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Researchers at the University of California San Diego and Boise State University have developed a new approach to making novel lithium-ion battery materials. The approach transforms a non-crystalline material into a crystalline one—by cycling it with lithium. Using this approach, the team transformed a non-crystalline (amorphous) material called niobium oxide into a novel crystalline Nb2O5 anode with exceptional lithium storage and fast cycling.

As the world turns its attention to electric vehicles as a replacement for gas-powered cars and trucks, some vehicles such as long-haul trucks and planes will need a bridge between gas and electric. Natural gas could be a viable alternative. It's widely available and burns more cleanly than gasoline.

More blood flow to the genitals, an increased pulse and dilated pupils: These physical characteristics reveal that a person is sexually aroused. But lust can also be detected in the breath, as a study of an international research team has now shown. According to the study, a characteristic signature of volatile molecules is found in the breath of sexually aroused people.

If we compare the right to the left hand, we can see these are specular images —that is, like symmetrical shapes reflected in a mirror— and they cannot superimpose on each other. This property is chirality, a feature of the matter that plays with the symmetry of biological structures at different scales, from the DNA molecule to the tissues of the heart muscle.

Research team led by Göttingen University describes fundamental principle of enzyme catalysis It is well known in physics and chemistry that equal charges repel each other, while opposite charges attract. It was long assumed that this principle also applies when enzymes - the biological catalysts in all living organisms - form or break chemical bonds.

Stable packets of light waves - called optical solitons - are emitted in ultrashort-pulse lasers as a chain of light flashes. These solitons often combine into pairs with very short temporal separation. Introducing atomic vibrations in the terahertz range, researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth and Wroclaw have now solved the puzzle of how these temporal links are formed.

A team from the UNIGE has succeeded in visualizing crystal nucleation - the stage that precedes crystallization - that was invisible until now. At the interface between chemistry and physics, the process of crystallization is omnipresent in nature and industry. It is the basis for the formation of snowflakes but also of certain active ingredients used in pharmacology.

Chemical syntheses in liquids and gases take place in three-dimensional space. Random collisions between molecules have to result in something new in an extremely short time. But there is another way: on a gold surface under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, molecules lying still next to each other can be made to combine - even those that would never want to react with each other in a liquid.

Organic aerosols from cooking may stay in the atmosphere for several days because of nanostructures formed by fatty acids as they are released into the air. Organic aerosols - such as those released in cooking - may stay in the atmosphere for several days because of nanostructures formed by fatty acids as they are released into the air, new research finds.

All living organisms that respire have to get rid of electrons. In oxygen-free environments, microorganisms deploy special molecules which act as extracellular electron shuttles to transfer the electrons from cells to minerals. A group of researchers has now discovered what determines the electron transfer efficiency of these "cabs".

People in mainland China and the Global South suffer the brunt of emissions of toxic chemicals from consumer goods used in more-developed countries, according to a new study. Researchers, including Frank Wania and Kate Tong of the University of Toronto Scarborough, say "core regions" in Europe, North America and parts of Asia have offloaded  polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) emissions to less developed parts of the world.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Italian Institute of Technology IIT have developed a novel substance that disables a protein in the cell skeleton, leading to cell death. In this way, substances of this type can prevent, for example, the growth of tumours. To accomplish this, the researchers combined a structural biological method with the computational design of active agents.

With many human-made chemicals, problems regarding public health and the environment become apparent only years after their widespread use. A team of researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University now propose a way to change that. In an article in the journal 'Chemosphere' they present a method for (re)designing safe and sustainable chemicals.

A research team led by The University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute (NGI) has developed a tunable graphene-based platform that allows for fine control over the interaction between light and matter in the terahertz (THz) spectrum, revealing rare phenomena known as exceptional points. The work - co-authored by researchers from Penn State College of Engineering in the US - is published today (8 April) in Science .

A bioinformatics research team from Friedrich Schiller University Jena has won the 2022 Thuringian Research Prize for applied research, Thuringia's Science Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee announced today (06 April) in a video presentation. The prize of 12,500 euros, awarded for the development of machine learning methods for identifying small molecules, went to the team comprising Prof. Sebastian Böcker, Dr Kai Dührkop, Dr Markus Fleischauer, Dr Marcus Ludwig and Martin Hoffmann.

Life on Earth runs in 24-hour cycles. From tiny bacteria to human beings, organisms adapt to alterations of day and night.

The alpha-olefins, consisting of carbon and hydrogen, are the most important precursors in the chemical industry. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth now present a discovery in the journal "Science" that opens up previously unimagined prospects for the design and the selective as well as sustainable production of these chemical products.

New separation process for key radiodiagnostic agent reduces radioactive waste Nuclear medicine uses technetium-99m among other things for tumor diagnostics. With over 30 million applications worldwide each year, it is the most widely used radioisotope. The precursor material, molybdenum-99, is mainly produced in research reactors.

The deadly venom of a poisonous sea snail could hold the key to developing new medicines including more effective, less addictive forms of pain relief. A team led by researchers from the University of Glasgow is setting out to learn more about the unique form of venom produced by cone snails, predatory marine animals found in warm seas and oceans throughout the word.

Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago are among a collaborative team that has developed a material that could give fuel cell systems a competitive edge over the battery systems that currently power most electric vehicles. In contrast to lithium batteries, fuel cell technology relies on catalyst-driven chemical reactions to create energy.