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Category: chemistry – Page 99

Hubble’s ‘impossible’ planet explained? Gas giants may have formed fast in early universe

Dwarf galaxies like the SMC are often un-evolved when it comes to their chemistry because their history of star formation isn’t very extensive, so they haven’t had a chance to build up many heavy elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon or iron. NGC 346, for instance, contains about 10% the abundance of heavy elements that star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy have. This makes clusters such as NGC 346 great proxies for studying conditions akin to those found in the early universe.

NGC 346 is still forming lots of stars, and JWST found that many of the young ones, with ages of 20 to 30 million years, still possess planet-forming disks around them. Their existence confounds expectations.

“With Webb, we have a strong confirmation of what we saw with Hubble, and we must rethink how we create computer models for planet formation and early evolution in the young universe,” said Guido De Marchi of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, who led the research.

Researchers take ‘significant leap forward’ with quantum simulation of molecular electron transfer

Researchers at Rice University have made a meaningful advance in the simulation of molecular electron transfer—a fundamental process underpinning countless physical, chemical and biological processes. The study, published in Science Advances, details the use of a trapped-ion quantum simulator to model electron transfer dynamics with unprecedented tunability, unlocking new opportunities for scientific exploration in fields ranging from molecular electronics to photosynthesis.

Electron transfer, critical to processes such as cellular respiration and energy harvesting in plants, has long posed challenges to scientists due to the complex quantum interactions involved. Current computational techniques often fall short of capturing the full scope of these processes. The multidisciplinary team at Rice, including physicists, chemists and biologists, addressed these challenges by creating a programmable quantum system capable of independently controlling the key factors in : donor-acceptor energy gaps, electronic and vibronic couplings and environmental dissipation.

Using an ion crystal trapped in a vacuum system and manipulated by , the researchers demonstrated the ability to simulate real-time spin dynamics and measure transfer rates across a range of conditions. The findings not only validate key theories of quantum mechanics but also pave the way for novel insights into light-harvesting systems and molecular devices.

Superconductivity Experts Speak Up for Hydride Research

The search for superconductivity in hydrogen-rich compounds known as hydrides has been an emotional rollercoaster ride for the scientific community. Excitement mounted a few years ago, as hydride experiments had physicists imagining that a Holy Grail, room-temperature superconductivity, might be within reach. But the field was shocked in 2023 by allegations of malpractice and fraud. Now a group of physicists—leading superconductivity experts who aren’t involved in hydride research—has offered an independent assessment of the available body of work on these materials [1]. They conclude that there is overwhelming evidence for superconductivity in hydrides.

“The more I read the foundational literature, and the more I learned about the way that results were being repeated, the more it became clear to me that hydride superconductivity is completely genuine,” says Andrew Mackenzie of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Germany and the University of St Andrews in the UK.

Mackenzie was one of the initiators of the group’s work. “At conferences last spring, guys my age were having lots of young people coming up to ask: What’s going on in hydrides?” he says. After a communal discussion at a superconductivity meeting in Berlin in August, he and other researchers thought that something needed to be done to address young researchers’ concerns. They organized a group that would review available data with the goal of delivering an objective evaluation of hydride superconductivity claims, says Jörg Schmalian of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, who is one of the article’s cosigners.

Scientists steer the development of stem cells to regenerate and repair organs

Investigators from Cedars-Sinai and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have identified a new way to deliver instructions that tell stem cells to grow into specific bodily structures, a critical step in eventually regenerating and repairing tissues and organs.

The scientists engineered cells that form structures called “synthetic organizers.” These organizers provided instructions to the stem cells through called morphogens, which stimulated and enabled the stem cells to grow into specific complex tissues and organ-like assemblies.

The research was conducted with mouse , and the findings were published in Cell.

Reward-based Learning— Neuroscientists demonstrate Dopamine and Serotonin Work in Opposition to Shape Learning

If you’ve heard of two of the brain’s chemical neurotransmitters, it’s probably dopamine and serotonin. Never mind that glutamate and GABA do most of the work—it’s the thrill of dopamine as the “pleasure chemical” and serotonin as a tender mood-stabilizer that attract all the headlines.

Of course, the headlines mostly get it wrong. Dopamine’s role in shaping behavior goes way beyond simple concepts like “pleasure” or even “reward”. And the fact that it takes weeks or months for serotonin-boosting SSRI antidepressants to work suggests that it’s not actually the immediate jump in serotonin levels that drum out the doldrums of depression, but some still-mysterious shift in downstream brain circuits.

A new study from Stanford’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute reveals yet another new facet of these mood-managing molecules. The research, published November 25, 2024 in Nature, demonstrates for the first time exactly how dopamine and serotonin work together—or more precisely, in opposition—to shape our behavior.

Eco-friendly reactor mimics lightning to produce ammonia from air and water

There’s a good chance you owe your existence to the Haber-Bosch process.

This industrial chemical reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen produces , the key ingredient in synthetic fertilizers that supply much of the world’s food supply and enabled the population explosion of the last century.

It may also threaten the existence of future generations. The process consumes about 2% of the world’s total energy supply, and the hydrogen required for the reaction mostly comes from fossil fuels.

Scientists Have Discovered a Cancer “Fingerprint,” Revolutionizing Early Detection

Different types of cancer have distinct molecular “fingerprints” that can be identified in the early stages of the disease with remarkable accuracy. Small, portable scanners can detect these fingerprints within just a few hours, according to a study published today in Molecular Cell.

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona made this breakthrough, paving the way for non-invasive diagnostic tests that could identify various types of cancer more quickly and at earlier stages than current methods allow.

The study centers around the ribosome, the protein factories of a cell. For decades, ribosomes were thought to have the same blueprint across the human body. However, researchers discovered a hidden layer of complexity – tiny chemical modifications which vary between different tissues, developmental stages, and diseases.

Nano drug delivery system eliminates need for complicated carriers

A team of University of Melbourne researchers from the Caruso Nanoengineering Group has created an innovative drug delivery system with outstanding potential to improve drug development.

The team has pioneered a that is a coordination network composed of only metal ions and biomolecules, known as metal–biomolecule network (MBN). This system eliminates the need for complicated drug “carriers,” making it potentially more useful in a range of applications.

The research has been published in Science Advances and was led by Melbourne Laureate Professor and NHMRC Leadership Fellow Frank Caruso, from the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, with Research Fellows Dr. Wanjun Xu and Dr. Zhixing Lin joint first authors.

AI Protein Discovery Unlocks Secrets of Life’s Beginning

Research utilizing AI tool AlphaFold has revealed a new protein complex that initiates the fertilization process between sperm and egg, shedding light on the molecular interactions essential for successful fertilization.

Genetic research has uncovered many proteins involved in the initial contact between sperm and egg. However, direct proof of how these proteins bind or form complexes to enable fertilization remained unclear. Now, Andrea Pauli’s lab at the IMP, working with international collaborators, has combined AI-driven structural predictions with experimental evidence to reveal a key fertilization complex. Their findings, based on studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, were published in the journal Cell.

Fertilization is the first step in forming an embryo, starting with the sperm’s journey toward the egg, guided by chemical signals. When the sperm reaches the egg, it binds to the egg’s surface through specific protein interactions. This binding readies their membranes to merge, allowing their genetic material to combine and create a zygote—a single cell that will eventually develop into a new organism.

Scientists develop scans that light up aggressive cancer tumors for better treatment

Researchers have used a chemical compound to light up treatment-resistant cancers on imaging scans, in a breakthrough that could help medical professionals better target and treat cancer.

The authors at King’s College London say that using the radiotracer—an injected compound used in PET scans—could help inform doctors that a patient’s aggressive cancer will not respond to chemotherapy before treatment is given. This would prevent patients receiving unnecessary treatment and provide them with alternative options that will give them the best chance of beating the disease.

The paper, “Imaging NRF2 activation in non-small cell lung cancer with ” published in Nature Communications, shows therapy-resistant tumors “lit up like a Christmas tree” on PET scans when the radiotracer was injected.

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