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Category: chemistry – Page 60

Even a sublethal insecticide dose may disrupt the pollinator mating process

Insecticides can help protect crops against troublesome pests, but they also pose a risk for beneficial insects such as pollinators. A study led by researchers at Penn State provides insight into how even sublethal doses of insecticides can negatively affect pollinators by disrupting the mating process.

The study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, looked at the effects of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid that is among the most widely used insecticides globally.

The researchers found that exposure to the insecticide, even at sublethal levels, reduced successful mating in bumble bees and altered the chemical signaling of both males and gynes—female bees capable of reproduction. It also negatively impacted both sperm viability in males and lipid storage in gynes.

Protein editing using a coordinated transposition reaction

Protein engineering through the ligation of polypeptide fragments has proven enormously powerful for studying biochemical processes. In general, this strategy necessitates a final protein-folding step, constraining the types of systems amenable to the approach. Here, we report a method that allows internal regions of target proteins to be replaced in a single operation. Conceptually, our system is analogous to a DNA transposition reaction but uses orthogonal pairs of engineered split inteins to mediate the editing process. This “protein transposition” reaction is applied to several systems, including folded protein complexes, allowing the efficient introduction of a variety of noncoded elements. By carrying out a molecular “cut and paste” under native protein-folding conditions, our approach substantially expands the scope of protein semisynthesis.

MXene Nanozymes in Bioelectricity-Enhanced Cancer Therapy

MXenes are a class of two-dimensional transition metal carbides noted for their high conductivity and biocompatibility. These properties make them promising candidates for biomedical applications.

In this study, the researchers focused on the electrochemical and nanozymatic properties of MXene in order to enhance cancer treatment through electrical pulse therapy.

A new study shows that MXene-based nanozymes enhance cancer treatment by combining catalytic activity with electrical pulses, increasing tumor cell death and modulating immune response pathways.

A geological timescale for bacterial evolution and oxygen adaptation

Microbial life has dominated Earth’s history but left a sparse fossil record, greatly hindering our understanding of evolution in deep time. However, bacterial metabolism has left signatures in the geochemical record, most conspicuously the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). We combine machine learning and phylogenetic reconciliation to infer ancestral bacterial transitions to aerobic lifestyles, linking them to the GOE to calibrate the bacterial time tree. Extant bacterial phyla trace their diversity to the Archaean and Proterozoic, and bacterial families prior to the Phanerozoic. We infer that most bacterial phyla were ancestrally anaerobic and adopted aerobic lifestyles after the GOE. However, in the cyanobacterial ancestor, aerobic metabolism likely predated the GOE, which may have facilitated the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Scientists advance a greener way to produce iron: Process could help cut carbon emissions in the steel industry

University of Oregon chemists are bringing a greener way to make iron metal for steel production closer to reality, a step towards cleaning up an industry that’s one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions worldwide. The research was published in ACS Energy Letters.

Last year, UO chemist Paul Kempler and his team reported a way to create iron with electrochemistry, using a series of chemical reactions that turn saltwater and into pure iron metal.

In their latest work, they’ve optimized the starting materials for the process, identifying which kinds of iron oxides will make the chemical reactions the most cost-effective. That’s a key to making the process work at an industrial scale.

Scientists unveil MacGyver-like energy breakthrough with unexpected materials: ‘Materials … have garnered considerable attention’

In answer, the team needed to develop an affordable catalyst that could improve the salty electrode. For reference, when batteries operate, ions move between the anode and cathode through the electrolyte, per a U.S. Department of Energy description.

This is where wood waste and urine enter the lab, replacing platinum as a catalyst. The UNIST creation facilitates effective electrochemical reactions and quick discharges. The experts used lignin, abundant in wood and used to make paper and biofuels, in combination with urea. Urea is a nitrogen-rich substance found in wastewater, UNIST reported.

“Conventional electrocatalysts, primarily noble metals, are scarce and expensive. In this context, carbon materials derived from biowaste have garnered considerable attention,” according to the abstract.

Earth’s First Crust May Have Looked Surprisingly Like The One We Have Today

Geologists have made certain assumptions about how the crust making up our planet’s earliest surface formed, but a new study has found that Earth’s very first protocrust was surprisingly similar to the shell of solid rock in place today.

It may mean a complete rethink of how Earth’s coat transitioned from a skin of boiling magma to the shifting armor of tectonic plates we now live on, according to the international team of researchers behind the study.

“Scientists have long thought that tectonic plates needed to dive beneath each other to create the chemical fingerprint we see in continents,” says geochemist Simon Turner, from Macquarie University in Australia.

Spray drying tech used in instant coffee applied to high-capacity battery production

The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) and the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) have jointly developed spray drying technology-based high-performance dry electrode manufacturing technology for the realization of high-capacity secondary batteries. The study is published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

Secondary battery electrodes are made by mixing active materials that store electrical energy, conductive additives that help the flow of electricity, and binders which act as a kind of adhesive. There are two methods for mixing these materials: the wet process, which uses solvents, and the dry process, which mixes solid powders without solvents.

The dry process is considered more environmentally friendly than the wet process and has gained significant attention as a technology that can increase the energy density of secondary batteries. However, until now, there have been many limitations to achieving a uniform mixture of active materials, conductive additives, and binders in the dry process.

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