Feature Channels: Chemistry

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The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences today announced the Finalists for the 2017 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. From a pool of 308 nominees – the most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger at America’s top academic and research institutions – the 30 Finalists will now compete for the largest unrestricted awards of their kind for early career scientists and engineers.

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Using genomics, a chemistry lab has worked out the biosynthetic machinery that makes a new class of antibiotic compounds called the beta-lactones. Like the beta-lactams, they have an unstable four-member ring. The key to their kill mechanism it is also difficult to synthesize.

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Neutron-scattering studies reveal surprising formation of ammonia after acetonitrile is turned into graphitic polymer, opening doors for catalyst-free industrial reactions at room temperature.

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How water relates to and interacts with biological systems – like DNA, the building block of all living things – is of critical importance, and a Cornell University group has used a relatively new form of spectroscopy to observe a previously unknown characteristic of water.

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A unique partnership between MTSU and the Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences will allow MTSU undergraduate students to interact daily with European scientists as the students conduct National Science Foundation-funded research on liquid crystals.

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UW synthetic biology researchers have demonstrated a new method for digital information processing in living cells, analogous to the logic gates used in electric circuits. In a key step in the ability to program living cells, the team built the largest circuits published to date in eukaryotic cells, using DNA instead of silicon and solder.

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A team of researchers from the University of Delaware have discovered how to label and light the sugar backbone of a bacterial cell wall. The findings will advance immune system research.

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Ronen Marmorstein, PhD, a professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of five investigators who received a grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for the creation of a state-of-the-art cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) facility. The investment supports research in chemistry and the life sciences and will also go towards maintaining the cryo-EM facilities and hiring of new faculty skilled in its uses.

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The common perception that many of the world’s most valuable minerals, such as copper and aluminum, are becoming scarce is challenged report that also highlights the environmental and social keys to unlocking future resources.in a new

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Clostridium botulinum is the bacterium that causes the neurointoxication, which produces one of the most potent toxins on earth and is classified as a potential bioterrorism threat. While no cure exists—and botulism treatment options are limited—a serendipitous discovery by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) may provide a new therapy that can stop the neurotoxin even in its more severe, advanced stages of action.

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First, diesel vehicles tainted their reputation with soot particles, then high nitric oxide emissions. So are owners of new gasoline cars environmentally friendly? Not always, says a new study led by Empa scientists: some direct-injection gasoline engines emit just as many soot particles as unfiltered diesel cars did in the past. Particle filters can remedy this.

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Technion researchers say a combination of metals and organic acids is an effective way to eradicate cholera, salmonella, pseudomonas, and other pathogenic bacteria. The combination also works on bacteria that attack agricultural crops.

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A new mathematical “shortcut” developed by Berkeley Lab researchers is speeding up molecular absorption calculations by a factor of five, so simulations that used to take 10 to 15 hours to compute can now be done in approximately 2.5 hours. These algorithms will be incorporated in an upcoming release of the widely used NWChem computational chemistry software suite later this year.

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New research into osmosis-driven behavior now provides a more granular theoretical understanding of the deterministic mechanisms, appearing as a pair of publications this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics. The first paper deconstructs the molecular mechanics of osmosis with high concentrations, and generalizes the findings to predict behavior for arbitrary concentrations. The second piece of the study then simulates via molecular modeling two key forms of osmotic flow in a broadly utilizable way.

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Research led by the University of Adelaide is paving the way for safer and more effective drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, reducing side effects and the need for insulin injections.

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Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is used in a variety of consumer products, such as food storage containers, water bottles and certain resins. In previous studies, Cheryl Rosenfeld, an investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center, along with other researchers at the University of Missouri, Westminster College and the Saint Louis Zoo, determined that BPA can disrupt sexual function and behavior in painted turtles. Now, the team has identified the genetic pathways that are altered as a result of BPA exposure during early development.

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Research findings to be published about new blood test technology that will greatly reduce errors in labwork and improve care in public health and infectious disease. Press briefing scheduled for May 16, reserve press access to live virtual event now.

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A study at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) found that a novel device can significantly reduce contamination of blood cultures, potentially reducing risky overtreatment and unnecessary use of antibiotics for many patients. This approach could also substantially reduce healthcare costs, according to the study. Thousands of U.S. patients get their blood drawn every day for blood cultures in order to diagnose serious infections such as sepsis, which can be a deadly condition. A small but significant percentage of the blood cultures are contaminated, due in part to skin fragments containing bacteria that are dislodged during a blood draw. This leads to false results that can mislead clinicians into thinking a patient has a potentially serious bloodstream infection. The consequences are costly and put patients at risk.

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Newswise hosts a virtual live press briefing on upcoming journal study with research results concerning a new blood collection technique that reduces contamination of blood samples and improves treatment outcomes.

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Stop-and-go traffic is typically a source of frustration, an unneccesary hold-up on the path from point A to point B. But when it comes to the molecular machinery that copies our DNA into RNA, a stop right at the beginning of the path may actually be helpful. Recent research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research shows that this stop prevents another machine from immediately following the first, presumably to better control the traffic and avoid later collisions.

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Scientists for the first time have assembled a "disease in a dish" model that pinpoints how a defect in the blood-brain barrier can produce an incurable psychomotor disorder, Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome. The findings point to a path for treating this syndrome and hold promise for analyzing other neurological diseases.

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A team of investigators led by Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS, of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has identified key inflammatory cells involved in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

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Waste material from the paper and pulp industry soon could be made into anything from tennis rackets to cars. Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist discovers how to make good quality carbon fiber from lignin waste.

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UF/IFAS researchers have discovered that a mandarin hybrid developed by colleagues contains cellular activity – known as metabolites -- that makes it more able to fend off greening than most other types of citrus.

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The Endocrine Society praised the reintroduction of a Senate bill to ensure consumers are protected from hazards associated with exposure to chemicals in personal care products such as cosmetics and lotions.

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/PRNewswire/ -- The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has announced that Michele Parrinello, Professor at USI Università della Svizzera italiana and ETH Zurich, has won the 2017 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences, conferred this year in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. The international prize, awarded biennially, consists of $250,000, a medal, and a citation. The award ceremony will be held at USI Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, in the fall and will include a lecture by Parrinello.

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Three chemists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI)—Dale Boger, Jin-Quan Yu and Phil Baran—have received awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a renowned professional organization for chemists based in the United Kingdom, with more than 54,000 members worldwide.

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Researchers are exploring how molecular simulations with the latest optimization strategies can create a more systematic way of discovering new materials that exhibit specific, desired properties. More specifically, they did so by recasting the design goal to the microscopic, asking which interactions between constituent particles can cause them to spontaneously “self-assemble” into a bulk material with a particular property. To find the answer, reported this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics, they decided to zero in on how composite particles spatially organize themselves.

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Scientists at Ames Laboratory have discovered a method for making smaller, more efficient intermetallic nanoparticles for fuel cell applications, and which also use less of the expensive precious metal platinum.

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A new bioinformatics tool to compare genome data has been developed by teams from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, together with researchers from Australia and Canada. The program called “ModelFinder” uses a fast algorithm and allows previously not attainable new insights into evolution. The results are published in the influential journal Nature Methods.

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With graduation just around the corner, a few undergraduates finishing up a hands-on chemistry course will be taking very useful skills with them to the next stop on their career and education path. With robotic arms and moving trays to run automated chemical analyses, the class used advanced screening machines to quickly measure how effective dozens of cancer drugs are against cells found in a rare type of cancer called neurofibromatosis.

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New research by a Florida State University professor reveals that plutonium's electronic properties are more complex than previously thought and that the element operates more like lighter elements such as iron or nickel.

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Etsuko Fujita, a senior chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, will be recognized as a “highly accomplished Asian American professional” at the ninth annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration. The event will take place Saturday, May 13 at Stony Brook University.

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John Shanklin, a biochemist investigating the fundamental processes that underlie the production of plant oils at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, is being honored as an "Inventor of the Year" by Battelle—the global science and technology organization that, together with Stony Brook University, manages Brookhaven Lab through the company Brookhaven Science Associates.

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Notre Dame Researchers have discovered a way to make influenza visible to the naked eye, by engineering dye molecules to target a specific enzyme of the virus.

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ITHACA, N.Y. – When you spill pasta sauce on your favorite shirt but there is no trace of it after being washed, you can thank oleophobicity, a resistance to oil commonly applied to textiles. That resistance, however, comes at a price. The coating that makes textiles oil resistant is fluorine-based and breaks down into chlorofluorocarbon gas, a greenhouse gas harmful to the environment.

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An international team of scientists has developed a new way to produce single-layer graphene from a simple precursor: ethene – also known as ethylene – the smallest alkene molecule, which contains just two atoms of carbon.

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Water-splitting systems require a very efficient catalyst to speed up the chemical reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, while preventing the gases from recombining back into water. Now an international research team, including scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has developed a new catalyst with a molybdenum coating that prevents this problematic back reaction and works well in realistic operating conditions.

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Millions of consumers love the “softness” of their clothing after using liquid fabric softeners. Scientists from the Kao Corporation in Japan have unlocked the mechanism describing how these products work effectively on cloths and yarns, which could pave the way to more effective softening products. Their research was honored with the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) Distinguished Paper Award, recognizing the most outstanding research to appear in 2016 in the Journal of Surfactants and Detergents.

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Designed molecules will provide positive impacts in energy production by selectively removing unwanted ions from complex solutions.

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A new computational technique greatly simplifies the complex reaction networks common to catalysis and combustion fields.

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Chemists from Missouri University of Science and Technology have made aerogels that have rubber-like elasticity and can “remember” their original shapes.

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Research focused on converting crude glycerine, a key chemical feedstock in over-supply – into greener, more value-added products on developing alternative, greener technologies and processes – is being honored with the 2017 Glycerine Innovation Award. The award is sponsored by the American Cleaning Institute® (ACI) and the National Biodiesel Board (NBB).

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For the first time, researchers have measured the force that draws tiny crystals together and visualized how they swivel and align. Called van der Waals forces, the attraction provides insights into how crystals self-assemble, an activity that occurs in a wide range of cases in nature, from rocks to shells to bones.

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Although studies suggest that inhaling certain scents may reduce stress in humans, aromatherapy is relatively unexplored in veterinary medicine. But new research presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2017 in Chicago raises the question of whether aromatherapy may be beneficial to horses as well.

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New surveys with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, of the element silicon may mean that the Milky Way is more efficient at mixing its contents than previously thought, thereby masking the telltale signs of chemical aging.

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Biologists at UC San Diego have provided the first evidence that a widely used pesticide can significantly impair the ability of otherwise healthy honey bees to fly. The study, which employed a bee “flight mill,” raises concerns about how pesticides affect honey bee pollination and long-term effects on the health of honey bee colonies.

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Materials used to make synthetic rubber and plastics could get a lot greener soon, thanks to a team of scientists from three U.S. research universities, including the University of Delaware. The team has invented a process to make butadiene from renewable sources.

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A catalytic reaction may follow thousands of possible paths, and it can take years to identify which one it actually takes so scientists can tweak it and make it more efficient. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have taken a big step toward cutting through this thicket of possibilities.

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Extraterrestrial life, if it exists, could use different amino acid building blocks than living things here on Earth. To better understand what alien life might look like, researchers are studying which amino acids stand up to the types of extreme conditions found on other planets and moons.