Plant-derived scavengers prowl the body for nerve toxins

The brain is forever chattering to itself, via electrical impulses sent along its hard-wired neuronal "Ethernet." These e-messages are translated into chemical transmissions, allowing communication across the narrow cleft ...

Poison control: Chasing the antidote

Pick your poison. It can be deadly for good reasons such as protecting crops from harmful insects or fighting parasite infection as medicine—or for evil as a weapon for bioterrorism. Or, in extremely diluted amounts, it ...

New research creates neutralizing sponge for dangerous chemicals

Dr. Simon Holder, Reader in Organic Chemistry at the University of Kent (UK) and Dr. Barry Blight, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of New Brunswick (Canada), have developed a new method for containing and ...

Catalyst renders nerve agents harmless

A team of scientists including researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has studied a catalyst that decomposes nerve agents, eliminating their harmful and lethal effects. The research ...

Preventing chemical weapons as sciences converge

Alarming examples of the dangers from chemical weapons have been seen recently in the use of industrial chemicals and the nerve agent sarin against civilians in Syria, and in the targeted assassination operations using VX ...

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