Nanocomposites bring together the fields of polymers and nanoparticles. A new technique to synthesize them gives researchers more control over their formation
Controversial Mushrooms Can Be Useful After All
With a renewed interest in psilocybin — the psychedelic substance present in magic mushrooms — by the medical community, the Weng group at MIT sets up to study one of the enzymes that makes it.
Trapping air pollution with artificial spiderwebs
Filters are one of the best ways to trap and remove pollution and small particles from the air. Let’s learn how spiderweb-like networks can be made from polymer into incredible filters.
Development of Sensors for Amino Acids
Researchers develop an easy to use method to identify the chirality of the amino acids, amines and alcohols.
Edible microorganism: the food of the future?
A group from the University of Tübingen obtained single-cell proteins with circular resources and renewable energy.
What’s blacker than black?
There’s a new record holder for the world’s blackest material. Learn about how randomly oriented carbon nanotubes can be used to create a coating darker than anything else ever made!
“Uncorking” a Mini Machine
Scientists discover a novel mechanism for taking apart tiny machines
Enzymes Get Closer to Traditional Organic Chemistry – The Case of Reductive Amination
A clever, two-part biocatalytic strategy grants access to products of reductive amination that can be troublesome to obtain through more traditional synthetic methods.
Draw your own circuits with liquid metal
Electrical circuits can be drawn, erased, and redrawn with ease on this new material that uses liquid metal particles suspended in a polymer network. Check out how it’s made and its potential uses in flexible electronics!
Delicious diagnosis – real-time glucose analysis straight from your gut
Scientists from UCSD and Compultense University developed non-invasive tools to measure gastrointestinal distress, monitoring chemical markers in real-time.
Using Aerogel to Harness the Greenhouse Effect for Good
Switching to solar energy is one of the ways we can fight against climate change. Let’s learn how something as harmful as the greenhouse effect can be used to create better solar devices!
A new photovoltaic panel that produces clean water
A research team in Saudi Arabia developed solar panels that clean the sea water whilst producing electricity.
Smelling chemicals with an artificial nose
Nothing compares to a well-trained dog’s nose for smelling out faint odors. But a new artificial nose made with living cells may come close!
Scientists Are Now Shooting Lasers at Historic Art
What do lasers and the Mona Lisa have in common? Well, it turns out scientists can use lasers to help save old paintings from degrading, preserving our masterpieces for future generations. Pump-probe microscopy is one such technique.
Is that molecule moving?
Scientists can now observe molecules vibrating
Manipulating actinomycetes for unusual antibiotics
Scientists genetically modify bacteria to overproduce uncommon antibiotics, revealing information on how bacteria regulate and modify its metabolites.
Fishing for bacteria with gold and DNA
What happens when you bring DNA strands, gold nanoparticles, conformation-induced color changes, and a highly-intrusive bacterium together? A field-portable, inexpensive test for the world’s greatest bacterial threats.
New Materials to Recover Gold from Recycled Electronics
Gold is one of the most important metals since it’s used in electronics. Let’s learn from Charlie about a new material than can help recycle gold from discarded devices!
Did life come from the depths of the ocean?
Amino acids were found in the Atlantis Massif, under the ocean floor. Is their non-biological synthesis the origin of life?
Ancient biochemistry—your four billion year old ribosome!
Four billion years ago the Earth cooled, cyanobacteria gave us our oxygen-rich atmosphere, and your ribosomes started synthesizing proteins!
Stay young with Zinc!
We might have heard that antioxidants are good for our health. They help us to fight against oxidizing agents in our body and help us to stay young!
Recently, researchers have made a new breakthrough to help us fight against the oxides even with the inactive zinc!
Making New Batteries Using Burnt Plants
We use lithium-ion batteries in our electronics every day, but getting the materials to build them isn’t very environmentally friendly. Let’s learn about a new way to recover one of these materials from burnt plants!
The influence of one water molecule on the gas-phase structure of triglycine
Can one water molecule change the conformation of a peptide? Vibrational spectroscopy in the gas-phase is the perfect technique to answer this question.
Antibacterial Screening In Live Cells: In Search Of Life-Saving Drugs
Just as interesting as the detail of how the antibacterial molecules works can be the new methods by which they are discovered. Today’s Chembite is about the development of antibacterial agents in the fight against an infectious bacterium.
Using Machine Learning to Discover New Fluorescent Proteins
Fluorescent proteins are incredibly useful for exploring the inside of living cells. Let’s learn about a new way to find better-performing proteins using machine learning!