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Scientists at EPFL have developed PeSTo, an AI model for predicting protein binding interfaces with proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, ions, and small molecules with high confidence. The model's low computational cost enables the processing large amounts of structural data, opening up opportunities for discovering new biology.

More soot particles reach the central Amazon rainforest from brush fires in Africa than from regional fires at some times. Up to two-thirds of the soot over the central Amazon rainforest originates in Africa. This is the result of a study now published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.

Key Takeaways Scientists have engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals. The breakthrough offers sustainable alternatives to chemical manufacturing processes that typically rely on fossil fuels. This advance could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals.

A new discovery about the structure of melanin has brought scientists one step closer to developing a new, potentially ultra-protective sunscreen derived from a biological substance found in nearly all organisms. Researchers from McGill's Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with The Ohio State University and the University of Girona, have announced a major advance in understanding the fundamental structure of melanin and one of its components that turns light into heat, protecting the body from sun damage.

In the early 2000s, Uruguay experienced a crippling energy crisis. Lacking oil or natural gas reserves, the Uruguayan government realized that if the country were to become energy independent, it had to move forward with renewables. Today, more than 95% of Uruguay's electricity is generated from renewable sources, chiefly wind and hydropower.

Chemistry and physics, traditionally separate disciplines, are intermeshed in nano-technology The area where physics and chemistry meet lies somewhere in the realm of the minute - in the nano range: where molecules react with one another and the laws of quantum mechanics hold sway. This is the area which physicist Dr. Harry Mönig visualises at the Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech) - with an atomic force microscope and a dedicated technology perfected by himself and a Münster team.

Exact solutions are often impossible in materials physics. In an international research cooperation involving TU Wien and Saitama University in Japan a technique has now been developed to make unsolvable quantum calculations solvable on certain scales. In physics, one often has to deal with different scales that can be described separately from one another: For the earth's orbit around the sun, it makes absolutely no difference whether an elephant in the zoo walks to the left or to the right.

An international team of collaborators - including researchers from the University of Toronto and Huazhong University of Science and Technology - has created a catalyst that efficiently transforms carbon monoxide derived from captured carbon into acetic acid. By unlocking a new path to manufacture this key industrial chemical, which has a global market size of more than US$10 billion per year, the innovation could spur new investments into carbon capture and storage.

Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study published in "Science", a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Harvard University reconstructed bacterial genomes of previously unknown bacteria dating to the Pleistocene.

Scientists are rebuilding microbial natural products up to 100,000 years old using dental calculus of humans and Neanderthals Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study, a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and Harvard University reconstructed bacterial genomes of previously unknown bacteria dating to the Pleistocene.

Adapted from a news release by Ali Sundermier at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe.

Chlorinated paraffins, a class of toxic chemicals commonly used to soften plastic toys or make computer wires pliable, have been prohibited in Canada since 2013 due to their known health harm - but a new University of Toronto study found they remain prevalent in many everyday household objects.

Weizmann scientists revealed the step-by-step production of cannabinoids in a South African plant, pointing to new ways of manufacturing them for medical use A South African plant called a woolly umbrella is completely unrelated to the cannabis plant, yet it makes a slew of the active compounds found in cannabis - cannabinoids - including some that may have new medical uses.

A previously unknown form of hydrogel formation has been elucidated: chemists found unusual interactions between polymers. Hydrogels? Many people use these substances without knowing it. As superabsorbents in nappies, for example, hydrogels absorb a lot of liquid. In the process, the initially dry material becomes Jelly-like, but it does not wet.

For the first time, researchers from Institut Curie, the CNRS and Inserm have uncovered a previously unknown chain of biochemical reactions. This chain involves copper and leads to metabolic and epigenetic alterations that activate inflammation and tumorigenesis. But there is more; the research team developed a "drug prototype" capable of mitigating both the mechanisms of inflammation and the processes potentially involved in metastatic spread.

By Falko Schoklitsch The new and patented method for the production of the important mRNA vaccine component pseudouridine is more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective than the previously used chemical synthesis. Researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering at TU Graz and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) have developed a novel method for the production of central components of mRNA vaccines and applied for a patent.

Thanks to a novel combination of cryogenic transmission electron tomography and deep learning, researchers have provided a first look at the nanostructure of platinum catalyst layers, revealing how they could be optimized for fuel cell efficiency. Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), which are being developed for use in electric vehicles, rely on nanoparticles called catalysts to trigger electricity-producing reactions between hydrogen and oxygen.

It is not easy to make batteries cheap, efficient, durable, safe and environmentally friendly at the same time. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now succeeded in uniting all of these characteristics in zinc metal batteries. The world needs cheap and powerful batteries that can store sustainably produced electricity from wind or sunlight so that we can use it whenever we need it, even when it's dark outside or there's no wind blowing.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have created the heaviest Schrödinger cat to date by putting a crystal in a superposition of two oscillation states. Their results could lead to more robust quantum bits and help to explain why quantum superpositions are not observed in everyday life. Even if you are not a quantum physicist, you will most likely have heard of Schrödinger's famous cat.

Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From rowing the Atlantic, to uncovering how parasites move, here is some quick-read news from across the College. Endurance rowing In December 2022, a team including a PhD candidate in the Department of Bioengineering tested their endurance by rowing unsupported across the Atlantic.