A new genre of 'intelligent' micro- and nanomotors

Enzymes, workhorse molecules of life that underpin almost every biological process, may have a new role as "intelligent" micro- and nanomotors with applications in medicine, engineering and other fields. That's the topic ...

How our cells cope with toxic small molecules

In this week's issue of the prestigious journal Nature Chemical Biology, scientists Carole Linster (University of Luxembourg), Emile Van Schaftingen (Louvain University), and Andrew D. Hanson (University of Florida, Gainesville) ...

Cell biology: Flushing out fats

The Wip1 protein is important for survival, but mutations that inactivate it carry some surprising features. "A lack of Wip1 results in an excessive immune reaction to infectious organisms, in some cases killing the host," ...

Living power cables discovered

A multinational research team has discovered filamentous bacteria that function as living power cables in order to transmit electrons thousands of cell lengths away.

Super-microbes engineered to solve world environmental problems

Environmental problems, such as depleting natural resources, highlight the need to establish a renewable chemical industry. Metabolic engineering enhances the production of chemicals made by microbes in so-called "cell factories". ...

New chemistry technique reproduces nature's elusive complexity

(Phys.org)—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesize in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes ...

Proteins barge in to turn off unneeded genes

(Phys.org)—The sorcerer's apprentice started a water-carrying system, but couldn't stop it, and soon he was up to his neck in water, and trouble. Living cells have a better design: When they activate a gene, they have a ...

Efficient catalysis on chiral surfaces

(Phys.org)—Practice is when everything works but nobody knows why. This light-hearted saying can equally be applied to chemical processes. "The process of so-called heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis is very easy to use ...

Turning glass into clay

The magic mineral and microbial processes that transform volcanic glass into clay have been identified, adding important knowledge to how clay is formed.

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