news

Discovery opens up applications beyond what biology is currently capable of - showcasing how we might engineer new technologies. Scientists have found a new use for copper in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent design, that could help to create better images which help doctors diagnose patients' conditions more easily and safely.

This AI system only needs a small amount of data to predict molecular properties, which could speed up drug discovery and material development. Discovering new materials and drugs typically involves a manual, trial-and-error process that can take decades and cost millions of dollars. To streamline this process, scientists often use machine learning to predict molecular properties and narrow down the molecules they need to synthesize and test in the lab.

Photocatalysis as the key / New strategy published in "Science" Most drugs on the market consist of cyclic (ring-shaped) molecules, many of which contain multiple rings. Developing simple and powerful methods for constructing important and novel ring systems remains a task and challenge for chemists in order to produce drugs more efficiently and also to enable new drug structure motifs.

New discoveries by Johns Hopkins researchers about mosquitoes' human scent preferences could lead to novel malaria interventions Mosquitoes always seem drawn to certain people, and theories have circulated over the years as to why-it's your soap, blood type, diet-but in the WHO African Region, which bears a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden, the question demands an answer.

Tubulins are the building blocks of microtubules, which make up the cell's skeleton. A new method enables the detailed study of their role in diseases, including cancer. Tubulin is a protein that plays a crucial role in the structure and function of cells. It is the main component of microtubules, which are long, hollow fibers that provide structural support, help the cell divide, give it its shape, and act as tracks for moving molecular cargo around inside the cell.

The images shed light on how electrons form superconducting pairs that glide through materials without friction. When your laptop or smartphone heats up, it's due to energy that's lost in translation. The same goes for power lines that transmit electricity between cities. In fact, around 10 percent of the generated energy is lost in the transmission of electricity.

New findings on photosynthesis Plants use photosynthesis to produce oxygen, nutrients and bioenergy. But this complex biochemical process is inefficient, with only a fraction of the sun's energy actually being utilized in photosynthesis. Researchers want to change this in order to help increase the yield of cultivated crops.

Until now, nylon has been produced from petroleum-based raw materials. However, this is quite harmful to the environment because non-renewable fossil resources are used, a great deal of energy is required, and climate-damaging nitrous oxide is emitted during production. A research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Leipzig University has now developed a process that can produce adipic acid, one of two building blocks of nylon, from phenol through electrochemical synthesis and the use of microorganisms.

Physicists from Heidelberg and Innsbruck develop technique for cooling negatively charged molecules Molecular anions, negatively charged molecules, are difficult to cool due to their specific electronic configuration. A team of physicists led by Matthias Weidemüller from Heidelberg University's Institute for Physics and Roland Wester from the Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) have now developed a new method for cooling molecular anions to below three Kelvin, i.e. approximately minus 270 degrees Celsius, in a short time.

With novel calculations TU/e researchers reveal new properties of supercooled liquids that could be used in efficient optical materials and recyclable plastics. When cooled to their freezing point, most liquids become solids or crystallize. In other words, the molecules arrange themselves in a perfectly ordered fashion, which physicists call a crystal.

The research group led by chemist Thomas Magauer has accomplsihed a divergent strategy to synthesize nine complex natural compounds. The developed method requires significantly less time and results in a variety of compounds with different structures and biological properties. Chemical synthesis enables the construction of complex molecules and active drug substances.

If you imagine yourself peering through a microscope, you probably picture looking at a glass slide with an amoeba, or maybe a human cell, or perhaps even a small insect of some kind. But microscopes can see much more than these small living things, and a new type of microscopy developed at Caltech is making it easier to see the very molecules that make up living things.

Photocatalytic process enables water to be activated Hydrogen is seen as an energy source of the future - at least, when it is produced in a climate-friendly way. Hydrogen can also be important for the production of active ingredients and other important substances. To produce hydrogen, water (H2O) can be converted into hydrogen gas (H2) by means of a series of chemical processes.

Thanks to a new technique for observing chemical reactions in liquids, UNIGE and ETH are shedding light on one of the hypotheses about the chemical origins of life. What processes led to the appearance of life on our planet? Some scientists believe that urea played a key role. After being enriched in warm puddles, this small molecule is thought to have been exposed to cosmic rays to produce malonic acid, the source of RNA and DNA.

According to new research shared in The Conversation, Dr Marjan Biria (UCL Psychiatry) and researchers from Cambridge University have discovered an imbalance in brain chemicals in OCD that could lead to radically different and improved treatments. People often jokingly say they've "got a bit of OCD" (obsessive-compulsive disorder) if they are overly organised or tidy.

International team of scientists including University of Michigan astronomers have used data collected by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect for the first time a molecule critical to forming planetary systems that can sustain life. The molecule, known as the methyl cation (CH3+), was detected in the protoplanetary disk, a disk of dust rotating around a central star from which planets may be built, surrounding a young star.

Research team with Göttingen University uses light to reversibly change the shape of red blood cells Membranes are crucial to the functioning of living cells: they separate the cells from the environment and protect them; they transport nutrients into the middle of the cell; and they are vital when cells grow together to form tissues, reproduce by division or move around.

Light-switchable molecules in membranes enable different forms of living cells to be studied Membranes fulfil a variety of tasks in living cells: for example, they separate the cells from their surroundings and thus protect them. Also, by means of transport proteins they convey the necessary nutrients to the interior.

News from Living organisms use powerful physical principles to control interactions at their surfaces. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Leipzig University and TU Dresden have now discovered why cholesterol-containing surfaces can exhibit greatly reduced attachment of proteins and bacteria.

A new speciation atlas helps researchers to get more accurate results and new discoveries. To unveil the previously elusive behavior and stability of complex metal compounds found in aqueous solutions called 'POMs', researchers at the University of Vienna have created a speciation atlas now published in Science Advances .