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Category: chemistry – Page 191

“Cytoelectric Coupling”: A Groundbreaking Hypothesis on How Our Brains Function

Brain waves act as carriers of information. A recently proposed “Cytoelectric Coupling” hypothesis suggests that these wavering electric fields contribute to the optimization of the brain network’s efficiency and robustness. They do this by influencing the physical configuration of the brain’s molecular framework.

In order to carry out its multifaceted functions, which include thought, the brain operates on various levels. Information like objectives or visuals is depicted through synchronized electrical activity among neuronal networks. Simultaneously, a combination of proteins and other biochemicals within and surrounding each neuron physically execute the mechanics required for participation in these networks.

A new paper by researchers at MIT, City University of London, and Johns Hopkins University posits that the electrical fields of the network influence the physical configuration of neurons’ sub-cellular components to optimize network stability and efficiency, a hypothesis the authors call “Cytoelectric Coupling.”

Discovery of novel primitive xeno nucleic acids as alternative genetic polymers adds piece to origin of life puzzle

The chemical origin of life on Earth is a puzzle that scientists have been trying to piece together for decades. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain how life came to be and what chemical and environmental factors on early Earth could have led to it. A step required in a number of these hypotheses involves the abiotic synthesis of genetic polymers—materials made up of a sequence of repeating chemical units with the ability to store and pass down information through base-pairing interactions.

One such hypothesis is the RNA () world hypothesis, which draws from this concept and suggests that RNA could have been the original biopolymer of life both for genetic information storage and transmission, and for catalysis. However, in the absence of chemical activation of RNA monomers, studies have found that RNA polymerization would have been inefficient under primitive dry-down conditions without specialized circumstances such as lipid or salt-assisted synthesis or mineral templating.

While this does not necessarily make the RNA world hypothesis less plausible, primitive chemical systems were quite diverse and could not have possibly been as clean to just contain RNA and lipids, suggesting that other forms of primitive nucleic polymerization may have also taken place.

Did Life Evolve More Than Once? Researchers Are Closing In on an Answer

Eventually, these molecules probably evolved a lipid (fatty) boundary separating the internal environment of the organism from the exterior, forming protocells. Protocells could concentrate and organize better the molecules needed in biochemical reactions, providing a contained and efficient metabolism.

Life on Repeat?

Abiogenesis could have happened more than once. Earth could have birthed self-replicating molecules several times, and maybe early life for thousands or millions of years just consisted of a bunch of different self-replicating RNA molecules, with independent origins, competing for the same building blocks. Alas, due to the ancient and microscopic nature of this process, we may never know.

AI finds potential anti-aging molecules

This study demonstrates that AI can be incredibly effective in helping us identify new drug candidates – particularly at early stages of drug discovery and for diseases with complex biology or few known molecular targets.

A machine learning model has been trained to recognise the key features of chemicals with senolytic activity. It recently found three chemicals able to remove senescent cells without damaging healthy cells.

Molecular structure of oleandrin. Credit: Mplanine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Senescent cells, often referred to as “zombie cells”, are cells that have stopped dividing but remain metabolically active. These cells increase with age and secrete harmful substances that can lead to chronic inflammation and affect the function of nearby cells. This contributes to aging and various age-related diseases like heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and certain cancers. Their elimination or reprogramming is a key focus of aging-related research.

“Hydration Solids”: The New Class of Matter Shaking Up Science

For many years, the fields of physics and chemistry have held the belief that the properties of solid materials are fundamentally determined by the atoms and molecules they consist of. For instance, the crystalline nature of salt is credited to the ionic bond formed between sodium and chloride ions. Similarly, metals such as iron or copper owe their robustness to the metallic bonds between their respective atoms, and the elasticity of rubbers stems from the flexible bonds in the polymers that form them. This principle also applies to substances like fungi, bacteria, and wood.

Or so the story goes.

A new paper recently published in Nature upends that paradigm, and argues that the character of many biological materials is actually created by the water that permeates these materials. Water gives rise to a solid and goes on to define the properties of that solid, all the while maintaining its liquid characteristics.

How AI Can Help Find New Minerals On Earth And Other Planets

Rocks and minerals contribute essential raw materials for any civilization, and in a technological society minerals (and the rare elements they contain) are especially sought after. In the past, most discoveries of mineral deposits have resulted from perseverance and luck.

In the last 200 years scientists realized that minerals are not distributed randomly. Many of the over 5,000 different minerals occurring on Earth exist in a so-called paragenesis. A paragenesis is a mineral assemblage formed under specific physico-chemical rules, like a certain chemical composition of the host rock or when the right conditions — like temperature and pressure — are met.

A machine learning model can predict the locations of minerals on Earth — and potentially other planets — by taking advantage of patterns in mineral associations.

KISS method for 2D material preparation: Unlocking new possibilities for materials science

It has almost been 20 years since the establishment of the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials with the discovery of unique properties of graphene, a single, atomically thin layer of graphite. The significance of graphene and its one-of-a-kind properties was recognized as early as 2010 when the Nobel prize in physics was awarded to A. Geim and K. Novoselov for their work on graphene. However, graphene has been around for a while, though researchers simply did not realize what it was, or how special it is (often, it was considered annoying dirt on nice, clean surfaces of metals REF). Some scientists even dismissed the idea that 2D materials could exist in our three-dimensional world.

Today, things are different. 2D materials are one of the most exciting and fascinating subjects of study for researchers from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry and engineering. 2D materials are not only interesting from a scientific point of view, they are also extremely interesting for industrial and technological applications, such as touchscreens and batteries.

We are also getting very good at discovering and preparing new 2D materials, and the list of known and available 2D materials is rapidly expanding. The 2D materials family is getting very large and graphene is not alone anymore. Instead, it now has a lot of 2D relatives with different properties and vastly diverse applications, predicted or already achieved.

Research team invents revolutionary new batteries that are safer, cleaner, and last longer than lithium-ion

According to a news release from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), oxygen-ion batteries don’t have the same aging issue that lithium batteries face, which means they can maintain effectiveness for an incredibly long period.

They can also be manufactured using incombustible materials and don’t require the same rare elements as lithium batteries, which means they won’t have nearly as substantial of an environmental footprint and won’t spontaneously explode if mishandled.

“In many batteries, you have the problem that at some point the charge carriers can no longer move,” said Alexander Schmid of TU Wien’s Institute for Chemical Technologies. “Then they can no longer be used to generate electricity, the capacity of the battery decreases. After many charging cycles, that can become a serious problem.”