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.
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.
Five student teams from Wichita State won the university's second annual Koch Innovation Challenge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Metal-organic frameworks with chains of iron centers adsorb and release carbon monoxide with very little energy input.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A university community plays a world climate change negotiations role-playing game.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A Northwestern University research team is the first to capture on video organic nanoparticles colliding and fusing together. This unprecedented view of “chemistry in motion” will aid Northwestern nanoscientists developing new drug delivery methods as well as demonstrate to researchers around the globe how an emerging imaging technique opens a new window on a very tiny world.
Never-before-seen images of mouse immune system proteins and bacterial bits reveal an inspection strategy that identifies pathogens.
Monoterpene measures how certain forests respond to heat stress.
Whether carbon comes from leaves or needles affects how fast it decomposes, but where it ends up determines how long it's available.
Someday, left-over toner in discarded printer cartridges could have a second life as bridge or building components instead of as trash, wasting away in landfills and potentially harming the environment. One group reports in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering that they have devised a method to recycle the residual powder in “empty” cartridges into iron using temperatures that are compatible with existing industrial processes.
As any wine enthusiast knows, the “legs” that run down a glass after a gentle swirl of vinocan yield clues about alcohol content. Interestingly, the physical phenomenon that helps create these legs can be harnessed to propel tiny motors to carry out tasks on the surface of water. Scientists demonstrate the motors in a report in ACS’ journal Langmuir.
Sometimes during catalytic hydrogenation, the partially hydrogenated products become volatile, melting and evaporating away before they can bind to more hydrogen atoms. Now, researchers have explored how and why this volatility varies during hydrogenation, suggesting that a previously underappreciated effect from carbon-hydrogen bonds in the molecule is the main culprit. The new analysis, published in The Journal of Chemical Physics, can help chemists identify the ideal conditions needed for catalytic hydrogenation so they can better remove excess hydrogen.
It takes less than one-tenth of a second — a fraction of the time previously thought — for the sense of smell to distinguish between one odor and another, new experiments in mice show.
In 2012, LJI researcher Toshiaki Kawakami, M.D., Ph.D., reported that a small protein aptly named histamine-releasing factor (HRF) played a pro-inflammatory role in asthma. The current paper reports a novel biochemical mechanism governing HRF activity, paves the way for blood tests to predict which patients will respond to allergy therapy, and strongly supports the idea that drugs designed to block HRF could prevent food allergy attacks.
A UW–Madison lab has made a molecule that gains magnetic strength through an unusual way of controlling those spins, which could lead to a breakthrough in quantam computing.
An international researcher team used neutron analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, x-ray crystallography and other techniques to study chlorite dismutase, an enzyme that breaks down the environmental pollutant chlorite into harmless byproducts. The results shed light on the catalytic process and open possibilities for bioremediation.
New research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute is building a bridge from nature's chemistry to greener, more efficient synthetic chemistry.
Researchers at SBP have identified a peptide that could lead to the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The discovery, published in Nature Communications, may also provide a means of homing drugs to diseased areas of the brain to treat AD, Parkinson’s disease, as well as glioblastoma, brain injuries and stroke.
A Sandia National Laboratories-led team has demonstrated faster, more efficient ways to turn discarded plant matter into chemicals worth billions. The team’s findings could help transform the economics of making fuels and other products from domestically grown renewable sources.
Editor's Highlights include papers on aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation and neutrophil function; transcriptomic analysis of TCE and PCE in the liver and kidney; functional genomics of TCE metabolites genotoxicity; and increased aflatoxin b1 damage in pregnant mice.
The first Northwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference was a success. The event offered ~50 early career theorists and students opportunities to present talks in a nurturing environment that developed and advanced collaborations.
A transfer technique based on thin sacrificial layers of boron nitride could allow high-performance gallium nitride gas sensors to be grown on sapphire substrates and then transferred to metallic or flexible polymer support materials. The technique could facilitate the production of low-cost wearable, mobile and disposable sensing devices for a wide range of environmental applications.
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