news 2024

Key Takeaways Better-performing film capacitors are needed for safe, reliable electric vehicles and renewable energy, but it's challenging to find suitable materials. To accelerate the discovery of breakthrough materials, researchers developed a machine-learning technique to rapidly screen tens of thousands of polymer compounds and identified several candidates with exceptional properties.

CLOUD project at CERN investigates particle formation of isoprene in the troposphere Aerosol particles in the atmosphere play a central role in cloud formation and consequently influence solar radiation on its way to Earth. An international team of scientists from the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck is researching their formation and growth mechanisms.

Physicists are getting closer to controlling single-molecule chemical reactions - could this shape the future of pharmaceutical research? Controlling matter at the atomic level has taken a major step forward, thanks to groundbreaking nanotechnology research by an international team of scientists led by physicists at the University of Bath.

In the effort to develop new quantum technologies of the future, scientists are pursuing several different approaches. One avenue seeks to use molecules as the fundamental building blocks of quantum technologies. Now scientists at Caltech have figured out a new way to use ultrafast laser pulses to realize an important quantum mechanical property known as superposition, turning a relatively simple molecule into a quantum sensor-a tool that can measure chemical phenomena in its surroundings through inherently quantum means.

Scientists are calling for changes to chemistry textbooks after discovering a fundamental aspect of structural organic chemistry has been incorrectly described for almost 100 years. The team from Cardiff University's School of Chemistry, dispute the long-held belief that alkyl groups - a chemical group consisting of carbon and hydrogen atoms arranged in a chain - donate electrons to other parts of a molecule.

A research team at the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien, led by Professor Dominik Eder, has developed a new synthetic approach to create durable, conductive and catalytically active hybrid framework materials for (photo)electrocatalytic water splitting. Porous metal-organic framework catalysts The development of technologies for sustainable energy carriers, such as hydrogen, is essential.

A new study shows that artificial ponds created to restore peatlands exploited by humans achieve a balance similar to that of natural ponds, but it takes time. Ponds created to restore bogs degraded by peat extraction take over 17 years to develop ecosystems similar to natural ponds. That is the finding of a study by master's students Émilie Jolin and Mahmud Hassan and doctoral candidate Julien Arsenault, supervised by Julie Talbot of the Department of Geography at Université de Montréal and Line Rochefort at Université Laval.

Within a cell, DNA carries the genetic code for building proteins. To build proteins, the cell makes a copy of DNA, called mRNA. Then, another molecule called a ribosome reads the mRNA, translating it into protein. But this step has been a visual mystery: scientists previously did not know how the ribosome attaches to and reads mRNA.

New ISTA research shows how tissue development is temporally organized When a vertebrate embryo develops, a group of cells self-organizes into the neural tube, eventually becoming the brain and the spinal cord. This involves specific signals, but how these signals are interpreted by developing cells remains unclear.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene are not only ultrathin, but also extremely sensitive. Researchers have therefore been trying for years to develop highly sensitive biosensors that utilise this property. Graphene-based field-effect transistors, for example, could register the tiniest changes in the electronic properties caused by the molecules when they interact with this atomically thin layer.

Molecular Morphers: DNA-powered gels shape-shift on command Johns Hopkins engineers create responsive minuscule materials that dynamically reconfigure based on chemical signals Johns Hopkins engineers have developed gel strips that change shape when given chemical instructions written in DNA code. These "gel automata," measuring just centimeters, can grow or shrink, transforming from one letter or number to another when triggered by specific DNA molecules.

Since the 1980s, its been known that a mysterious contaminant forms in chloraminated drinking water, but only now has a Swiss-American research team been able to identify the unknown product in US drinking water systems. A team of researchers from the United States and Switzerland have reported the discovery of a previously unknown compound in chloraminated drinking water.

Electric Vehicles will now be able to go from zero battery power to an 80 per cent charge thanks to Researchers at the University of Waterloo who made a breakthrough in lithium-ion battery design to enable this extremely fast charging. 15 minutes is much faster than the current industry standard of nearly an hour, even at fast-charging stations.

Research from UCLA and NASA finds molecular orientation pattern likely results from factors other than chemical predisposition Key takeaways A recent paper in Nature Communications from researchers at UCLA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, offers new insight into the mystery of life. Previous experiments focused on existing molecular biology structures suggest life is predisposed to the molecular homochirality: the preference for "one-handedness" as we see today.

Astrochemistry, a relatively new field, focuses on exploring chemistry in interstellar spaces to uncover insights about the origins of life on Earth. This discipline has seen significant advancements in recent years. Born in the late 1930s with the development of spectroscopy and radio astronomy, astrochemistry, a field at the intersection of astrophysics and chemistry, is now mature.

New study on the toxicity of hydrocarbons The international maritime shipping industry contributes to air pollution, particularly in coastal areas and port cities. The 'International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships' regulates, among other things, air pollution from shipping and sets limits for the sulphur content in fuels.

A research team from the University of Basel has succeeded in synthesizing simple, environmentally sensitive cells complete with artificial organelles. For the first time, the researchers have also been able to emulate natural cell-cell communication using these protocells - based on the model of photoreceptors in the eye.

When you place metal nanoparticles on carbon, they become much more active. What was previously only assumed based on experience could now be explained in detail for the first time at TU Wien (Vienna).

News from Atmospheric aerosol particles are essential for the formation of clouds and precipitation, thereby influencing the Earth's energy budget, water cycle, and climate. However, the origin of aerosol particles in pristine air over the Amazon rainforest during the wet season is poorly understood.

For the first time, researchers have observed how bromoform rearranges its atoms in less than a trillionth of a second after it gets hit by an ultraviolet (UV) pulse. The imaging technique captured a long-predicted pathway by which the ozone-layer-damaging molecule transforms its structure upon interaction with light.