

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Human sperm may hold the potential to serve as biomarkers of the future health of newborn infants, according to a new study by a Wayne State University School of Medicine research team.

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Though most “low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (LMW PAHs) have not been shown to cause cancer alone, the study shows that in common combinations, these chemicals can help to spark the disease.

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In a study led by the University of Delaware and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, researchers discovered a "brake" that interferes with HIV's development into an infectious agent. This mechanism prevents the capsid - the protein shell covering the virus - from forming.

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Metal-organic frameworks with chains of iron centers adsorb and release carbon monoxide with very little energy input.

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Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed an approach to overcome a major stumbling block in testing new drug targets. The research is reported in a Nov. 24 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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A cross-disciplinary research team from Washington University in St. Louis discovered both a framework to predict where neutrons will inhabit a nucleus and a way to predict the skin thickness of a nucleus.

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In a rare honor for an American university, three Northwestern University scientists — Sir Fraser Stoddart, Chad Mirkin and Yonggang Huang — have been elected foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The three were selected for their scientific achievements and contributions to promoting the development of science and technology in China.

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This “semi-synthetic” strain of E. coli is the first to both contain unnatural bases in its DNA and use the bases to instruct cells to make a new protein.

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University of Colorado Boulder researchers are developing new techniques for faster, more cost-effective single-molecule DNA sequencing that could have transformative impacts on genetic screening.

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A research drive at the University of Kansas School of Engineering is working toward the design and marketing of a low-cost, easy-to-use device that would filter up to 99 percent of sulfites from wine when it’s poured from the bottle.

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Simple paper-strip testing has the potential to tell us quickly what’s in water, and other liquid samples from food, the environment and bodies — but current tests don’t handle solid samples well. Now researchers have developed a way to make these low-cost devices more versatile and reliable for analyzing both liquid and solid samples using adhesive tape. They report their approach in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

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Research led by scientists at the University of Birmingham shows more precisely how G protein-coupled receptors, which are the key target of a large number of drugs, work.

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Qi-Qun Tang, a professor of in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Fudan University School of Basic Medical Sciences in Shanghai, China, has joined the Journal of Biological Chemistry as an associate editor.

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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed germanium nanoparticles with improved photoluminescence, making them potentially better materials for solar cells and imaging probes. The research team found that by adding tin to the nanoparticle’s germanium core, its lattice structure better matched the lattice structure of the cadmium-sulfide coating which allows the particles to absorb more light.

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A team of Department of Energy (DOE) scientists at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) has discovered the fastest magnesium-ion solid-state conductor, a major step towards making solid-state magnesium-ion batteries that are both energy dense and safe.

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SLAS Discovery marks the 30th anniversary of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight (MALDI TOF), the soft ionization technique for analyzing non-volatile biomolecules using mass spectrometry, with a special issue showcasing 10 new research reports.

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A university community plays a world climate change negotiations role-playing game.

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Government and industry efforts since 2003 to phase out chemicals used to make non-stick coatings, such as Teflon, have prevented more than 118,000 low-weight births and related brain damage in the United States.

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A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a prototype device that mimics natural photosynthesis to produce ethylene gas using only sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. The novel method, which produces ethylene at room temperature and pressure using benign chemicals, could be scaled up to provide a more eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to the current method of ethylene production.

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Florida researchers have identified a signaling pathway that is essential for angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. The findings, published in Nature Communications, may improve current strategies to improve blood flow in ischemic tissue, such as that found in atherosclerosis and peripheral vascular disease associated with diabetes.

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In a breakthrough development, Los Alamos scientists have shown that they can successfully amplify light using electrically excited films of the chemically synthesized semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots.