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Testing method can analyze blood samples twice as quickly as other techniques University of Waterloo researchers have developed a new blood testing method that can detect potent opioids much faster than traditional approaches and potentially save lives. The method, the latest effort by Waterloo researchers and entrepreneurs to lead health innovation in Canada, can simultaneously analyze 96 blood samples that could contain opioids such as fentanyl in under three minutes - twice as quickly as other techniques.

Felix H. Schacher, Dr Purushottam Poudel, Dr Sarah Walden & Isabelle Staude (l.t.r. Combining Two Established Systems to Create Something New "Both meta-surfaces and light-switchable polymers have been known in principle for decades," explains Sarah Walden from the Institute of Solid State Physics, who now leads a research group in Australia.

What is a lipid membrane? Lipid membranes are ubiquitous structures in the cells of all unicellular and multicellular organisms. Take, for example, the cell wall, also known as the plasma membrane, whose function is to separate the inside of the cell from the outside: in a way, it's the cell's armor.

Yale researchers have developed a novel approach to synthesize a highly complex group of molecules found in marine invertebrates. Nearly 30 years ago, scientists discovered a unique class of anticancer molecules in a family of bryozoans, a phylum of marine invertebrates found in tropical waters. The chemical structures of these molecules, which consist of a dense, highly complex knot of oxidized rings and nitrogen atoms, has attracted the interest of organic chemists worldwide, who aimed to recreate these structures from scratch in the laboratory.

Novel chemical analysis by a Johns Hopkins-led team provides insight into safety of Maryland-grown greens Kale fans can rest easy knowing pesticides used to grow the hearty greens are unlikely to end up in their salads or smoothies, a new chemical analysis of the superfood suggests. Conducting novel tests that provide the most complete picture to date of a crop's chemical makeup, the Johns Hopkins-led team found several pesticides and compounds in Maryland-farmed kale-but no cause for alarm.

Biomolecules such as amino acids and sugars occur in two mirror-image forms - in all living organisms, however, only one is ever found. Why this is the case is still unclear. Researchers at Empa and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have now found evidence that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields could be at the origin of this phenomenon.

Artificial intelligence and automated laboratory infrastructure are massively accelerating the development of new chemical catalysts. With these tools, researchers at ETH Zurich are developing catalysts for efficiently and cost-effectively synthesising the energy source methanol from CO2. Catalysts are chemistry's hard-working little helpers.

Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Riga Technical University and the MESA+ Institute at the University of Twente have succeeded in arranging very small particles (10 µm to 500 nm, 10 to 100 times thinner than a human hair) in a thin layer without using solvents.

University of Bonn chemists invent technique for producing variants of natural substances To synthesize potential drugs or natural products, you need natural substances in specific mirror-image variants and with a high degree of purity. For the first time, chemists at the University of Bonn have succeeded in producing all'eight possible variants of polypropionate building blocks from a single starting material in a relatively straightforward process.

Delft researchers are developing batteries that can charge faster, offer more stable storage and are made of sustainable materials that are widely available. In doing so, they offer a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion batteries that consist of rare materials and have a high CO2-footprint. A paper was recently published in Nature Energy by Marnix Wagemaker and Alexandros Vasileiadis in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on fast-charging Na-ion batteries and improvements made to the negative electrode.

Research team at Göttingen University develops environmentally friendly iron catalysis using light as an energy source A research team at the University of Göttingen has discovered an innovative strategy in chemical synthesis that combines iron-mediated carbon-hydrogen bond conversion with the concept of photocatalysis.

Researchers partner with industry to advance innovation in decarbonization By Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering In the quest to reach zero emissions by 2050, Waterloo engineering researcher Dr. Xianguo Li and Dr. Samaneh Shahgaldi from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) are working with industry partners to develop more efficient, durable, cost-effective fuel cells.

Scientists have developed a new method to measure and remove sulfate from water, potentially leading to cleaner waterways and more effective nuclear waste treatments. A collaborative team from The University of Queensland and Xiamen University in China has designed a cage-like molecule to trap sulfate, a naturally occurring ion, in water.

Applying a small voltage to a catalyst can increase the rates of reactions used in petrochemical processing, pharmaceutical manufacture, and many other processes. A simple technique that uses small amounts of energy could boost the efficiency of some key chemical processing reactions, by up to a factor of 100,000, MIT researchers report.

In an experiment akin to stop-motion photography, an international team of scientists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron in a sample of liquid water - while "freezing" the motion of the much larger atom it orbits. The finding reveals the immediate response of an electron when hit with an X-ray, an essential step in understanding the effects of radiation exposure on objects and people.

Researchers can engineer cells to express new genes and produce specific proteins, giving the cells new parts to work with. But, it's much harder to provide cells with instructions on how to organize and use those new parts. Now, new tools from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers offer an innovative way around this problem.

The 'ten electron rule' provides guidance for the design of single-atom alloy catalysts for targeted chemical reactions. A collaborative team from three British universities and from Humboldt-Universität have discovered a very simple rule to design single-atom alloy catalysts for chemical reactions.

Researchers see detergent residues as the cause Industrially produced orange juice sometimes smells unpleasantly of cloves. A research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now solved the mystery surrounding this undesirable off-odor.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has discovered a major cause for a drop in nighttime pollinator activity - and people are largely to blame. The researchers found that nitrate radicals (NO3) in the air degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that nighttime pollinators rely on to locate the flower.

Chemists at UdeM explain how molecular systems at the origin of life may have evolved, a development that could lead to new and improved nanosystems. By attaching molecules together, scientists at Université de Montréal think they've found how molecular systems at the origin of life evolved to create complex self-regulating functions.