http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A newly synthesized material might provide a dramatically improved method for separating the highest-octane components of gasoline. Measurements at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have clarified why. The research team, which included scientists from NIST and several other universities, has published its findings in the journal Science. http://phys.org/news288538951.html Chemistry Thu, 23 May 2013 14:42:40 EST news288538951 (Phys.org) —3D structures of biological molecules like proteins directly affect the way they behave in our bodies. EPFL scientists have developed a new infrared-UV laser method to more accurately determine the structure of proteins containing thousands of atoms. http://phys.org/news287642915.html Chemistry Mon, 13 May 2013 05:50:07 EST news287642915 (Phys.org) —How does one separate a mixture of components with very similar properties? In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Croatian researchers have introduced a new approach to the separation of organic compounds. In their process, a "host compound" recognizes the desired "guest molecules", not only in solution, but also when the host and mixtures of competitive guest are milled together in the solid state. For the separation of maleic acid, this recognition through mechanochemistry delivers selectivity equal to that achieved by crystallization from a solution. http://phys.org/news286791137.html Chemistry Fri, 03 May 2013 09:13:37 EST news286791137 The endoplasmic reticulum of cells provides a pivotal quality-control system that eliminates improperly folded, or misfolded, glycoproteins, such as antibodies and hormones. The UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glycotransferase (UGGT) enzyme is central to this system: it binds to incompletely folded proteins and facilitates biochemical reactions that lead to their proper folding. However, the rules governing UGGT's reactivity remain unclear. Now, a synthetic approach is available for biochemists to relate this reactivity with protein folding. The method, which produces a series of intentionally misfolded glycoproteins to probe UGGT's selectivity, was developed by a team led by Yasuhiro Kajihara of Osaka University, working with the Japan Science and Technology Agency's ERATO Glycotrilogy Project, directed by Yukishige Ito of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, Japan. http://phys.org/news268470371.html Chemistry Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:40:02 EST news268470371 Nanotechnologists are control freaks. They want to exploit the properties of materials at the ultimate level - the atoms. http://phys.org/news258886244.html Nanotechnology Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:51:49 EST news258886244 (PhysOrg.com) -- Surprisingly, hydrogen cyanide and its far more energetic isomer, hydrogen isocyanide, are present in almost equal amounts in cold interstellar gas clouds. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics have succeeded in explaining how this happens through experiments carried out in the Heidelberg ion storage ring. During interstellar synthesis hydrogen cyanide forms as a hot hybrid from which the two isomers evolve in about equal quantities. http://phys.org/news247129455.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:05:01 EST news247129455 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have a good overall understanding of human vision: when light enters our eyes, it is focused by the lens and strikes the retina in the back of the eye. The light causes some of the millions of photoreceptor cells that line the retina to undergo a chemical change, which send a message through the optic nerve fiber to the brain, which creates a picture. However, there are still a few unresolved questions in the details of the vision process, one of which is why the eye evolved to use a certain light-absorbing chromophore called 11-cis-retinal instead of one of its isomers (i.e., molecules with the same atoms but in different arrangements), such as 7-cis, 9-cis, or 13-cis. http://phys.org/news240735271.html Chemistry Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:00:02 EST news240735271