Potential energy surfaces of water mapped for the first time

Water is certainly the best-known liquid in the world. It plays a crucial role in all biological and many chemical processes. The water molecules themselves hardly hold any secrets. In school we learn that water consists ...

Determining the structure of small RNAs could inform future therapeutics

A new method allows researchers to determine the structure and abundance of "transfer RNAs" (tRNA)—small, highly structured and chemically modified RNAs involved in protein production—in living cells. Misfolding of tRNAs ...

Taking quantum control of life's building blocks

Life (as we know it) is based on carbon. Despite its ubiquity, this important element still holds plenty of secrets, on earth and in the heavens above us. For example, astrophysicists like Columbia's Daniel Wolf Savin who ...

Process to customize molecules does double duty

Inspired by your liver and activated by light, a chemical process developed in labs at Rice University and in China shows promise for drug design and the development of unique materials.

New method helps exfoliate hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets

Chinese researchers recently reported an innovative mechanical process for controllably exfoliating hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNSs).This method, known as the "water-icing triggered exfoliation process," was proposed ...

Designing the perfect membrane for clean separation of gases

Selective removal of detrimental gases, e.g., hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas (CH4) could become simpler and highly effective using a new class of oriented mixed-matrix metal-organic framework ...

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