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Forming perfect porous polymer films is not enough; they need both large and small pores, and the process of making them needs to be simple, versatile and repeatable. Creatively combining already established techniques, Cornell materials researchers have devised a so-called hierarchical porous polymer film synthesis method that may help make these materials useful for applications ranging from catalysis to bioengineering.

July 31, 2013 — Scientists at the University of Miami (UM) and Rice University have figured out how synthetic molecules designed at Rice latch onto the amyloid peptide fibrils thought to be responsible for Alzheimer's disease. Their discovery could point the way toward therapies to halt or even reverse the insidious disease.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a new stabilizing agent of atherosclerotic plaques. These findings have been published in Science Translational Medicine, and show how the immune system can improve the condition in blood vessels to help the body avoid heart attacks. Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease with accumulation of cholesterol in the vessel walls.

Using molecular simulations that modeled a potassium channel and its immediate cellular environment, atom for atom, UChicago scientists have discovered that just 12 molecules of water cause the long post-activation recovery period required by such ion channels before they can function again. The research has revealed a new mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure that will have broad implications, ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals.

University of Minnesota engineers discover novel technology for producing "electronic ink" MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (07/30/2013) —Electronic touch pads that cost just a few dollars and solar cells that cost the same as roof shingles are one step closer to reality today. Researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., have overcome technical hurdles in the quest for inexpensive, durable electronics and solar cells made with non-toxic chemicals.

Next generation screens could slash energy use in TVs, mobiles and tablet PCs following new research on molecules that emit and detect twisted light. Brightly lit displays are a big drain on the energy supplies of mobile devices. Current technologies, such as backlit LCD screens, produce text and images by streaming white light through a series of polarising and colour filters, a process that typically wastes over 75 per cent of the light.

Fluorescent tetrapod nanocrystals could light the way to the future design of stronger polymer nanocomposites. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed an advanced opto-mechanical sensing technique based on tetrapod quantum dots that allows precise measurement of the tensile  strength of polymer fibers with minimal impact on the fiber's mechanical properties.

Hookworms are a scourge of the world's poor, sucking blood from the intestines and causing anemia, lethargy, and developmental defects in nearly one billion people in developing countries. Hookworms, much smaller than a human hair, hatch in human feces, latch onto bare feet, travel to the blood stream and then to the lungs, where they are coughed up and swallowed.

The final biological events in the life of a worm have been described by scientists at UCL, revealing how death spreads like a wave from cell to cell until the whole organism is dead. Watch video When individual cells die, it triggers a chemical chain reaction that leads to the breakdown of cell components and a build-up of molecular debris.

Research from three Yale laboratories - in the fields of immunobiology, chemistry, and cardiology - could lead to new drugs to reduce complications during cardiac surgery or heart attacks. If they pan out in human trials, the drugs would limit the detrimental impact of ischemia-restriction of blood flow-thereby cutting the degree of damage to the heart.

A forest full of rabbits and foxes, a bubbling vat of chemical reactants, and complex biochemical circuitry within a cell are, to a computer, similar systems: Many scenarios can play out depending on a fixed set of rules and individual interactions that can't be precisely predicted - chemicals combining, genes triggering cascades of chemical pathways, or rabbits multiplying or getting eaten.

Catestatin-mimic pharmacophore model. Pharmacophore centers correspond to hydrophobic residues Leu5, Phe7, and Phe14; and positively charged residues Arg8, Arg10, and Arg15. Green circles represent hydrophobes and aromatic/hydrophobic features, while dark-blue circles represent NCN+ groups/cations/H-bond donors.

A team led by William Fenical at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered a new chemical compound from an ocean microbe in a preliminary research finding that could one day set the stage for new treatments for anthrax and other ailments such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Senses of smell and vision interact in the eye, Sussex researchers find New research by Sussex neuroscientists suggests that the interaction between smell and sight occurs not just in the brain, but starts in the eye. The study, carried out by Professor Leon Lagnado's research group in the School of Life Sciences and published in the journal Neuron , has furthered our understanding of how the senses interact with one another.

Fully understanding how cancer metastasizes, or moves from one place to another in the body, will save many lives. Cornell bioengineers are examining a critical step in the metastatic process using a microfluidic device that mimics the cancer cell microenvironment. Publishing online July 15 in PLOS One, a research group led by Mingming Wu, associate professor of biological and environmental engineering, has uncovered insights into how certain chemicals secreted by the body's immune system affect how breast cancer cells metastasize.

Scientists have found that key metabolites in blood - chemical 'fingerprints' left behind as a result of early molecular changes before birth or in infancy - could provide clues to a person's long-term overall health and rate of ageing in later life. Published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology , the study of twins led by King's College London highlights how a technique called metabolomic profiling has revealed a collection of 22 metabolites linked to ageing.

A breakthrough in our understanding of the properties of titania (titanium dioxide) - the basis of self-cleaning window technology - has been made by scientists at UCL, uncovering a decades old misunderstanding that has clouded our knowledge of how mixed phase titania catalysts operate. By carrying out cutting-edge computational simulations alongside precise experimental measurements of physical samples of the mineral, scientists at UCL found that the widely accepted explanation for how mixed phase titania catalysts operate was misguided.

A team of quantum physicists in Innsbruck led by Christian Roos and Cornelius Hempel have realised an extremely sensitive method for the spectroscopy of atomic and molecular atoms. This technique can be used to closely study a number of particles. The scientists have published their findings Photonics.

The genes that code for proteins-more than 20,000 in total-make up only about 1 percent of the complete human genome. That entire thing-not just the genes, but also genetic junk and all the rest, is coiled and folded up in any number of ways within the nucleus of each of our cells. Think, then, of the challenge that a protein or other molecule, like RNA, faces when searching through that material to locate a target gene.

The genes that code for proteins-more than 20,000 in total-make up only about 1 percent of the complete human genome. That entire thing-not just the genes, but also genetic junk and all the rest-is coiled and folded up in any number of ways within the nucleus of each of our cells. Think, then, of the challenge that a protein or other molecule, like RNA, faces when searching through that material to locate a target gene.