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1 October 2014 The international Cassini mission has revealed that a giant, toxic cloud is hovering over the south pole of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, after the atmosphere has cooled in a dramatic fashion. Scientists analysing data from the mission found that this giant polar vortex contains frozen particles of the toxic compound hydrogen cyanide.

Discovery of "stable energetic embedding" of atoms and molecules within ice has wide-ranging environmental, scientific and defense implications Ice is ubiquitous in nature—found within terrestrial and astrophysical environments alike—and contains many atoms and molecules trapped inside. For example, ice beneath the world's oceans hosts a vast reservoir of greenhouse gases, which if released would have a profound effect on climate change.

Solar cells based on semiconducting composite plastics and carbon nanotubes is one of the most promising novel technology for producing inexpensive printed solar cells. Physicists at Umeå University have discovered that one can reduce the number of carbon nanotubes in the device by more than 100 times while maintaining exceptional ability to transport charges.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Vienna (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry) and the Medical University of Vienna (Institute for Cancer Research) has successfully developed a new strategy for reducing the often serious side effects of an important class of modern anticancer drugs (tyrosine kinase inhibitors).

Hunting from a distance of 27,000 light years, astronomers have discovered an unusual carbon-based molecule - one with a branched structure - contained within a giant gas cloud in interstellar space. Like finding a molecular needle in a cosmic haystack, astronomers have detected radio waves emitted by isopropyl cyanide.

The excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide that is driving global climate change could be harnessed into a renewable energy technology that would be a win for both the environment and the economy. That is the lure of artificial photosynthesis in which the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is used to produce clean, green and sustainable fuels.

"Diamond nanothreads" promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness greater than that of today's strongest nanotubes and polymers. The core of the nanothreads is a long, thin strand of carbon atoms arranged just like the fundamental unit of a diamond's structure - zig-zag "cyclohexane" rings of six carbon atoms bound together, in which each carbon is surrounded by others in the strong triangular-pyramid shape of a tetrahedron.

Neural stem cells - master cells that can develop into any type of nerve cell - are able to generate mini "first aid kits" and transfer them to immune cells, according to a study published today. It represents a significant advance in understanding the many levels of interaction between stem cells and the immune system, and a new molecular mechanism to explain how stem-cell therapy works.

By observing how hydrogen is absorbed into individual palladium nanocubes, Stanford materials scientists have detailed a key step in storing energy and information in nanomaterials. The work could inform research that leads to longer-lasting batteries or higher-capacity memory devices. The ideal energy or information storage system is one that can charge and discharge quickly, has a high capacity and can last forever.

New insights into the formation of calcium carbonate could lead to processes that trap atmospheric carbon dioxide and store it in rock. Found in seashells, pearls, marble, and chalk, calcium carbonate is one of the most important molecules on Earth. It is also the most abundant form of carbon on our planet.

Figuring out how blank slate stem cells decide which kind of cell they want to be when they grow up - a muscle cell, a bone cell, a neuron - has been no small task for science. Human pluripotent stem cells, the undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any of the 220 types of cells in the body, are influenced in the lab dish by the cocktail of chemical factors and proteins upon which they are grown and nurtured.

The way in which some cells alter their behaviour at the onset of osteoarthritis has been identified for the first time by researchers at the University of Liverpool. The trigger for arthritis is still to be fully defined, but it is known that injuries, obesity or old age can all increase the risk for arthritis, and lead to cells in the affected joint altering their behaviour.

04 Sep 2014 The current way of diagnosing type-2 diabetes using blood glucose levels needs to be urgently revised, research by scientists from The University of Manchester and King's College London suggests. The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE today (3 September), show the current method of diagnosis - using blood glucose levels - means patients are diagnosed too late so that their blood vessels may already be damaged.

From the people who brought us peptoid nanosheets that form at the interface between air and water, now come peptoid nanosheets that form at the interface between oil and water. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed peptoid nanosheets - two-dimensional biomimetic materials with customizable properties - that self-assemble at an oil-water interface.

Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria are key players in the natural nitrogen cycle on Earth and in biological wastewater treatment plants. For decades, these specialist bacteria were thought to depend on nitrite as their source of energy. An international team of scientists led by Holger Daims, a microbiologist at the University of Vienna, has now shown that nitrite-oxidizing bacteria can use hydrogen as an alternative source of energy.

A revolutionary new scientific method developed at the University of Leeds will improve the diversity of 'biologically active molecules', such as antibiotics and anti-cancer agents. The researchers, who report their findings online today , took their inspiration from evolution in nature. The research may uncover new pharmaceutical drugs that traditional methods would never have found.

Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark and Caltech have developed a new method for organizing molecules on the nanoscale. Inspired by techniques used for folding DNA origami-first invented by Paul Rothemund, a senior research associate in computation and neural systems in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech-the team, which includes Rothemund, has fabricated complicated shapes from DNA's close chemical cousin, RNA.

19 August 2014 Scientists at the University of Bristol's Cabot Institute have shown how changes in the Asian monsoon affected emissions of methane, a prominent greenhouse gas, from the Tibetan Plateau. The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled over the past century. This appears to be due to many factors, including leaks from gas wells, increased rice cultivation and the prominent role of ruminant animals in our dairy and meat industry.

A new technique which traps light at the nanoscale to enable real-time monitoring of individual molecules bending and flexing may aid in our understanding of how changes within a cell can lead to diseases such as cancer.

Experiencing diverse communities by hearing different languages at the park, on a bus or in the grocery store may make babies more open-minded in their social learning, a new study finds. While previous research has shown that direct interactions with parents and caregivers shape early cognitive development, the influence of the broader community beyond those direct experiences has not been as carefully examined.