http://phys.org/chemistry-news/ en-us Phys.org Phys.Org provides the latest news on chemistry, biochemistry, polymers, materials science (Phys.org) —Ammonia must overcome an energy barrier to join sulfuric acid and water to create clusters that can lead to cloud formation, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Delaware. http://phys.org/news288597883.html Chemistry 2013-05-24T07:04:51-07:00 (Phys.org) —In malaria-ridden parts of Africa, mosquito netting protects people from being infected while they sleep; now, a University of Florida entomologist wants to improve the netting by coating it with insecticide toxic only to mosquitoes. http://phys.org/news288594454.html Chemistry 2013-05-24T06:20:01-07:00 UEA scientists make breast cancer advance that turns previous thinking on its head Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made an advance in breast cancer research which shows how some enzymes released by cancerous cells could have a protective function. http://phys.org/news288550756.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T17:59:32-07:00 (Phys.org) —Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more with their smartphones. http://phys.org/news288539510.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T15:00:01-07:00 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 2013-05-23T14:42:40-07:00 Nearly two-thirds of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma —a common tumor that forms in the nerve cells of children—cannot be cured using tumor-killing cancer drugs. A study published by Cell Press in the May 23 issue of Chemistry & Biology reveals a new genomic approach to screen for compounds that could inhibit tumor growth by causing cancer cells to differentiate, or convert from immature cells to more specialized cell types. Using this screening method, the researchers identified a compound that causes neuroblastoma cells to differentiate, uncovering a promising new treatment strategy for this highly malignant pediatric cancer. http://phys.org/news288529682.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T12:08:20-07:00 Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a powerful new technique for finding antibodies that have a desired biological effect. Antibodies, which can bind to billions of distinct targets, are already used in many of the world's best-selling medicines, diagnostics and laboratory reagents. The newly reported technique should greatly speed the process of discovering such products. http://phys.org/news288529101.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T12:00:01-07:00 The tight wrapping of genomic DNA around nucleosomes in the cell nucleus makes it unavailable for gene expression. A team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now describes a mechanism that allows chromosomal DNA to be locally displaced from nucleosomes for transcription. http://phys.org/news288527436.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T11:30:42-07:00 (Phys.org) —In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections. http://phys.org/news288516452.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T09:20:03-07:00 A research team has created a test using a biosensor that will help medical professionals more quickly identify super bacteria like MRSA. http://phys.org/news288515239.html Chemistry 2013-05-23T08:30:05-07:00 Harvard physicists have developed a novel technique that can detect molecular variants in chemical mixtures – greatly simplifying a process that is one of the most important, though time-consuming, processes in analytical chemistry. http://phys.org/news288445694.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T13:00:14-07:00 Early screening for prostate cancer could become as easy for men as personal pregnancy testing is for women, thanks to UC Irvine research published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. http://phys.org/news288433289.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T09:21:37-07:00 Re-routing anti-cancer drugs to the "power plants" that make energy to keep cells alive is a promising but long-neglected approach to preventing emergence of the drug-resistant forms of cancer—source of a serious medical problem, scientists are reporting. That's the conclusion of a new study published in the journal ACS Chemical Biology. http://phys.org/news288431184.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T09:20:01-07:00 A new slow-motion method of controlling the synthesis of polymers, which takes inspiration from both trees and Celtic Knots, opens up new possibilities in areas including medical devices, drug delivery, elastics and adhesives. http://phys.org/news288433007.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T09:16:56-07:00 (Phys.org) —Adventitious changes in cellular DNA can endanger the whole organism, as they may lead to life-threatening illnesses like cancer. Researchers at LMU now report how byproducts of respiration cause mispairing of subunits in the double helix. http://phys.org/news288432920.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T09:15:30-07:00 Circular RNAs were recently shown to be abundant in mice and humans where they influence gene expression. http://phys.org/news288430097.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T09:10:01-07:00 Many molecules have a right and a left form, just like shoes. In pharmaceuticals, it is important that the correct form of the molecule is used. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have been able to produce the one mirror image by using crystals with special properties. This can have a major impact on the production of pharmaceuticals. http://phys.org/news288431453.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T08:50:59-07:00 Researchers looking to isolate individual proteins from complex environments usually turn to chromatography, a technique where mobile solutions of biomolecules flow through columns packed with solid, porous particles. Separation occurs when attractive chemical forces cause the molecules to adsorb onto the solid while contaminants pass through. Despite major progress, however, chromatographic purification of viruses and other large biomolecules remains challenging: their spatial heft makes it hard for them to diffuse through columns in a reasonable amount of time. http://phys.org/news288425478.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T08:00:01-07:00 Removing excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere may be essential to curb severe climate change. Possible, but expensive, methods include burying the gas underground between rock layers or 'scrubbing' the CO2 in power station cooling towers before it is released. James Highfield at A*STAR's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, together with co-workers at the National Junior College of Singapore and Åbo Akademi University in Finland, has now described a cheaper and more permanent solution that would prevent the CO2 escaping back into the atmosphere. http://phys.org/news288424879.html Chemistry 2013-05-22T07:01:28-07:00 Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications. http://phys.org/news288368169.html Chemistry 2013-05-21T15:16:16-07:00 Food industries are now turning meat left-over into high-protein content ingredients for food supplements, or to be added to processed food. But a EU-wide regulation covering them is still lacking. http://phys.org/news288340636.html Chemistry 2013-05-21T07:50:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Waterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers at the University of California, Davis. http://phys.org/news288284578.html Chemistry 2013-05-20T16:20:06-07:00 A new study of both computer-created and natural proteins suggests that the number of unique pockets – sites where small molecule pharmaceutical compounds can bind to proteins – is surprisingly small, meaning drug side effects may be impossible to avoid. The study also found that the fundamental biochemical processes needed for life could have been enabled by the simple physics of protein folding. http://phys.org/news288270799.html Chemistry 2013-05-20T15:00:20-07:00 A new study shows how complex biochemical transformations may have been possible under conditions that existed when life began on the early Earth. The study shows that RNA is capable of catalyzing electron transfer under conditions similar to those of the early Earth. Because electron transfer, the moving of an electron from one chemical species to another, is involved in many biological processes – including photosynthesis, respiration and the reduction of RNA to DNA – the study's findings suggest that complex biochemical transformations may have been possible when life began. http://phys.org/news288172502.html Chemistry 2013-05-19T13:00:01-07:00 In the race to protect society from infectious microbes, the bugs are outrunning us. The need for new therapeutic agents is acute, given the emergence of novel pathogens as well as old foes bearing heightened antibiotic resistance. http://phys.org/news288029054.html Chemistry 2013-05-17T17:04:38-07:00 Metal complexes are becoming increasingly important as the photochemical building blocks of functional molecular systems such as sensors and photoelectrochemical cells. Of particular interest are metal complexes that involve gold atoms in the +1 valence state, due to their ability to self-assemble into larger units. The assembly process, known as aurophilic interaction, is enhanced by photoexcitation—an effect recently exploited by chemists to link individual gold(I)–dicyanide complexes into phosphorescent oligomer chains through careful control of complex concentrations and light exposure. However, the fundamental structural details of this reaction have yet to be understood. http://phys.org/news288001383.html Chemistry 2013-05-17T09:24:01-07:00 By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, materials scientists at Harvard have found that they can control the growth behavior of crystals to create precisely tailored structures—such as delicate, micron-scale flowers. http://phys.org/news287931436.html Chemistry 2013-05-16T14:00:09-07:00 Pioneering X-ray technology is making it possible to read fragile rolled-up historical documents for the first time in centuries. http://phys.org/news287919948.html Chemistry 2013-05-16T10:45:57-07:00 Amid concerns over the potential health effects of existing flame retardants for home furniture, fabrics and other material, scientists are reporting development of an "exceptionally" effective new retardant that appears safer and more environmentally friendly. Their report on the first-of-its-kind coating, ideal for the polyurethane foam in couches and bedding that causes many fire deaths, appears in ACS Macro Letters. http://phys.org/news287836968.html Chemistry 2013-05-15T12:00:08-07:00 New technology offers the promise of reducing billions of dollars of losses that occur each year from the silent, invisible killer of fruits, vegetables and cut flowers—a gas whose effects are familiar to everyone who has seen bananas and other fruit ripen too quickly and rot. That's the conclusion of an article in the ACS journal Chemical Reviews. http://phys.org/news287836831.html Chemistry 2013-05-15T11:41:26-07:00