Inspired by nature, researchers at MIT have printed the soil bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, into polymer gels to create a living material with the ability to heal wounds and eliminate the highly infectious bacteria Staphylococcus Aureas. Check it out!
Category: Research Bites
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.
Chemistry of Photography: How Veiled Photographs are Made
Mordançage is a photography technique that has been used by artists for decades, but only recently have researchers discovered the chemistry behind the process.
How Long Do Nanoparticles Stay in the Body?
As nanotechnology is developed into drugs for human health, scientists need to study nanoparticle clearance rates from the body.
Something in the Air: Collecting Fresh Water from the Atmosphere
Water capture technology has made collecting water from the air a reality, but dry climates have always posed a challenge. New research takes us a step closer to providing fresh water in some of the driest places on Earth.
How to survive and thrive in sub-freezing temperatures
Water is one of life’s most essential substances; here, we look at some methods researchers are using to control the properties of water under extreme conditions.
How a Small, Organic Molecule Reigns in the Immune System
A Chinese research group has employed a chemical proteomic strategy to determine the mechanism of action of the anti-inflammatory molecule itaconate. Itaconate non-enzymatically modifies cellular proteins in order to modulate their activity, leading to a reduction in the activation of immune cells, which could pave the way to an autoimmune therapy.
Seeking inspiration from nature to treat opioid addiction
Researchers have looked at the biosynthetic pathways in plants to help them synthesise the potential anti-addiction agents ibogaine and voacangine.
Capturing Water Out of the Air
These researchers have developed a technology to pull water out of air in dry climates.
Peering inside the cell
Everyday your cells are working overtime to keep you functioning. Learn how these researchers developed a new technique to peer through the crowded cell and study one individual protein.
Development of Sensors for Amino Acids
Researchers develop an easy to use method to identify the chirality of the amino acids, amines and alcohols.
Detergents are for more than washing dishes
Studying membrane-bound proteins requires stabilizing their structure outside of the membrane – otherwise they fall apart. But our analytical techniques have not risen to the challenge. Sadaf et al. pushes us forward by developing novel detergents for stabilizing membrane proteins.
Discovering new microbial biosynthetic logic
Ting and coworkers discover a microbial compound made by recycling a peptide.
Edible microorganism: the food of the future?
A group from the University of Tübingen obtained single-cell proteins with circular resources and renewable energy.
A fifty-year-old question about molecular structure answered with a picture
What does a ring of 18 carbon atoms look like? An atomic scale image settles the debate.
What simple molecules might have reacted to create life?
Researchers have discovered that two molecules, HCN and H2O, could have reacted to create the building blocks for life.
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.
The Smell of Success
Although skunks are nocturnal animals that prefer their own company, they won’t hesitate to spray potential predators, people or pets with fluid from their anal glands. For many years, these anal secretions have fascinated natural products chemists but repelled most of the rest of us. Learn about a new way to “de-skunk” from researchers at the University of Oklahoma.
More than just our genetic code: how chemical modifications affect gene expression
DNA is the instruction manual for how to produce an organism, one gene at a time. But our heart cells, liver cells, and brain cells are different, despite having the same DNA, thanks in part to the “epigenetic” modifications that control which genes are expressed.
Are Nanoparticles Getting Into Your Cells?
Scientists want to use nanoparticles to deliver drugs straight to where they’re needed in your body – but can the nanoparticles enter the right cells? A new model describes how to design nanoparticles that get to where they’re needed.
“Invisible Ink” Nanoparticle Fingerprint Paper
A more secure way to collect biometric data: this nanoparticle-based paper uses your sweat as an “invisible ink” for fingerprints!
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!
Development of new tools for single RNA imaging
Detection of movement of single RNA within live cell was achieved using Quantum Dot Nanobeacons.