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ETH researchers have developed a new method in which they use light to draw patterns of molecules that guide living cells. The approach allows for a closer look at the development of multicellular organisms - and in the future may even play a part in novel therapies. Highly complex organisms can arise from a single cell, which is one of the true miracles of nature.

UCLA chemists have reported the key chemical discovery necessary for the creation of a small, electronic marijuana breathalyzer. The research is published in Organic Letters, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society. The legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in California and elsewhere have made marijuana detection especially important, said senior author Neil Garg, UCLA's Kenneth N. Trueblood Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and chair of UCLA's department of chemistry and biochemistry.

Chemical engineers take a step toward generating ammonia with small-scale, electrochemical reactors. Most of the world's fertilizer is produced in large manufacturing plants, which require huge amounts of energy to generate the high temperatures and pressures needed to combine nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia.

An oyster bed during low tide at Mystery Bay State Park on Marrowstone Island in Puget Sound. Julieta Martinelli/University of Washington Plastic pollution is an increasingly present threat to marine life and one which can potentially impact your dinner table. Oysters, and other economically valuable shellfish, filter their food from the water where they may also inadvertently capture tiny microplastics.

Two Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists have been elected into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. James Hurley, a faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division; and F. Dean Toste, a faculty scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, join 118 other U.S.-based scientists and engineers as new lifelong members.

At the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, researchers have gained insights into a promising material for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The substance enables high light yields and would be inexpensive to produce on a large scale - that means it is practically made for use in large-area room lighting.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are part of a national team in the Center for Sustainable Polymers that has found a better way to recycle a versatile plastic material, called polyurethanes, that could prevent the material from becoming waste. In the past, a few methods have attempted to recycle polyurethane waste, but these techniques result in a material of lower quality.

This release also appears on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory news site -By Melissae Fellet A new study is among the first to trace the molecular connections between genetics, the gut microbiome, and memory in a mouse model bred to resemble the diversity of the human population. While tantalizing links between the gut microbiome and brain have previously been found, a team of researchers from two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories found new evidence of tangible connections between the gut and the brain.

Neurobiologists at KU Leuven have discovered how the signalling molecule Neuromedin U plays a crucial role in our learning process. The protein allows the brain to recall negative memories and, as such, learn from the past. The findings of their study on roundworms have been published Communications.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide an effective way of supporting the development of the next generation of high-performance rechargeable batteries, according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The technique, which was developed to detect the movement and deposition of sodium metal ions within a sodium battery, will enable faster evaluation of new battery materials, and help to accelerate this type of battery's route to market.

Software LipidCreator enables researchers to characterise 60 lipid classes in cells with mass spectrometry Researchers increasingly aim at utilising the manifold functions of lipids in our bodies, e.g. as blood fats or in blood coagulation, to better understand and predict diseases. An international team around Robert Ahrends at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Vienna now presented a groundbreaking tool for efficient lipid analysis in the journal "Nature Communications".

In the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are racing to maintain quality care for patients with severe disease while facing a shortage of resources and limited understanding of the novel coronavirus.

In addition to high purchase costs and the still underdeveloped charging infrastructure, the limited range is one of the biggest obstacles to switching to electric vehicles. Industry and science are therefore working intensively on developing batteries with a higher energy density and making them suitable for series production.

Tar, the everyday material that seals seams in our roofs and driveways, has an unexpected and unappreciated complexity, according to an MIT research team: It might someday be useful as a raw material for a variety of high-tech devices including energy storage systems, thermally active coatings, and electronic sensors.

Nickel is supposed to herald a new age of superconductivity - but this is proving more difficult than expected. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) can now explain why. Last summer, a new age for high-temperature superconductivity was proclaimed - the nickel age. It was discovered that there are promising superconductors in a special class of materials, the so-called nickelates, which can conduct electric current without any resistance even at high temperatures.

Although organic plastics are not harmful to the environment themselves, toxic substances are often used during their synthesis. TU Wien shows - there is another way. Many materials that we use every day are not sustainable. Some are harmful to plants or animals, others contain rare elements that will not always be as readily available as they are today.

Researchers at McGill University have discovered a new, energy-efficient way to make key ingredients for the production of pharmaceuticals, polymers and fine chemicals. In findings published in Science in April 2020, the McGill chemists demonstrated the use of visible light to drive a palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reaction to produce acid chlorides, an important building block in the synthesis of esters, amides and ketones.

From next-gen smartphones to longer-range electric cars and an improved power grid, better batteries are driving tech innovation. And to push batteries beyond their present-day performance, researchers want to see "under the hood" to learn how the individual ingredients of battery materials behave beneath the surface.

Carbon nanotubes embedded in leaves detect chemical signals that are produced when a plant is damaged. MIT engineers have developed a way to closely track how plants respond to stresses such as injury, infection, and light damage, using sensors made of carbon nanotubes. These sensors can be embedded in plant leaves, where they report on hydrogen peroxide signaling waves.

Government officials are required to keep records, so that newspapers or other officials can investigate when things go wrong-but cells have no such procedure. Scientists trying to understand cancer, for example, have to piece together clues and invent tools to understand what happened. One such memo produced by cells that dissipates almost immediately is a molecule called nitric oxide, or NO.