Chemistry News - June 2009 Archives

Researchers find a quicker, cheaper way to sort isotopes (6/30/2009)

Isotopes, the atomic clues used to solve crimes, date ancient artifacts and identify chemicals ...> Full Article

First step to converting solar energy using 'artificial leaf' (6/30/2009)

Structure of artificial light harvesting antenna determined ...> Full Article

Waste water treatment plant mud used as 'green' fuel (6/29/2009)

Catalan scientists have shown that using mud from waste water treatment plants as a partial alternative fuel can enable cement factories to reduce their CO2 emissions and comply with the Kyoto Protocol, as well as posing no risk to human health and being profitable. These are the results of an environmental impact assessment. ...> Full Article

Scientists cage chemical demon (6/28/2009)

A Cambridge University-led research team has discovered a technique to safely handle and transport white phosphorous. ...> Full Article

Structural biology scores with protein snapshot (6/27/2009)

In a landmark technical achievement, investigators in the Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology have used nuclear magnetic resonance methods to determine the structure of the largest membrane-spanning protein to date.The group's ability to determine the NMR structure of the bacterial protein diacylglycerol kinase, reported in the June 26 issue of Science, suggests that similar methods can now be used to study the structures of other membrane proteins. ...> Full Article

Cells use import machinery to export their goods as well (6/26/2009)

Research suggests a new level of regulation for cellular export process by molecules previously assumed to be dedicated to import activities. ...> Full Article

Feather fibers fluff up hydrogen storage capacity (6/25/2009)

Scientists in Delaware say they have developed a new hydrogen storage method -- carbonized chicken feather fibers -- that can hold vast amounts of hydrogen, a promising but difficult to corral fuel source, and do it at a far lower cost than other hydrogen storage systems under consideration. ...> Full Article

A Canada-wide technology platform for mapping the human interactome (6/24/2009)

The Canada Foundation for Innovation announced the award of $9.16 million for the creation of a national technology platform aimed at mapping the human interactome. This national platform, headed by Dr. Benoit Coulombe, will not only provide Canadian researchers with new state-of-the-art equipment in proteomics, functional genomics and bioinformatics, but also bring together integrated infrastructure for deciphering the human interactome an expertise that, until now, has been spread in 12 universities across Canada. ...> Full Article

Researchers explore how cells reconcile mixed messages in decisions about growth (6/24/2009)

Findings have implications for tissue engineering, understanding of tumor development ...> Full Article

Researchers observe single protein dimers wavering between two symmetrically opposed structures (6/23/2009)

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute, the University of California, San Diego, and Ohio State University have used a very sensitive fluorescence technique to find that a bacterial protein thought to exist in one "natural" three-dimensional structure (shape), can actually twist itself into a second form, depending on the protein's chemical environment. One folded form is active and the other is inactive, but the protein can easily morph from one state to another. ...> Full Article

Important symbol of pollution is broken down by microbes (6/22/2009)

Immobilized microbes can break down potentially harmful phthalates, according to researchers in China, writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The microbes might be used to treat industrial waste water and so prevent these materials from entering the environment. ...> Full Article

Unlike rubber bands, molecular bonds may not break faster when pulled (6/22/2009)

From balloons to rubber bands, things always break faster when stretched. Or do they? University of Illinois scientists studying chemical bonds now have shown this isn't always the case, and their results may have profound implications for the stability of proteins to mechanical stress and the design of new high-tech polymers. ...> Full Article

Researchers find 'a touch of glass' in metal, settles century-old question (6/21/2009)

Scientists at NIST have found evidence of an important similarity between the behavior of polycrystalline materials -- like metals and ceramics -- and glasses, research that could lead to better predictions of how many valuable materials behave under stress. ...> Full Article

Scientists use high-pressure 'alchemy' to create nonexpanding metals (6/20/2009)

By squeezing a typical metal alloy at pressures hundreds of thousands of times greater than normal atmospheric pressure, scientists at the California Institute of Technology have created a material that does not expand when heated, as does nearly every normal metal, and acts like a metal with an entirely different chemical composition. ...> Full Article

Israeli scientists show bacteria can plan ahead (6/19/2009)

Israeli scientists have shown that microorganisms can "learn" through evolution to anticipate upcoming events and prepare for them. ...> Full Article

Cells are like robust computational systems, team reports (6/19/2009)

Gene regulatory networks in cell nuclei are similar to cloud computing networks, such as Google or Yahoo!, researchers report today in the online journal Molecular Systems Biology. The similarity is that each system keeps working despite the failure of individual components, whether they are master genes or computer processors. ...> Full Article

New fabricated material changes color instantly in response to external magnetic field (6/18/2009)

New mechanism for inducing color change in materials paves way for manufacturing rewritable color display units, environmentally friendly color paints ...> Full Article

Advance in understanding cellulose synthesis (6/18/2009)

Cellulose makes up plant cell walls, gives plants shape and form and is a target of renewable, plant-based biofuels research. But how it forms, and thus how it can be modified to design energy-rich crops, is not well understood. Now a study led by researchers at the Carnegie Institution has discovered that the underlying protein network that provides the scaffolding for cell-wall structure is also the traffic cop for delivering critical growth-promoting molecules where needed. ...> Full Article

Researchers slow concrete creep to a crawl (6/17/2009)

Work paves way for lightweight, vastly more durable infrastructure ...> Full Article

Extreme makeover chemistry style (6/17/2009)

Reaction remake could replace petrochemicals with biomass renewables ...> Full Article

A tiny frozen microbe may hold clues to extraterrestrial life (6/16/2009)

A novel bacterium trapped three km under glacial ice for over 120,000 years, may hold clues as to what life forms might exist on other planets. Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and a team from Pennsylvania State University reports finding Herminiimonas glaciei in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. ...> Full Article

Research team creates simple chemical system that mimics DNA (6/15/2009)

Findings offer possible clues about primordial world, and could eventually lead to exotic new materials ...> Full Article

New 'electronic glue' promises less expensive semiconductors (6/14/2009)

Researchers at the University of Chicago and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an "electronic glue" that could accelerate advances in semiconductor-based technologies, including solar cells and thermoelectric devices that convert sun light and waste heat, respectively, into useful electrical energy. ...> Full Article

The microbial hydrocarbon diet (6/13/2009)

Bioremediation of industrial sites and petrochemical spillages often involves finding microbes that can gorge themselves on the toxic chemicals. This leaves behind a non-toxic residue or mineralized material. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, researchers in China describe studies of a new microbe that can digest hydrocarbons. ...> Full Article

Bilayer graphene gets a bandgap (6/12/2009)

A tunable graphene bandgap opens the way to nanoelectronics and nanophotonics ...> Full Article

A new chemical element in the periodic table (6/11/2009)

The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. IUPAC furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element. Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table. ...> Full Article

Bacteria from the deep can clean up heavy metals (6/7/2009)

A novel species of bacteria, Brachybacterium strain Mn32A, isolated from Pacific Ocean sediments, could provide a powerful clean-up tool for heavy metal pollution. In the current issue of the journal Microbiology, Professor Gejiao Wang et al. from Wuhan, China, report that the bacterium was highly effective in oxidizing manganese and other heavy metals. ...> Full Article

New hull coatings for Navy ships cut fuel use, protect environment (6/6/2009)

New hull coatings being developed by the US Office of Naval Research are showing promise in reducing the build-up of marine crustaceans -- namely barnacles -- on ships' hulls, optimizing vessel performance and dramatically reducing fuel costs. ...> Full Article

New technology for safer solvents (6/5/2009)

A new facility that will revolutionize the industrial processes of electropolishing, metal oxide processing and electroplating -- the pioneering Ionics Liquid Demonstrator -- has been launched at the University of Leicester. ...> Full Article

Faster protein folding achieved through nanosecond pressure jump (6/3/2009)

A University of Illinois chemist says that prodding proteins to fold by suddenly removing high pressure (a technique also known as "pressure jumping") through electrical bursting makes for a "kindler, gentler way" of inducing proteins to fold. ...> Full Article