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Our brains are awash with various unsung chemical heroes, making sure the electrical signals traveling all over the place don’t get out of control.

A new mouse study has now detailed the function of a pair of proteins vital to maintaining this balance – this could help us better understand a range of neurological disorders from epilepsy to schizophrenia.

The two proteins – Rab3-interacting molecule 1 (RIM1) and an enzyme called serine arginine protein kinase 2 (SRPK2) – work together to modify the transmission of information across the gaps between nerves called synapses.

This is a 10-minute version with my picks on an hour-and-a-half interview on the longevity science made by Rhonda Patrick to Morgan Levine.

The link to the entire interview, which took place on April 12, 2022, is in the description of the video.


The interview took place on April 2022.

Morgan Levine is Assistant Professor at Yale University School of Medicine, author of TRUE AGE, and recently appointed Founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs. She is heavily engaged in the field of the biology of aging.

Rhonda Patrick is CEO and Co-founder at FoundMyFitness. She is BS in Chemistry / Biochemistry form UC San Diego, and earned her PhD in Biomedical Science from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

She gives a great analogy of slowing aging versus reversing aging, and I did not realize Yamanaka Factors were not so perfect in current use.


In this video Eleanor talks about the her view on Longevity Escape Velocity and reprogramming with Yamanaka factors and some of the issues around this technology.

Eleanor Sheekey graduated from Cambridge University with a masters degree in Biochemistry and is now studying for her PhD at the Cancer Research UK — Cambridge Institute. Eleanor is the person behind the Sheekey Science Show, a popular YouTube channel where she covers longevity and other topics with her deep knowledge of biochemistry.

The Sheekey Science Show can be found here.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSheekeyScienceShow.

Eleanor’s paper is here.

Impacts on Saturn’s mysterious moon may have mixed water and organic molecules in a warm environment.


Physicists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated the use of a hydrogen molecule as a quantum sensor in a terahertz laser-equipped scanning tunneling microscope, a technique that can measure the chemical properties of materials at unprecedented time and spatial resolutions.

Physicists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated the use of a hydrogen molecule as a quantum sensor in a terahertz laser-equipped scanning tunneling microscope, a technique that can measure the chemical properties of materials at unprecedented time and spatial resolutions.

This new technique can also be applied to analysis of two-dimensional materials which have the potential to play a role in advanced energy systems, electronics and quantum computers.

Today in Science, the researchers in UCI’s Department of Physics & Astronomy and Department of Chemistry describe how they positioned two bound atoms of hydrogen in between the silver tip of the STM and a sample composed of a flat copper surface arrayed with small islands of copper nitride. With pulses of the laser lasting trillionths of a second, the scientists were able to excite the hydrogen molecule and detect changes in its quantum states at and in the ultrahigh vacuum environment of the instrument, rendering atomic-scale, time-lapsed images of the sample.

Circa 2021 Synthetic silicon dna storage.


In research, the demand for DNA strands often outpaces supply. To help supply keep up, researchers may set aside traditional molecular cloning techniques and embrace polymerase chain reaction select PCR)-based techniques. Alternatively, researchers may perform gene synthesis, or the de novo chemical synthesis of DNA. Besides accelerating the creation of genetic sequences, gene synthesis avoids the need for template strands and simplifies procedures such as codon optimization and the fabrication of mutant sequences.

Although gene synthesis can be performed in house, many laboratories prefer to focus on their core competencies and outsource their gene synthesis projects to service providers, especially if sequences of over 1,000 base pairs are desired. Outsourcing also allows laboratories to take advantage of service providers’ economies of scale and quick turnaround times. Finally, service providers offer ease of use. Clients can go online, upload the desired sequences, choose the vector, get the price, and place the order. The entire process takes only a few minutes, and the genes can be delivered a few days later.

Researchers needing a few genes have a choice of several providers. But what if researchers need 10,000 genes? “We’re probably the only game in town,” suggests Emily Leproust, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Twist Bioscience.

Bart Blommaertsif it helps. But don’t cut internet cables with that thing!!

Andreas StürmerFinally. Is it going to be a rail or car tunnel?

Eric KlienAdmin.

Andreas Stürmer Rail.

Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes shared a link.


A team of researchers at the University of Manchester has created a molecular motor that consumes chiral fuel to drive rotation around a single covalent bond. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their work in developing a chemically powered directionally rotating motor and why they believe their efforts will result in similar systems being developed with other materials.

Ron FriedmanThink outside the box. Most people don’t need a car for the sake of having a car.

Most people need a comfortable, quick and cheap way of going from A to B. So, Robotaxi could be the ideal solution for most people most of the time.… See more.

Jerry AndersonProbably not, because new batteries that contain other elements, I think they are saying Sulfur-Lithium batteries are more efficient last longer, and don’t require recharging as often… There are bound to be other breakthroughs.

4 Replies.

View 3 more answers.

Shubham Ghosh Roy shared a link.


Controlled activation of water molecules is the key to efficient water splitting. Hydrated singly charged manganese ions Mn+(H2O)n exhibit a size-dependent insertion reaction, which is probed by infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy (IRMPD) and FT-ICR mass spectrometry. The noninserted isomer of Mn+(H2O)4 is formed directly in the laser vaporization ion source, while its inserted counterpart HMnOH+(H2O)3 is selectively prepared by gentle removal of water molecules from larger clusters. The IRMPD spectra in the O–H stretch region of both systems are markedly different, and correlate very well with quantum chemical calculations of the respective species at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ//BHandHLYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. The calculated potential energy surface for water loss from HMnOH+(H2O)3 shows that this cluster ion is metastable. During IRMPD, the system rearranges back to the noninserted Mn+(H2O)3 structure, indicating that the inserted structure requires stabilization by hydration. The studied system serves as an atomically defined single-atom redox-center for reversible metal insertion into the O–H bond, a key step in metal-centered water activation.

Josh SeehermanI don’t think he’s wrong.

Art ToegemannIt’s adjusting to users sharing a password.

Shubham Ghosh Roy shared a link.


At the interface between chemistry and physics, the process of crystallization is omnipresent in nature and industry. It is the basis for the formation of snowflakes but also of certain active ingredients used in pharmacology. For the phenomenon to occur for a given substance, it must first go through a stage called nucleation, during which the molecules organize themselves and create the optimal conditions for the formation of crystals. While it has been difficult to observe pre-nucleation dynamics, this key process has now been revealed by the work of a research team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE). The scientists have succeeded in visualizing this process spectroscopically in real time and on a micrometric scale, paving the way to the design of safer and more stable active substances. These results can be found in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Crystallization is a chemical and physical process used in many fields, from the pharmaceutical industry to food processing. It is used to isolate a gaseous or liquid substance in the form of crystals. However, this phenomenon is not unique to industry; it is ubiquitous in nature and can be seen, for example, in snowflakes, coral or kidney stones.

For crystals to form from substances, they must first go through a crucial stage called nucleation. It is during this first phase that the molecules begin to arrange themselves to form “nuclei,” stable clusters of molecules, which leads to the development and growth of . This process occurs stochastically, meaning it is not predictable when and where a nucleus form. “Until now, scientists have been struggling to visualize this first stage at the molecular level. The microscopic picture of crystal nucleation has been under intense debate. Recent studies suggest that molecules seem to form some disordered organization before the formation of nuclei. Then how does the crystalline order emerge from them? That is a big question,” explains Takuji Adachi, assistant professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry at the UNIGE Faculty of Science.

A major challenge for producers of electricity from solar panels and wind turbines is akin to capturing lightning in a bottle. Both solar and wind increasingly generate electricity amid little demand, when market prices are too low to cover costs. At noon on sunny days, for example, wholesale power prices in areas with high quantities of solar and wind occasionally fall below zero.

Some renewable energy producers store their excess as green , using the electricity to produce hydrogen from water—labeled “green” because the process emits no . Used to create fuels, fertilizer, and other chemicals, the global hydrogen market is about $125 billion, and it’s growing briskly in part due to increased interest in hydrogen as a fuel for buses, trucks, and even ships. The problem is that producing hydrogen with electricity remains fairly expensive, so it’s only profitable to sell at the higher prices paid by lower-volume customers.

But now, researchers at Stanford University and at the University of Mannheim in Germany have found a possible solution: integrated reversible power-to-gas systems that can easily convert hydrogen back to electricity when power prices spike higher.