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Two teams of scientists have resolved a longstanding controversy surrounding the origins of complex life on Earth. The joint studies found molecular fossils extracted from 635-million-year-old rocks aren't the earliest evidence of animals, but instead common algae. The researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), Max Planck Institute and Caltech say the finding has big implications for our understanding of evolution.

Sustainable processes could replace precious metals in silicone crosslinking Silicones are tried and tested in the private and professional domains. In many applications, however, expensive precious metals are required as catalysts to transform the liquid intermediate products to durable elastic polymers.

Bioinformaticians at the University of Jena develop new method for analysing metabolites Everything that lives has metabolites, produces metabolites and consumes metabolites. These molecules arise as intermediate and end products from chemical processes in an organism's metabolism. Therefore, they not only have huge significance for our lives, but they also provide valuable information about the condition of a living being or an environment.

A Stanford research team that recently discovered an unexpected new chemical behavior of water when tiny droplets form from water vapor has extended the findings to natural, everyday water condensation. In its bulk liquid form, whether in a bathtub or an ocean, water is a relatively benign substance with little chemical activity.

A new approach to treating cancers and other diseases that uses a mechanically interlocked molecule as a 'magic bullet' has been designed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. Called rotaxanes, the molecules are tiny nanoscale structures that resemble a dumbbell with a ring trapped around the central post.

Rice scientists' atomic resolution protein models reveal new details about protein binding Knowing precisely where proteins are frustrated could go a long way toward making better drugs. That's one result of a new study by Rice University scientists looking for the mechanisms that stabilize or destabilize key sections of biomolecules.

An international team of researchers from Bristol and China has prepared biocompatible protocells that generate nitric oxide gas - a known reagent for blood vessel dilation - that when placed inside blood vessels expand the biological tissue. In a new study published today , Professor Stephen Mann and Dr Mei Li from Bristol's School of Chemistry, together with Associate Professor Jianbo Liu and colleagues at Hunan University and Central South University in China, prepared synthetic protocells coated in red blood cell fragments for use as nitric oxide generating bio-bots within blood vessels.

Scientists have generated a huge true random number using DNA synthesis. It is the first time that a number of this magnitude has been created by biochemical means. True random numbers are required in fields as diverse as slot machines and data encryption. These numbers need to be truly random, such that they cannot even be predicted by people with detailed knowledge of the method used to generate them.

Researchers demonstrate molecular binding mechanism that could change approach to designing influenza treatments There is no hole-in-one drug treatment when it comes to the flu, but that doesn't stop scientists from trying to sink one. Especially since as many as one in five Americans gets the flu. The reported estimated cost of this illness is $10 billion each year in medical expenses and another $16 billion in lost earnings in America alone, according to researchers at UC San Diego.

A new analysis of California's Monterey Bay evaluates kelp's potential to reduce ocean acidification, the harmful fallout from climate change on marine ecosystems and the food they produce for human populations. Ethereal, swaying pillars of brown kelp along California's coasts grow up through the water column, culminating in a dense surface canopy of thick fronds that provide homes and refuge for numerous marine creatures.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, together with colleagues from several other European institutions, have investigated whether particulate matter from certain sources can be especially harmful to human health. They found evidence that the amount of particulate matter alone is not the greatest health risk.

Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is an important chemical reaction, especially considering that the use of hydrogen as an energy source in sustainable mobility in the future. An international research team has now decoded how one of the catalysts used in this reaction works. Hydrogen is a key element for achieving sustainable mobility in the future, especially "green" hydrogen produced by splitting water using renewable power.

Some viruses can get inside cells via a mechanism that involves sulfur organic molecules. Chemists at UNIGE have discovered effective inhibitors and blocked the uptake of SARS-CoV-2. The cell membrane is impermeable to viruses: to get inside and infect a cell, they use a range of strategies to exploit the cellular and biochemical properties of the membranes.

Combined efforts of experiment and simulation pave the way to new applications Materials consisting of inorganic and organic components can combine the best of two worlds: under certain circumstances, the so-called MOFs - short for metal-organic frameworks - are structured in the same order as crystals and are at the same time porous and deformable.

Deep inside your cells, DNA provides the instructions to produce proteins, the essential molecules that grow and maintain your body. RNA is the intermediary nucleic acid that carries these instructions from DNA to ribosomes, where proteins are produced within the cell. But in humans and in plants, only a tiny fraction of DNA produces the RNA that carries out protein-building instructions.

Research team from Jena and Cambridge develops glass materials with novel combinations of properties Light Linkages between organic and inorganic materials are a common phenomenon in nature, e.g., in the construction of bones and skeletal structures. They often enable combinations of properties that could not be achieved with just one type of material.

In an important step during the early evolution of life on Earth, the formation of the amino acid cysteine delivered vital catalysts, which enabled the earliest protein molecules to form in water, according to a new study by UCL researchers. All proteins are built from the same 20 amino acids. One of these, cysteine, was assumed not to have been present at the origin of life.

Chemists at the University of Göttingen and Goethe University Frankfurt characterise key compound for catalytic nitrogen atom transfer Catalysts with a metal-nitrogen bond can transfer nitrogen to organic molecules. In this process short-lived molecular species are formed, whose properties critically determine the course of the reaction and product formation.

Bristol scientists have demonstrated a new virtual reality [VR] technique which should help in developing drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 virus - and enable researchers to share models and collaborate in new ways. The innovative tool, created by University of Bristol researchers, and published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, will help scientists around the world identify anti-viral drug leads more rapidly.

Removing one charged molecule from a one-dimensional array causes the others to alternately turn 'on' or 'off,' paving the way for information transfer in tiny circuits Small electronic circuits power our everyday lives, from the tiny cameras in our phones to the microprocessors in our computers. To make those devices even smaller, scientists and engineers are designing circuitry components out of single molecules.