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Engineering researchers at the University of Toronto have developed the world's most efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on plastic. This result enables a flexible form factor, not to mention a less costly, alternative to traditional OLED manufacturing, which currently relies on rigid glass.

Genetic research at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) yields remarkable insights on mould fungi. This opens the door to the specialized use of fungi in agriculture. We know them from our garden, from damp cellars or from the fridge - mould fungi can be found almost everywhere. Their success is due to their remarkable versatility: depending on external conditions, they can choose quite different lifestyles.

Studying chemical modifications in the chromosomes of cells is akin to searching for changes in coiled spaghetti. Scientists at Cornell have figured out how to stretch out tangled strands of DNA from chromosomes, line them up and tag them to reflect different levels of modification - which could lead to insights into how these chemical processes affect human health.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found inborn traits in mice, which might explain why some individuals are more prone to develop anorexia/self starvation than others. A study showing that genetic defects in the cells power plant, the mitochondria, might cause the neurons in the feeding center of the brain to die, when they are exposed to starvation, is published today in the scientific journal PNAS.

The structure and function of a 'molecular motor' critical to the functioning of human organs and, when malfunctioning, implicated in cancer, kidney failure, and osteoporosis, has been revealed in unprecedented detail. An international team, led by chemists from Oxford University, has used highly sensitive mass-spectrometry to piece together a picture of how the motor, the energy-converting protein adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase, interacts with the fatty acids that form the membranes around our cells.

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage, the research has shown. The findings have implications for the treatment of infertility and recurrent miscarriage and could also lead to new contraceptives.

17 October 2011 When a new drug is developed, the manufacturer must be able to show that it reaches its intended goal in the body’s tissue, and only that goal. Such studies could be made easier with a new method now established at Lund University in Sweden. The method is a special type of mass spectrometry which can be used on drugs 'off the shelf', i.e. without any radioactive labelling which may change the behaviour of the drug.

It's no secret that long-distance, west-to-east air travel - Seattle to Paris, for example - can raise havoc with a person's sleep and waking patterns, and that the effects are substantially less pronounced when traveling in the opposite direction. Now researchers, including a University of Washington biologist, have found hints that differing molecular processes in an area of the brain known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus might play a significant role in those jet lag differences.

A team of researchers has overcome a major hurdle in the quest to design a specialized type of molecular sieve that could make the production of gasoline, plastics and various chemicals more cost effective and energy efficient. After more than a decade of research, the team devised a means for developing free-standing, ultra-thin zeolite nanosheets that as thin films can speed up the filtration process and require less energy.

The latest results from an expedition to Mount Everest that looked at the body's response to low oxygen levels suggest that drugs or procedures that promote the body's production of a chemical compound called nitric oxide (NO) could improve the recovery of critically ill patients in intensive care. Oxygen is required by all larger organisms, including humans, to survive.

The chemical reaction which makes some poisonous plants so deadly has been described by researchers at the University of Bristol in a paper published today in Angewandte Chemie. Professor Adrian Mulholland in the School of Chemistr y and colleagues successfully analyzed why a particular toxic product originating from sodium fluoroacetate (a colourless salt used as a rat poison) is formed in an enzyme.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. An Illinois research team has succeeded in overcoming one major obstacle to a promising technology that simultaneously reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide and produces fuel. University of Illinois chemical and biological engineering professor Paul Kenis and his research group joined forces with researchers at Dioxide Materials, a startup company, to produce a catalyst that improves artificial photosynthesis.

ESA finds that Venus has an ozone layer too ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has discovered an ozone layer high in the atmosphere of Venus. Comparing its properties with those of the equivalent layers on Earth and Mars will help astronomers refine their searches for life on other planets. Venus Express made the discovery while watching stars seen right at the edge of the planet set through its atmosphere.

The ground beneath your feet could hide a sleeping giant. Globally, soils store three times as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere or in living plants. Scientists don't know what will happen to this carbon in response to climate change. It could enter the atmosphere as CO2, a greenhouse gas, and further accelerate climate change.

The space between the stars in the Milky Way and all other galaxies is full of dust and gas, the raw materials from which stars and planets are made. But the dynamics of these galactic mosh pits, which are perhaps best known through the spectacular images from the Hubble Space Telescope of towering nebulas caught in the act of churning out stars, are still mysterious.

Oct. First comet found with ocean-like water ANN ARBOR, Mich.—New evidence supports the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans, which scientists believe formed about 8 million years after the planet itself. The findings, which involve a University of Michigan astronomer, are published Oct.

Researchers find recipe for "perfect plastic” Researchers have solved a long-standing problem that could revolutionise the way new plastics are developed. The breakthrough, involving researchers at Durham University and the University of Leeds, will allow experts to create the 'perfect plastic' with specific uses and properties by using a high-tech 'recipe book'.

Scientists have discovered how living organisms - including humans - avoid poisoning from carbon monoxide generated by natural cell processes. Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that can prove fatal at high concentrations; the gas is most commonly associated with faulty domestic heating systems and car fumes, and is often referred to as 'the silent killer'.

Gamers helped to solve the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules. After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus, they called in the Foldit players.

MIT-led research demonstrates method that could allow inexpensive carbon materials to store the volatile gas at room temperature. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Hydrogen has long been considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels for powering cars, trucks and even homes. But one major obstacle has been finding lightweight, robust and inexpensive ways of storing the gas, whose atoms are so tiny they can easily escape from many kinds of containers.