Appreciating the 3D structure of the tiny chemical compounds we work with can be really difficult – but what if you could project the structure onto your living room floor?
Making materials that are both soft and firm
Living tissues are mostly soft, but put them under a bit of stress, and they quickly become firm to prevent tissues from breaking. This property has been very difficult to imitate with synthetic tissues, but new research has finally bridged that gap.
How Does a Newly Approved Drug Inhibit the Novel Coronavirus?
The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become the worlds most significant public health challenge. Within days, the FDA is expected to announce the authorization of Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir to treat this disease. In this paper, Calvin Gordon and coauthors explore the biochemical mechanism of remdesivir, helping us understand why this drug, of all the antiviral drugs available to us, might be effective against the novel coronavirus.
Metal organic framework used to treat low-oxygen tumors
Cancerous tumors can often create areas of low oxygen concentration around them. This creates challenges for cancer treatments that rely on creating reactive oxygen species to damage tumor DNA. Research from the University of Chicago developed a metal-organic framework to help reverse hypoxia in cancerous tumors in mice.
Simple molecules for complicated diseases?
Alzheimer’s is an extremely complicated disease with limited treatment options. Researchers have recently designed some very simple molecules that may be able to help.
New Genetic Codes to Program Biology
Researchers show for the first time that “unnatural” codons can code for “unnatural” proteins within a cell. Organisms can now operate with both synthetic code and synthetic hardware!
How microbes fuse rings together
Researchers discover a new way fungi fuse rings together
Hopping from liquid to liquid or entering a sea of nanocrystals?
For some molecules, it’s not just gas, liquid, and solid. In these cases, careful characterization is required to determine if a liquid-liquid phase transition is occurring or nanocrystals are forming.
Want fluffy whole wheat bread? Use smaller flour particles
Chemists take a gander at how to make more appealing whole wheat loaves. For your COVID-19 baking needs and beyond!
Evolution of Medical Diagnosis with Sound Waves
Innovation in healthcare sector is important now more than ever. Let’s learn about how researchers used sound waves to develop a new technology for rapid, bed-side testing of haemoglobin.
Better Antibiotics: Active in the Body, Degraded in the Environment
Antibiotics are lifesaving, but current practices don’t keep them from accumulating in the environment where they can damage nature and human health. A new antibiotic design aims to solve this problem.
Expanding the Chemical Toolkit to Study Immune Cells
Their highly specialized roles of immune cells also mean they have molecular machineries that are a bit different from those in other cells, Find out here how researchers are using chemistry to advance our knowledge of one of such components, the immunoproteasome.
What a shock: material changes can impact charge
The amount of charging on an object changes when it is folded or unfolded.
Modifying Nature’s Biomachines: Putting Hats on Sperm Cells
Micromachines that can swim through the bloodstream could be a powerful tool to deliver essential medicine. But why design synthetic micromotors when one already exists in biology?
A New Way to Clean up Harmful Chemicals in Water
Researchers have developed a new technology that can remove harmful PFAS chemicals from water.
A color-changing band-aid for an ever-changing microworld
As infectious bacteria get more sophisticated in their survival strategies, it’s time our countermeasures did too.
Chemistry & COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is consuming our news feed at the moment – while you’re self-isolating read about some of the great science research going on to combat our newest virus.
Putting chemists out of business- the immunotherapy revolution
The development of chemotherapy revolutionised the treatment of cancer in the 20th century, however, side effects have remained problematic. Immunotherapy, using the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer, may be a safer and more effective alternative.
Bacteria surviving antibiotics by being phenotypically different from their moms and sisters
Bacteria evading antibiotics by behaving differently than their mother and sister cells
Expansion under pressure
Some materials expand when pressure is applied. A new member of this class of materials does so to an unprecedented extent, taking advantage of 3D rather than 2D design.
Make it green, make it bright!
Scientists craft a “greener,” copper-iodide-based ink with amazingly efficient photoluminescent properties
Tackling Diabetes with Nanoparticles
Diabetes Mellitus affects 8.5% of the world adult population and tackling it requires systematic dosing. Researchers have developed a unique NP that can substantially decrease the dosage of insulin and increase patient compliance.
Downstream Effects of Adding Hydrochar Nutrients to Soil
Thermochemical degradation of plant matter can create a great plant fertilizer called hydrochar. But what effect does this hydrochar have on the soil ecosystem?
Metal-Air Scavengers Powering Tiny Robots
The smaller the robot, the harder it is to carry a fuel source around. That’s where these metal-air scavengers come in. Powered by oxidizing a metal surface, they could be a useful power source for the tiny robots of the future.
A brain found in glass pieces
Archaeologists in Herculaneum, in the south of Italy, discovered a black, glassy material that turned out to be… a human brain.