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Food fraud occurs when products that do not meet consumer expectations reach the market and, in extreme cases, this can lead to health problems. To combat this misleading and critical practice in the food sector, a team from the University of Barcelona has published new studies presenting technologies to verify the geographical origin of two food products: virgin olive oil - emblematic of the Mediterranean diet - and pine nuts, the most expensive nuts on the market.

Using machine learning workflows developed in-house, the researchers were able to establish that heat conduction is much more intricate than previously thought. Findings offer potential for developing specific materials. Complex materials such as organic semiconductors or the microporous metal-organic frameworks known as MOFs are already being used for numerous applications such as OLED displays, solar cells, gas storage and water extraction.

McGill researchers want to harness a natural process that enables slime's transformation from liquid to fibre and back again A new discovery about the slime ejected by velvet worms could revolutionize sustainable material design, according to a study by McGill researchers. Their findings outline how a naturally occurring protein structure, conserved across species from Australia, Singapore and Barbados over nearly 400 million years of evolution, enables the slime's transformation from liquid to fibre and back again.

New method can improve the efficiency and flexibility of displays, solar cells and transistors Scientists at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, have unveiled an innovative approach for synthesizing azaparacyclophanes (APCs), a class of highly advanced ring-shaped molecular structures with immense potential in material science.

At TU Wien (Vienna), methods are being developed to extract valuable substances from biomass - and quantum cascade lasers offer some very interesting new possibilities. Much of our waste is far too valuable to simply be incinerated. If it is recycled in a carefully controlled way, not only can thermal energy be generated, but the resulting gas can also be used to produce valuable chemicals - from hydrogen to methane or methanol.

With artificial photosynthesis, mankind could utilise solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. Würzburg chemists have taken this one step further. Photosynthesis is a marvellous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water.

Researchers from the University of Würzburg are opening up new horizons in chemistry: They present the world's first triple bond between the atoms boron and carbon. Boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen: these four elements can form chemical triple bonds with each other due to their similar electronic properties.

Research team gains new insights into the sense of hearing   Hearing begins with the stretching of elastic molecular "springs" that open ion channels in the sensory hair cells of the ear. For decades, researchers have known that these gating springs must exist, but they could not find them. A team from the Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging (MBExC) in Göttingen has now discovered just such a spring for the first time.

Polymer chemists at ETH Zurich have found a surprising way to almost completely decompose PMMA, a plastic known as acrylic glass or as trademark Plexiglas, into its monomeric components. Even additives do not interfere with the process. Today, plastics recycling is primarily limited to the collection of sorted PET or polyethylene beverage bottles.

Scientists at EPFL have revealed how quantum interference and symmetry dictate molecular behavior in collisions with gold surfaces, offering new insights into molecular interactions. The findings can have important implications for chemistry and materials science. The quantum rules shaping molecular collisions are now coming into focus, offering fresh insights for chemistry and materials science.

Researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made of carbon nanotubes that can selectively, efficiently and reliably measure minute quantities of oxygen in gas mixtures under light. The detector could be widely used in industry, medicine and environmental monitoring. Oxygen is essential for life and a reactive player in many chemical processes.

Emerging pollutants are compounds - microplastics, oils, dyes, pharmaceuticals, plasticizers, etc. that end up in aquatic ecosystems and can pose an environmental and health risk.

Using an approach called DNA origami, scientists at Caltech have developed a technique that could lead to cheaper, reusable biomarker sensors for quickly detecting proteins in bodily fluids, eliminating the need to send samples out to lab centers for testing. "Our work provides a proof-of-concept showing a path to a single-step method that could be used to identify and measure nucleic acids and proteins," says Paul Rothemund (BS '94), a visiting associate at Caltech in computing and mathematical sciences, and computation and neural systems.

Scientists have developed a tool that uses light to control the activity and localisation of a molecule, making it possible to control drug's site of action. Acting in the right place at the right time is the key to effective medical treatment with minimal side effects. However, this feat remains difficult to achieve.

Superconducting circuits are being used at TU Wien and ISTA to create new types of quantum systems that are much easier to control and much more tunable than natural quantum systems like atoms. Many objects that we normally deal with in quantum physics are only visible with special microscopes - individual molecules or atoms, for example.

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana, revealing new details about mumification practices. The research, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society , is the first time that the smells of mummified bodies have been systematically studied combining a mix of instrumental and sensory techniques, including an electronic 'nose' and trained, human 'sniffers.' Nine ancient Egyptian mummified bodies were studied.

Scientists have identified a new property, interface flexibility, that controls how certain molecules naturally self-organize into crystalline supramolecular networks. This significant discovery could change the design of synthetic molecules for network growth at the nanoscale. Covalent bonding is a widely understood phenomenon that joins the atoms of a molecule by a shared electron pair.

Is it possible to tile a surface with a single shape in such a way that the pattern never repeats itself? In 2022, a mathematical solution to this "einstein problem" was discovered for the first time. researchers have now also found a chemical solution: a molecule that arranges itself into complex, non-repeating patterns on a surface.

Each year, tens of thousands of chemicals enter the market and ultimately the environment. While most of these compounds undergo safety testing before approval, their long-term effects on wildlife remain difficult to predict. To better estimate their potential threat for ecosystems, researchers at Eawag have explored biochemical signatures that indicate the level of chemical stress suffered by fish.

Bonn researchers clarify how energy regulates the spatial arrangement and quantity of molecules in nerve cells Nerve cells have amazing strategies to save energy and still perform the most important of their tasks. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn as well as the University Medical Center Göttingen found that the neuronal energy conservation program determines the location and number of messenger RNA (mRNA) and proteins, and differs depending on the length, longevity and other properties of the respective molecule.