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Leopard-spotted deposits in fossilized mud on Mars may have been left behind by living organisms. But to be absolutely sure, we need to bring the samples down to Earth, researchers from DTU and NASA write in the scientific journal Nature. For five years, NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has been driving around the red planet with equipment from DTU on board.

Silane is detected in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf, a celestial body halfway between a star and a planet, an international team of astronomers finds. Several brown dwarfs - celestial objects whose mass lies somewhere between that of stars and planets - are being studied closely with the James Webb Space Telescope, and in one of them, a previously undetected molecule has now come to light.

Researchers have developed a material that can sense tiny changes within the body, such as during an arthritis flare-up, and release drugs exactly where and when they are needed. The squishy material can be loaded with anti-inflammatory drugs that are released in response to small changes in pH in the body.

McGill researchers' method for standardizing samples will help toxicologists better understand the pollutants' harmful effects McGill researchers have developed a novel method to replicate four types of microplastics commonly found in the environment, providing researchers with a standardized approach to study their toxic effects.

An international team of researchers from the University of Luxembourg, Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), and Google DeepMind has developed a new machine learning model capable of simulating a wide variety of molecular systems - for example, large and complex biological molecules - with quantum-mechanical accuracy.

For the first time, chemists at ETH Zurich have successfully used extremely short, rotating flashes of light to measure and manipulate the different movements of electrons in mirror-image molecules. They showed that chirality of molecules is not just a structural but also an electronic phenomenon. We have all been familiar since childhood with the fact that our left and right hands are identical in structure but not in shape.

A salt called guanidinium thiocyanate can improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells, a new class of semiconductor that could make solar power cheaper and more powerful, according to researchers at UCL. In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society , the team showed that guanidinium thiocyanate can slow and control the way perovskite crystals form during fabrication, creating smoother and more uniform layers.

Chemists at UCL have shown how two of biology's most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and amino acids, could have spontaneously joined together at the origin of life four billion years ago. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, the "workhorses" of life essential to nearly every living process.

McGill researchers studying printed stickers on packaged food find some chemicals now used instead of bisphenol A can disrupt human ovarian cell function, and warn that 'BPA-free' does not necessarily mean safe Chemicals used to replace bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging can trigger potentially harmful effects in human ovarian cells, according to McGill researchers.

A research team from the University of Basel has developed a new molecule modeled on plant photosynthesis: under the influence of light, it stores two positive and two negative charges at the same time. The aim is to convert sunlight into carbon-neutral fuels. Plants use the energy of sunlight to convert CO2 into energy-rich sugar molecules.

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in binding organic porphyrin molecules with functional metal centers to a graphene nanoribbon with atomic precision. The resulting hybrid system is magnetically and electronically coupled, paving the way for a wide range of applications in molecular electronics, from chemical sensing to quantum technologies.

Like bees to honey, a Schulich School of Engineering research team is quickly finding its way to developing a powerful new sensor for tiny amounts of airborne chemicals. And they are doing it with inspiration from Mother Nature. The team's nanoscale technology detects molecules in the air by mimicking how insects and animals track scents, down to just 100 parts per billion (ppb), far more sensitive than the human nose, which typically only detects scents at parts per million (ppm).

Following a scientific publication to which several members of the High Field NMR Centre in Lyon contributed, namely Andrew J. Pell, lecturer-researcher (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Claude Bernard Univer

When a research team reached the bottom of a deep-sea trench, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by thousands of unusual animals thriving in the cold, dark deep. "This shows how much more can be discovered when diving with a submersible and directly observing the seabed, rather than only bringing up samples 'blindly'," says deep-sea researcher Ronnie N. Glud, co-author of a new article published in Nature ( find it here ) .

Perovskite's optical and electronic properties could be applied to solar cells, LEDs and semiconductors Perovskite is a rising star in the field of materials science. The mineral is a cheaper, more efficient alternative to existing photovoltaic materials like silicon, a semiconductor used in solar cells.

Scientists reveal simple way to test for life on Mars using kit already on the Curiosity rover A PhD candidate and his supervisor have developed a simple way for testing for active life on Mars and other planets using equipment already on the Mars Curiosity rover and planned for future use on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover.

Researchers from the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) at Radboud University have found a new way to study what happens when ammonia and hydrogen molecules collide at very low temperatures, around 1 kelvin, which is similar to the temperature in space. The experiment shows how ammonia and hydrogen molecules behave in extreme cold environments.

ISOTOPES Medicines have a unique chemical fingerprint, according to a new study from the University of Copenhagen. Researchers say this knowledge can be used to trace counterfeit or stolen medicine. That's how many packages of illegal medicines EU agencies confiscated during an eight-month operation in 2024.

Researchers at a Scottish university have found a new way to remove a common pollutant from water using controlled waves of ultrasound, without the use of additional chemicals. The system, developed by chemists from the University of Glasgow, can scrub up to 94% of the traces of Bisphenol A (BPA) from samples of contaminated water by using ultrasound to create conditions similar to the surface of the sun in bubbles of contaminated water.

Researchers working within the Cluster of Excellence "Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat)," have uncovered how bacteria use two nickel-containing enzymes to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide CO2 into energy-rich organic compounds In two studies that have just been published in the journal Nature Catalysis , the research teams show how the two nickel-containing enzymes carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) and acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS) transform CO2 into activated acetic acid.