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Category: chemistry – Page 89

While supporting actors are often overlooked, without their contribution, a story’s main characters would lose context and resort to isolated monologues.

The same is true for neurons — the top-billing stars of cognition — when firing in the brain. Without cells called glia, which form the bulk of brain matter, neurons would stop communicating with each other, as seen in neurodegeneration. These supporting glial cells play countless critical roles in the nervous system such as maintaining the chemical environment of neurons and modulating their activity.

Although neurons still rightfully garner A-lister attention when it comes to developing brain therapies, Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of ophthalmology and the Blumenkranz Smead Professor, believes a young, underexplored class of therapies called gliotherapeutics, which target and harness glia, will ultimately provide important new directions for treatment.

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A combination of battery technology and catalysis opens new avenues for cheap, high-capacity batteries. Lithium-sulfur batteries can potentially store five to 10 times more energy than current state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries at much lower cost. Current lithium-ion batteries use cobalt oxide as the cathode, an expensive mineral mined in ways that harm people and the environment. Lithium-sulfur batteries replace cobalt oxide with sulfur, which is abundant and cheap, costing less than one-hundredth the price of cobalt.

But there’s a catch: Chemical reactions, particularly the sulfur reduction reaction, are very complex and not well understood, and undesired side reactions could end the batteries’ lives well before those of traditional batteries.

Now, researchers led by UCLA chemists Xiangfeng Duan and Philippe Sautet have deciphered the key pathways of this reaction.

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To synthesize potential drugs or natural products, you need natural substances in specific mirror-image variants and with a high degree of purity. For the first time, chemists at the University of Bonn have succeeded in producing all eight possible variants of polypropionate building blocks from a single starting material in a relatively straightforward process. Their work has now been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Polypropionates are that can help save lives. They are needed to make reserve antibiotics, compounds that are only ever used to treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria. In nature, chiral compounds exist in two different variants that share the same molecular formula but are of each other, like a right and a left hand. Chemists call this “chirality,” which literally means “handedness.”

“What’s interesting is that the mirror-image forms can have very different properties,” explains Professor Andreas Gansäuer from the Kekulé Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bonn. “One well known example is undoubtedly carvone. The dextro-, or ‘right-handed,’ form of this molecule smells of caraway, while its levo-, or ‘left-handed,’ form is what gives peppermint its distinctive odor.”

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Ultimate fact presents top 15 Weapons Of The Future Will Blow Your Mind. We’ve come a long way since sticks and stones, and it’s almost inconceivable that only a few hundred years ago, Man was still waging war with bows, arrows, cannons, and muskets. Modern militaries are constantly in the process of developing new weapons, some of which will definitely make some mouths drop. We thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the most amazing offensive and defensive weapons currently in the works.
Autonomous weapons.
These are robotic vehicles, under development, that search and destroy enemy troops and equipment on the ground or in the air, without risk to friendly troops – theoretically.
Onboard computers interpret sensor data to identify and target hostile forces with built-in weapons. Robots may query human controllers at remote sites for the go-ahead to fire, and friendly forces may carry transponders that identify them as “friends”
High-energy lasers.
These are powerful energy beams that travel through air or space in straight lines. They travel at the speed of light and can strike over distances of thousands of kilometres. Large mirrors focus powerful laser beams onto a small spot on the target.
Space-based weapons.
Space is the ultimate high ground, so weapons in orbit would have the ability to see and zap anything on the ground, in the air, or nearby in space. The main mission of space-based weapons would be to defend against ballistic missiles fired at targets on Earth.
Hypersonic aircraft.
Launched from a standard runway, a hypersonic aircraft could fly faster than Mach 5 to strike anywhere in the world within two hours. It would also have enough thrust to deliver a satellite to low-Earth orbit. To get off the ground from a runway, a hypersonic plane would either hitch a ride on a conventional plane, or have its own conventional jet engine.
Active Denial System.
Millimetre-wave or microwave beams supposedly make people flee without injuring them. They might typically be powered by a generator fitted to a Humvee, in crowd control situations.
A 2-metre antenna and mobile generator produce and aim a beam of 95-gigahertz (3-millimetre) radiation.
Nuclear missiles.
Nuclear missiles are able to deliver unmatched destructive power anywhere in the world, making them the ultimate level of military power. One or more nuclear warheads are mounted on a ballistic missile, and launched vertically.
Stun guns (Tasers)
Tasers disable people with bursts of high-voltage electricity, allowing police to subdue them without lasting injury. A special gun fires darts on wires. These deliver a pulse of electricity that temporarily disrupts control of voluntary muscles.
E-bombs.
A rapid increase in electromagnetic field strength during a pulse, induces surges of electric current in conductors. This burns out electrical equipment – semiconductor chips are particularly vulnerable.
Layered missile defence.
Layered missile defence offers the best chance to shoot down attacking ballistic missiles.
Multiple anti-missile systems are deployed to target ballistic missiles during different stages of the attacking missile’s flight: Each phase, or layer, of defence increases the chance of successful destruction of the missile.
Information warfare.
This technique interferes with the flow of information vital to enemy operations, while defending friendly channels of communication. Information warfare specifically targets communication networks and computers.
‘Hyper Stealth’ or ‘Quantum Stealth’
Using naturally occurring metamaterials, scientists have been designing lightwave-bending materials that can greatly reduce the thermal and visible signatures of a target.
Electromagnetic Rail Guns.
EM rail gun launchers use a magnetic field rather than chemical propellants (e.g., gunpowder or fuel) to thrust a projectile at long range and at velocities of 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph. nautical miles using 32 megajoules.
The extended velocity and range of EM rail guns provides several benefits both in offensive and defensive terms, from precision strikes that can counter even the most advanced area defense systems to air defense against incoming targets.
Space Weapons.
Despite international pressure against the weaponization of space, major countries continue to explore technologies that would turn the sky above us into the next battleground.
Hypersonic Cruise Missiles and ‘Prompt Global Strike’
Had hypersonic cruise missiles existed in the mid-1990s, the U.S. might have rid itself of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden much earlier than it did, and would have accomplished the feat in Afghanistan rather than in Pakistan.
Sentient’ Unmanned Vehicles.
Perhaps the single-most important development in the defense industry in the past decade is the emergence of unmanned vehicles.
Among this which one seems most terrible to you let us know in the comment section.
#UltimateFact #Weaon #Facts

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CRISPR/Cas systems have undergone tremendous advancement in the past decade. These precise genome editing tools have applications ranging from transgenic crop development to gene therapy and beyond. And with their recent development of CRISPR-COPIES, researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) are further improving CRISPR’s versatility and ease of use.

“CRISPR-COPIES is a tool that can quickly identify appropriate chromosomal integration sites for genetic engineering in any organism,” said Huimin Zhao, CABBI Conversion Theme Leader and Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) at the University of Illinois. “It will accelerate our work in the metabolic engineering of non-model yeasts for cost-effective production of chemicals and biofuels.”

Gene editing has revolutionized scientists’ capabilities in understanding and manipulating genetic information. This form of genetic engineering allows researchers to introduce new traits into an organism, such as resistance to pests or the ability to produce a valuable biochemical.

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The color centers of diamond are the focus of an increasing number of research studies, due to their potential for developing quantum technologies. Some works have particularly explored the use of negatively-charged group-IV diamond defects, which exhibit an efficient spin-photon interface, as the nodes of quantum networks.

Researchers at Ulm University in Germany recently leveraged a Germanium vacancy (GeV) center in diamond to realize a . The resulting quantum memory, presented in a Physical Review Letters paper, was found to exhibit a promising coherence time of more than 20 ms.

“Our research group’s primary focus is the exploration of diamond color centers for quantum applications,” Katharina Senkalla, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org. “The most popular defect of diamond so far has been the nitrogen-vacancy center, but, recently, other color centers have also become a focus of research. These consist of an element from the IV column of the periodic table—Si, Ge, Sn or Pb, and a lattice vacancy (i.e., missing next-neighbor carbon atom).”

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This isn’t rocket science it’s neuroscience.

Ever since the dawn of antiquity, people have strived to improve their cognitive abilities. From the advent of the wheel to the development of artificial intelligence, technology has had a profound leverage on civilization. Cognitive enhancement or augmentation of brain functions has become a trending topic both in academic and public debates in improving physical and mental abilities. The last years have seen a plethora of suggestions for boosting cognitive functions and biochemical, physical, and behavioral strategies are being explored in the field of cognitive enhancement. Despite expansion of behavioral and biochemical approaches, various physical strategies are known to boost mental abilities in diseased and healthy individuals. Clinical applications of neuroscience technologies offer alternatives to pharmaceutical approaches and devices for diseases that have been fatal, so far. Importantly, the distinctive aspect of these technologies, which shapes their existing and anticipated participation in brain augmentations, is used to compare and contrast them. As a preview of the next two decades of progress in brain augmentation, this article presents a plausible estimation of the many neuroscience technologies, their virtues, demerits, and applications. The review also focuses on the ethical implications and challenges linked to modern neuroscientific technology. There are times when it looks as if ethics discussions are more concerned with the hypothetical than with the factual. We conclude by providing recommendations for potential future studies and development areas, taking into account future advancements in neuroscience innovation for brain enhancement, analyzing historical patterns, considering neuroethics and looking at other related forecasts.

Keywords: brain 2025, brain machine interface, deep brain stimulation, ethics, non-invasive and invasive brain stimulation.

Humans have striven to increase their mental capacities since ancient times. From symbolic language, writing and the printing press to mathematics, calculators and computers, mankind has devised and employed tools to record, store, and exchange thoughts and to enhance cognition. Revolutionary changes are occurring in the health care delivery system as a result of the accelerating speed of innovation and increased employment of technology to suit society’s evolving health care needs (Sullivan and Hagen, 2002). The aim of researchers working on cognitive enhancement is to understand the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms underlying cognitive capacities while theorists are rather interested in their social and ethical implications (Dresler et al., 2019; Oxley et al., 2021).

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