Supplying safe drinking water to the world’s population remains a persistent challenge. In a new paper, researchers have developed a simple distillation device made of paper that can turn seawater into fresh drinking water using just the heat from the sun.
The human gut microbiome is essential for digestion and nutrient absorption. With industrialisation having dramatically changed the way we eat, what effects has this had on our intestinal flora?
Rather than storing data in binary code, could polymers be used to encode data in hexadecimal?
Simulations assisted by Quantum computers are the future. They could provide highly accurate and fast solutions to problems considered intractable for most powerful classical computers.
BlackChemistsWeek features discussions on critical scientific and social issues, including DEI, STEM education, and intersectionality.
In organic chemistry, once your reaction is over you generally “work-up” the mixture. But what happens if the work-up changes the outcome?
Carbon dioxide and biomass combinations can reduce the carbon emissions of polyurethane production, but has negative effects on other environmental parameters.
Distinguishing sulfation from phosphorylation
Although many repurposed drugs entered trials against COVID-19 in the past year and a half, only one drug has been proven to be efficacious. What happened?
If your DNA is a cookbook of “recipes” your cells could make, microRNAs help decide what’s for dinner.
Birds have a unique way of creating color in their wings and this is how they have become so colorful.
How scientists figure out what enzymes to study
Towards enzymatic bioremediation of oil spills
Finding new antibiotics is difficult. Synthesising those new antibiotics can be just as hard, and sometimes is takes a long time to find a good approach. And sometimes the most important step in synthesis optimisation is characterising your side-products.
In diabetics, insulin production is reduced as a protease inactivates GLP1 responsible for insulin production. Administration of GLP1 could help, but it needs to be altered to sneak past the protease.
The antibiotics we take are beginning to build up in the environment. Researchers are beginning to look into different ways of removing those antibiotics, and subsequently reducing the harm to our environment, with varying degrees of success.
Binding of the spike protein is essential for the immune response generated from many COVID-19 vaccines. Mutations on this protein may pose a threat to the efficacy and reliability of our current vaccination strategies.
Amino acids found on meteorites may have seeded the beginnings of life on Earth, but where do they come from? Based on their isotopic signatures, they may have come from interstellar space.
Your blood is made up of many different proteins, and the concentrations of these proteins are different in healthy individuals and cancer patients. By exploiting these differences, researchers have developed a new method for diagnosing lung cancer using just a simple blood test.
Using nanofibers to create biosensors decreases cost and wrapping them in graphene increases their conductivity.
Cataloguing viruses in bats and other animals may help predict or trace viral transmission to humans in the future.
What technology is currently in use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? What technologies lie ahead to help us catch up to our emissions?
Two proteins in the surface of GAS bacterium are able to bind to damaged collagen. Thus facilitating the infection of this pathogen in wounds.
Microphysical properties of droplets and their possible implications on SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Title: Organophosphate Diesters in Urban River Sediment from SouthChina: Call for More Research on Their Occurrence and Fate in FieldEnvironment Authors: Chan Liang, Bo Peng, Gao-Ling Wei, Yanyan Gong, Guoqiang Liu, Lixi Zeng, Liang-Ying Liu, and Eddy Y. Zeng Journal: ACS EST Water 2021, 1, 4, 871–880 Organophosphate triesters are used as flame retardants, as well as…