Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: chemistry – Page 243

Synthesizing quantum nanomagnets via metal-free multi-porphyrin systems

A team of researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, working with a pair of colleagues from Harvard University, has developed a new way to synthesize single quantum nanomagnets that are based on metal-free, multi-porphyrin systems. In their paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry, the group describes their method and possible uses for it.

Molecular magnets are materials that are capable of exhibiting ferromagnetism. They are different from other magnets because their are composed of or a combination of coordination compounds. Chemists have been studying their properties with the goal of using them to develop medical therapies such advanced magnetic resonance imaging, new kinds of chemotherapy and possibly magnetic-field-induced local hyperthermia therapy. In this new effort, the researchers have developed a way to create molecular nanomagnets with quantum properties.

The technique involved first synthesizing a monoporphyrin using what they describe as conventional “solution chemistry”—the monoporhyrins were created by using an atomic-force microscope to pull off of polyporphyrins. The researchers then applied the result to a base of gold, which they placed in an oven and heated to 80 °C. This forced the rings in the material to become chained. They then turned the oven up to 290°C and then let the material cook for another 10 minutes. This resulted in the formation of additional carbon cycles and the creation of quantum nanomagnets.

Most US pet food contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’, study finds

“This represents a significant source of PFAS in the home environment,” said Sydney Evans, a science analyst with the EWG.

PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 12,000 compounds used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They’re called “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, accumulating in humans and animals. PFAS are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, birth defects, kidney disease and liver disease.

The chemicals are likely used in pet food bags to make them repel grease. For cats, the highest levels were detected in the Meow Mix Tender Centers salmon and chicken flavors dry cat food, at more than 600 parts per million (ppm). Purina Cat Chow Complete chicken showed over 350 ppm, while Blue Buffalo, Iams and Rachael Ray Nutrish all had levels of less than 100 ppm.

Researchers fed microalgae on leftover coffee grounds to produce high-quality biodiesel

It could decrease reliance on palm oil to produce biofuel.

Have you ever guessed that a leftover coffee could turn into biodiesel? Here’s a remarkable development for bioscience. Seemingly, Aston University scientists produced high-quality biodiesel microalgae fed on leftover coffee. According to Aston University’s release, this development is also a breakthrough in the microalgal cultivation system.

Dr. Vesna Najdanovic, senior lecturer in chemical engineering, and Dr. Jiawei Wang were part of a team that produced algae and subsequently turned it into fuel.

The results of the study were published in the November 2022 issue of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

1, 2

Seemingly, Aston University scientists produced high-quality biodiesel microalgae fed on leftover coffee. According to Aston University’s release, this development is also a breakthrough in the microalgal cultivation system.

Continue reading “Researchers fed microalgae on leftover coffee grounds to produce high-quality biodiesel” | >

Engineers developed a breakthrough method to generate hydrogen gas in one-step process

The method requires only visible light and no external heating.

Hydrogen sulfide, infamous for its aroma of rotten eggs, is known to be highly poisonous and corrosive — especially in wastewater applications. Petrochemical plants and other industries make thousands of tons of this gas every year as a byproduct of various processes that separate sulfur from petroleum, natural gas, coal, and other products.

Now, Rice University engineers and scientists have devised a new way for such petrochemical industries to turn the noxious gas into “high-demand” hydrogen gas.

Audioundwerbung/iStock.

Rice engineer, physicist, and chemist Naomi Halas and the team have created a method that derives energy from light and employs gold nanoparticles to convert hydrogen sulfide and sulfur in one step.

Solving the Dopamine Riddle: Scientists Pinpoint Genetic Mechanism Linking Brain Chemical to Schizophrenia

Researchers examining post-mortem brains confirm a long-held hypothesis explaining neurotransmitter’s connection to a debilitating disorder.

How does the brain chemical dopamine relate to schizophrenia? It is a question that vexed scientists for more than 70 years, and now researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) believe they have solved the challenging riddle. This new understanding may lead to better treatment of schizophrenia, an often-devastating brain disorder characterized by delusional thinking, hallucinations, and other forms of psychosis.

Through their exploration of the expression of genes in the caudate nucleus – a region of the brain linked to emotional decision-making – the scientists uncovered physical evidence that neuronal cells are unable to precisely control levels of dopamine. They also identified the genetic mechanism that controls dopamine flow. Their findings were published today (November 1) in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

DNA ‘nanotransporters’ to treat cancer

A team of Canadian researchers from Université de Montréal has designed and validated a new class of drug transporters made of DNA that are 20,000 times smaller than a human hair and that could improve how cancers and other diseases are treated.

Reported in a new study in Nature Communications, these molecular transporters can be chemically programmed to deliver optimal concentration of drugs, making them more efficient than current methods.

New technique helps identify genes related to aging

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for determining which genes are relevant to the aging process. The work was done in an animal species widely used as a model for genetic and biological research, but the finding has broader applications for research into the genetics of aging.

“There are a lot of out there that we still don’t know what they do, particularly in regard to aging,” says Adriana San Miguel, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State.

That’s because this field faces a very specific technical challenge: by the time you know whether an organism is going to live for a long time, it’s old and no longer able to reproduce. But the techniques we use to study genes require us to work with animals that are capable of reproducing, so we can study the role of specific genes in subsequent generations.

Efficiency and stability best practices for solar water splitting to make hydrogen

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are providing researchers with a guide to how to best measure the efficiency of producing hydrogen directly from solar power.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting, which relies on sunlight to split water into its component elements—oxygen and hydrogen—stands out as potentially one of the most sustainable routes to clean energy. Measurements of how efficient the PEC process is on an identical system can vary wildly from different laboratories, however, from a lack of standardized methods. The newly developed best-practices guide published in Frontiers in Energy Research is intended to provide confidence in comparing results obtained at different sites and by different groups.

The publication provides a road map for the PEC community as researchers continue to refine the technology. These were verified by both laboratories via round-robin testing using the same testing hardware, PEC photoelectrodes, and measurement procedures. Research into photovoltaics has allowed a certification of cell efficiencies, but PEC water-splitting efficiency measurements do not yet have a widely accepted protocol.

One of the Biggest Problems in Biology Has Finally Been Solved

There’s an age-old adage in biology: structure determines function. In order to understand the function of the myriad proteins that perform vital jobs in a healthy body—or malfunction in a diseased one—scientists have to first determine these proteins’ molecular structure. But this is no easy feat: protein molecules consist of long, twisty chains of up to thousands of amino acids, chemical compounds that can interact with one another in many ways to take on an enormous number of possible three-dimensional shapes. Figuring out a single protein’s structure, or solving the protein-folding problem, can take years of finicky experiments.

But earlier this year an artificial intelligence program called AlphaFold, developed by the Google-owned company DeepMind, predicted the 3D structures of almost every known protein —about 200 million in all. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and senior staff research scientist John Jumper were jointly awarded this year’s $3-million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the achievement, which opens the door for applications that range from expanding our understanding of basic molecular biology to accelerating drug development.

DeepMind developed AlphaFold soon after its AlphaGo AI made headlines in 2016 by beating world Go champion Lee Sedol at the game. But the goal was always to develop AI that could tackle important problems in science, Hassabis says. DeepMind has made the structures of proteins from nearly every species for which amino acid sequences exist freely available in a public database.

Biotechnology is creating ethical worries—and we’ve been here before

Matthew Cobb is a zoologist and author whose background is in insect genetics and the history of science. Over the past decade or so, as CRISPR was discovered and applied to genetic remodeling, he started to get concerned—afraid, actually—about three potential applications of the technology. He’s in good company: Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for discovering and harnessing CRISPR, is afraid of the same things. So he decided to delve into these topics, and As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age is the result.

Summing up fears

The first of his worries is the notion of introducing heritable mutations into the human genome. He Jianqui did this to three human female embryos in China in 2018, so the three girls with the engineered mutations that they will pass on to their kids (if they’re allowed to have any) are about four now. Their identities are classified for their protection, but presumably their health is being monitored, and the poor girls have probably already been poked and prodded incessantly by every type of medical specialist there is.