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Changing the chemistry of a compound is difficult by itself, but modifying materials only a few atoms thick is its own challenge. A group of University of Chicago scientists announced an innovative method to tailor the surface groups of a class of compounds known as MXenes. Surface groups are the elements or compounds on the surface of a material.

One of the biggest challenges to the development of medical treatments for cancer is the fact that there is no single kind of cancer. Cancers derive from many kinds of cells and tissues, and each have their own characteristics, behaviors, and susceptibilities to anti-cancer drugs. A treatment that works on colon cancer might have little to no effect on lung cancer, for example.

Chemists at the University of Jena develop new polymer electrolytes for redox flow batteries Light The share of energy from renewable sources is constantly on the rise in Germany. At the beginning of 2020, for the first time ever, renewable energy was able to cover more than half of the electricity consumed in Germany.

Scanning tunneling microscope image of wide-band metallic graphene nanoribbon (GNR). Each cluster of protrusions corresponds to a singly-occupied electron orbital. The formation of a pentagonal ring near each cluster leads to a more than tenfold increase in the conductivity of metallic GNRs. The GNR backbone has a width of 1.6 nanometers.

Novel concept based on sunscreen-like molecules could boost crop production worldwide Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have developed a novel class of molecules capable of raising the temperature of plants. Application of such 'molecular heaters' allows crops to grow at lower environmental temperatures.

Electrochemical reactions, which will play an important role in the future of energy supply, can now be explained in detail, thanks to measurements carried out by TU Wien and DESY. 1/4 images The elektrochemistry team at TU Wien: Andreas Nenning, Harald Summerer, Alexander Opitz (left to right) (Copyright: TU Wien) 1/4 images The elektrochemistry team at TU Wien: Andreas Nenning, Harald Summerer, Alexander Opitz (left to right) (Copyright: TU Wien) 1/4 images A Perovskite thin film electrode, on a ZrO2 crystal - compared to a pen.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and from ETH Zurich want to make so-called zeolites more efficient. Today, these compounds are already indispensable additives in the chemical industry and have been used as catalysts in oil refineries since the 1960s. Now, , the researchers advocate paying more attention to the classic zeolites.

Study: Pointed tips on aluminum 'octopods' increase catalytic reactivity Points matter when designing nanoparticles that drive important chemical reactions using the power of light. A study of aluminum nanocatalysts by Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics found that octopods (left), six-sided particles with sharply pointed corners, had a reaction rate five times higher than nanocubes (center) and 10 times higher than 14-sided nanocrystals.

Physicists propose a new path to detect infrared radiation with outstanding sensitivity, allowing detection of signals as low as that of a single quantum of light. When using our webcam or cell phone camera, we experience the tremendous capabilities of cheap and compact sensors developed in the past decades for the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Another important result for research in computational pharmacology "made in USI": Prof. Vittorio Limongelli of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences and his PhD candidate Stefano Raniolo have developed a protocol that allows to simulate accurately the interaction between a drug and its molecular "target".

Immunofluorescence staining of the muscle tissue of a chronically diseased human heart under the confocal microscope. Two proteins in the sarcomeres, which give the tissue the characteristic striation pattern, were marked with antibodies and visualized by different fluorophore-conjugated antibodies: titin appears red and actinin green; the nuclei were stained blue.

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a rare molecule - phosphine - in the clouds of Venus, pointing to the possibility of extra-terrestrial 'aerial' life. The presence of life is the only known explanation for the amount of phosphine inferred by observations Paul Rimmer Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes - floating free of the scorching surface, but tolerating very high acidity.

A new model offers a way to predict the condition of a battery's internal systems in real-time with far more accuracy than existing tools. In electric cars, the technology could improve driving range estimates and prolong battery life. Batteries fade as they age, slowly losing power and storage capacity.

Scientists of the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart have developed a digital chip that can be used to project movies with ultrasound. The researchers report on this in an article in the magazine "Nature Communications".

The residue in these seven La Chamba pots retained evidence of all the meals prepared in them. (Photo courtesy of Melanie Miller) If you happen to dig up an ancient ceramic cooking pot, don't clean it. Chances are, it contains the culinary secrets of the past. A research team led by UC Berkeley archaeologists has discovered that unglazed ceramic cookware can retain the residue of not just the last supper cooked, but, potentially, earlier dishes cooked across a pot's lifetime, opening a window onto the past.

Researchers have discovered that they can use light-sensitive molecules to switch genetic networks on and off as required. Their finding gives rise to an easy method for dynamically controlling biotechnological substance production. Tetracycline (Tc), an antibiotic, and its derivative anhydrotetracycline (aTc) enjoy widespread use in biotechnology and synthetic biology.

Researchers, working at the boundary between classical and quantum physics, have developed a method for quickly spotting molecules with particularly interesting electron properties. Laser technology is giving scientists an ever-closer look into molecular structures, and this sometimes leads to very interesting surprises.

How can the lithium-ion battery (LIB) be further improved? To answer this question, MEET scientists around Lenard Hanf developed new methods for capillary electrophoresis. For the first time, this enables a detailed analysis of the transition metal dissolution from LIB cathode materials or the current collector - such as manganese or copper.

Asphalt is a near-ubiquitous substance - it's found in roads, on roofs and in driveways - but its chemical emissions rarely figure into urban air quality management plans. A new study finds that asphalt is a significant source of air pollutants in urban areas, especially on hot and sunny days. Yale researchers observed that common road and roofing asphalts produced complex mixtures of organic compounds, including hazardous pollutants, in a range of typical temperature and solar conditions.

Researchers Haodong Liu and Ping Liu hold batteries made with the disordered rocksalt anode material they discovered, standing in front of a device used to fabricate battery pouch cells. Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered a new anode material that enables lithium-ion batteries to be safely recharged within minutes for thousands of cycles.