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Chemists have discovered that an 'impossible' reaction at cold temperatures actually occurs with vigour, which could change our understanding of how alcohols are formed and destroyed in space. To explain the impossible, the researchers propose that a quantum mechanical phenomenon, known as ‘quantum tunnelling’, is revving up the chemical reaction.

Like an impossibly twisted telephone cord, DNA, the molecule that encodes genetic information, also often finds itself twisted into coils. This twisting, called supercoiling, is caused by enzymes that travel along DNA's helical groove and exert force and torque as they move. For the first time, these tiny torques have been measured in the lab of Michelle Wang, professor of physics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Researchers from McGill University, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Wako, Japan) and the Institute for Molecular Science (Okazaki, Japan) have discovered a way to make the widely used chemical process of hydrogenation more environmentally friendly - and less expensive. Hydrogenation is a chemical process used in a wide range of industrial applications, from food products, such as margarine, to petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

  For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis-the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules-first began.

Researchers from Vienna University of Technology have built a new interferometer for trapped, ultracold atomic gases. By strongly suppressing the quantum noise, which ultimately limits the performance of interferometers, they were able to curb the effect of atomic interactions, and increase the interrogation time of their interferometer.

Researchers have found a way to drive water droplets along a flat surface without applying heat, chemicals, electricity, or other forces: All that's required is varying the stiffness of the surface in the desired direction. The droplets, it turns out, prefer the soft spots.

Scientists have found a way to illuminate tiny bubbles which are used to track blood flow with medical imaging. In future such bubbles could also deliver targeted drugs in the body. Until now, researchers have been unable to accurately study the flexibility of microbubble shells, which are injected into the bloodstream as an aid to ultrasound imaging.

MIT biologists reveal how cells control the direction in which the genome is read. MIT biologists have discovered a mechanism that allows cells to read their own DNA in the correct direction and prevents them from copying most of the so-called "junk DNA" that makes up long stretches of our genome. Only about 15 percent of the human genome consists of protein-coding genes, but in recent years scientists have found that a surprising amount of the junk, or intergenic DNA, does get copied into RNA - the molecule that carries DNA's messages to the rest of the cell.

UAlberta researchers show that a simple glass surface can be made to repel oil underwater. University of Alberta mechanical engineering researchers have shown that a simple glass surface can be made to repel oil underwater. This has huge implications for development of a chemical repellent technology for use in cleaning up oil spills.

A team of researchers, led by academics at The University of Nottingham, has explained why the so-called 'jumping genes' found in most living organisms don't ultimately kill off their hosts, putting an end to a long-standing scientific mystery. The study reveals for the first time how the movement and duplication of segments of DNA known as transposons, is regulated.

Scientists have explained, for the first time, how transposition is regulated in the bodies of humans and other living organisms. This is an ingenious mechanism which prevents transposons from increasing and killing us. The process is very simple, but it explains so much. Karen Lipkow A team of researchers has explained why the so-called "jumping genes" found in most living organisms don't ultimately kill off their hosts, putting an end to a long-standing scientific mystery.

Sacramento - Reductions in emissions of black carbon since the late 1980s, mostly from diesel engines as a result of air quality programs, have resulted in a measurable reduction of concentrations of global warming pollutants in the atmosphere, according to a first-of-its-kind study examining the impact of black carbon on California's climate.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shed new light on how diving mammals, such as the sperm whale, have evolved to survive for long periods underwater without breathing. The team identified a distinctive molecular signature of the oxygen-binding protein myoglobin in the sperm whale and other diving mammals, which allowed them to trace the evolution of the muscle oxygen stores in more than 100 mammalian species, including their fossil ancestors.

Latest research uses membrane technology for 'energy efficient' gas separation - a crucial part of many major industrial processes and important focus for increased sustainability in global energy production.

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology quantum mechanically couple atoms to glass fiber cables. Now, they have shown that their technique enables storage of quantum information over a sufficiently long period of time to realize global quantum networks based on optical fibers. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology quantum mechanically couple atoms to glass fiber cables.

12 Jun 2013 The first complete chemical analysis of feathers from Archaeopteryx, a famous fossil linking dinosaurs and birds, reveals that the feathers of this early bird were patterned - light in colour, with a dark edge and tip to the feather - rather than all black, as previously thought. The findings came from X-ray experiments by a team from The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Researchers from the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University have discovered how hearing loss in humans is caused by a certain genetic mutation. A novel genetic mutation was first identified in 2010 as causing hearing loss in humans.

Catalysts can stop working when atoms on the surface start moving. At the Vienna University of Technology, this dance of the atoms could now be observed and explained. Lone people standing in a ballroom don't tend to move a lot. It's only when they find a suitable dance partner that rapid motion sets in.

Tiny crystals, probed with a device called a resonant ultrasound spectrometer, are helping solve the long-time mystery of "pseudogap behavior" in copper oxide superconductors. News flash: The pseudogap is indeed a phase of matter.

Stanford scientists have developed inexpensive silicon-based electrodes that dramatically improve the charge storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries. Stanford University scientists have dramatically improved the performance of lithium-ion batteries by creating novel electrodes made of silicon and conducting polymer hydrogel, a spongy substance similar to the material used in soft lenses and other household products.