When the Shewanella oneidensis bacterium "breathes" in certain metal and sulfur compounds anaerobically, the way an aerobic organism would process oxygen, it produces materials that could be used to enhance electronics, electrochemical energy storage, and drug-delivery devices.
The ability of...
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has developed a new photosynthetic protein system enabling an enhanced and more sustainable approach to solar-powered technological devices.
The initiative is part of a broader effort in the field of synthetic...
Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is immensely powerful—both in nature and within laboratories. Using 'laboratory evolution', we can take an enzyme which combines random mutations and functional selection, and improve its function by more than 1000 times. You can...
It's a feat three decades in the making: Harvard University chemists have achieved what a new paper calls a "landmark in drug discovery" with the total synthesis of halichondrin. Known to be a potent anti-cancer agent in mouse studies,...
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an energy-efficient recycling process that restores used cathodes from spent lithium ion batteries and makes them work just as good as new. The process involves harvesting the degraded cathode...
JILA researchers used their frequency comb spectroscopy technique (multicolored lightwaves between the mirrors) to follow each step of an important chemical reaction that occurs in the atmosphere. The technique identifies chemicals in real time based on the light they...
Bees are among the most important species responsible for pollinating about one-third of the world's food supply, with their contribution in the United States alone valued at $15-20 billion each year. Rapid declines in honey bee colonies globally, and...
eHow water solvates and transports protons is a fundamental question facing chemists and biologists alike and is vital to our understanding of processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
A team of researchers at the University of Chicago used broadband...
Image of mature neurons (in red) in the hippocampus expressing the MOCOS protein (in green), the enzyme involved in purine metabolism, oxidative stress and the formation of synapses.
Credit: © Emmanuelle Lacassagne, NICN, CNRS UMR 7259
A study carried out by...
Stanford University chemist Paul Wender and his colleagues are working to improve treatments for cancer, HIV and Alzheimer's—and they are betting that a drab, weedy marine invertebrate is the means to achieving that end. They have focused on this...
Pharmaceuticals owe their effects mostly to their chemical composition, but the packaging of these drugs into specific physical formulations also need to be done to exact specifications. For example, many drugs are encapsulated in solid microparticles, the size and...
