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Exposure to chemicals increased in pregnant women in the last decade, study suggests Pregnant women's exposures to chemicals increased considerably in the last decade, according to a recently published study. Study: Exposure to Contemporary and Emerging Chemicals in Commerce among Pregnant Women in the United States: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) Program John Meeker is one of the study co-authors and a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a film that not only protects wounds similar to the way a bandage does, but also helps wounds to heal faster, repels bacteria, dampens inflammation, releases active pharmaceutical ingredients in a targeted manner and ultimately dissolves by itself.

Researchers in the groups of Prof. Tobias Gulder from TU Dresden and Prof. Tanja Gulder from Leipzig University have succeeded in understanding the biosynthetic mechanisms for the production of the natural product cyanobacterin, which in Nature is produced in small quantities by the cyanobacteria Scytonema hofmanni.

A new University of Toronto study is using polar bear scat to reveal how certain chemical contaminants can become trapped - and build up - inside the body. Polar bears are prone to storing certain contaminants in their bodies because they are at the top of the food chain, have a very fatty diet and have evolved to absorb high amounts of fat.

In the search for new active agents in medicine, molecules whose atoms are linked in rings are becoming increasingly important. Such ring systems have particularly suitable properties for producing such active agents and they are driving the development of innovative treatments for malignant tumours, as well as for neurodegenerative and infectious diseases.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed a self-supervised learning framework that leverages the large amounts of unlabeled data that other models can't. Predicting molecular properties quickly and accurately is important to advancing scientific discovery and application in areas ranging from materials science to pharmaceuticals.

Vinyl polymers, commonly referred to as "plastics," are ubiquitous materials. They are extremely interesting for their ease of synthesis and their great diversity in terms of architecture and functionality.

Scientists at Bath found that incorporating sugar units into polymers makes them more degradable when exposed to UV light. Many plastics that are labelled as biodegradable are only compostable under industrial conditions, but scientists at the University of Bath have now found a way to make plastics break down using only UV light.

Planetary systems around stars the size of our sun are obvious targets for astronomers trying to locate extraterrestrial life forms, and nearly every second star in that category is a binary star. New research from Denmark and the University of Michigan indicates that planetary systems are formed in a very different way around binary stars-two stars gravitationally bound to each other-than around single stars such as the sun.

Glucose energy source for medicinal implants and sensors Mini-fuel cell generates electricity using the body's sugar Glucose is the most important energy source in the human body. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now want to use the body's sugar as an energy source for medicinal implants.

The majority of chemicals found in materials that come into contact with food are not intentionally added during the material's manufacturing process and are not currently listed for use, a new systematic evidence map involving researchers at UCL has revealed. Published today in  Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition,  researchers found evidence for 2,881 food contact chemicals (FCCs) that may transfer into food or drinks from six types of food contact materials (FCM) groups, including plastics, paper and board, metal, multi-materials, glass and ceramic, and 'other'.

Salad boxes to go, sealed-tray lasagna and apple juice in PET bottles: we encounter packaged food and drink everywhere. A new database shows which packaging contains harmful substances that can be transferred to its contents. It also includes findings from researchers at the University of Basel, who are investigating plastic molecules that were previously unknown or barely known.

Two similar proteins can stand in for each other in the quality control mechanism of defective mRNA. This has redefined the distribution of protein tasks / publication in 'The EMBO Journal'. Scientists led by Professor Dr Niels Gehring at the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne have investigated two similar proteins, UPF3A and UPF3B, which are involved in the quality control mechanism 'nonsense-mediated mRNA decay' (NMD).

According to a UdeM study, life could have emerged on an exoplanet as a result of a type of biochemical cooperation that is more likely to occur in nature than we might think! Darwin's theory of evolution probably isn't the full explanation for the emergence of life. Even in a barren environment conducive to fierce competition, cooperation between molecular networks may have spawned life on Earth and, by extension, elsewhere in the universe.

Berkeley Lab-led study assesses cost competitiveness of metal-organic framework materials to store hydrogen for large-scale backup power applications Low-carbon, low-cost energy storage solutions are vital for increasing resilience when communities lose power.

The cellular forms of natural materials are the inspiration behind a new lightweight, 3D printed smart architected material developed by an international team of engineers. The team, led by engineers from the University of Glasgow, mixed a common form of industrial plastic with carbon nanotubes to create a material which is tougher, stronger and smarter than comparable conventional materials.

Scientists from Cardiff University have taken a step towards a greener, more sustainable way of creating a plastic material found in a range of items from toothbrushes and guitar strings to medical implants, construction materials and car parts. In a new paper published today , the team report a brand-new method of creating cyclohexanone oxime - a pre-cursor to the plastic material Nylon-6 which is a key construction material used in the automotive, aircraft, electronic, clothing and medical industries.

Scientists led by EPFL have developed a new method to measure chemical kinetics by imaging progress of a reaction at a liquid-liquid interface embedded in a laminar-flow liquid microjet. This method is ideal for studies of dynamics on the sub-millisecond timescale, which is very difficult to do with current applications.

What has been a purification process in wastewater treatment plants for decades can also be used decentrally or semi-centrally as a recycling process for nutrients. Early separation of "solid and liquid" plays a key role here. It allows for flexible solutions in terms of process technology, especially in the treatment of urine.

Genes are the carriers of our genetic information. They are read in our cells and used to produce ribonucleic acids (RNAs). During this process, termed transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase II has a decisive influence on the exact time at which genes are read and on the intensity with which this happens.