Every cell of our body is separated from its environment by a lipid bilayer. In order to maintain their biological function and to transduce signals, special proteins, so called ion channels, are embedded in the membrane. ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 3, 2013
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Three-quarters of the DNA in evolved organisms is wrapped around proteins, forming the basic unit of DNA packaging called nucleosomes, like a thread around a spool. The problem lies in understanding how DNA can then be read ...
Biotechnology
Mar 19, 2013
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Earth is the only known planet that holds water in massive quantities and in all three phase states. But the earthly, omnipresent compound water has very unusual properties that become particularly evident when subjected ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2013
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(Phys.org)—Why certain catalyst materials work more efficiently when they are surrounded by water instead of a gas phase is unclear. RUB chemists have now gleamed some initial answers from computer simulations. They showed ...
Materials Science
Feb 21, 2013
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A powerful computational technique used by the pharmaceutical industry to expedite new drug development has just received a performance boost. Chandra Verma and his co-workers at the A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute in Singapore ...
Biochemistry
Jan 30, 2013
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In an article about to be published in European Physical Journal Plus, Daan Frenkel from the University of Cambridge, UK, outlines the many pitfalls associated with simulation methods such as Monte Carlo algorithms or other ...
General Physics
Jan 29, 2013
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Most materials will break when a force is applied to an imperfection in their structure—such as a notch or dislocation. The behavior of these imperfections, and the resulting breakage, differ markedly between small structures, ...
Nanophysics
Sep 12, 2012
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Banana, mango or apricot - telling these smells apart is no problem for the human nose. How the olfactory organ distinguishes such similar smells has been uncovered by an interdisciplinary team of German researchers at the ...
Analytical Chemistry
Dec 13, 2011
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Like a bull in a china shop, a massive, iodine-based ion called iodate should disrupt the surrounding water molecules until it is forcibly expelled. However, it doesn't. This disconnect between the molecule's attributes and ...
Materials Science
Nov 8, 2011
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A University of Akron researcher is leveraging advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand how organic materials bond to inorganic materials, a natural phenomenon that if harnessed, could lead ...
Polymers
Dec 9, 2010
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