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Boron replaces metal by forming complexes with olefins, reducing toxicity and cost

When it comes to eliminating toxic and expensive heavy metals in the chemical industry, a new study from the University of Würzburg points the way forward.

The team led by chemistry professor Holger Braunschweig at the University of Würzburg is investigating the “metal-mimetic” properties of main group elements such as boron. They have shown that under certain conditions, boron can mimic the reaction behavior of metals without being toxic or as expensive as metals.

The article published in Nature Chemistry shows that boron can also form so-called π complexes with , which are similar in their properties and behavior to the complexes of transition metals with olefins. The latter compounds are intermediates in many large-scale catalytic processes in industry.

The Muscle-Brain Axis and Neurodegenerative Diseases: The Key Role of Mitochondria in Exercise-Induced Neuroprotection

Regular exercise is associated with pronounced health benefits. The molecular processes involved in physiological adaptations to exercise are best understood in skeletal muscle. Enhanced mitochondrial functions in muscle are central to exercise-induced adaptations. However, regular exercise also benefits the brain and is a major protective factor against neurodegenerative diseases, such as the most common age-related form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or the most common neurodegenerative motor disorder, Parkinson’s disease. While there is evidence that exercise induces signalling from skeletal muscle to the brain, the mechanistic understanding of the crosstalk along the muscle–brain axis is incompletely understood. Mitochondria in both organs, however, seem to be central players.

Engineers Bring Quantum Internet to Commercial Fiber for the First Time

A new integrated chip demonstrates how quantum networks could communicate using today’s internet protocols over existing commercial fiber-optic cables. In a groundbreaking experiment, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania successfully extended quantum networking beyond the laboratory by tra

World’s First “Perovskite Camera” Can See Inside the Human Body

A new detector aims to reduce costs while improving the quality of nuclear medicine. Physicians use nuclear medicine techniques such as SPECT scans to observe how the heart pumps, follow patterns of blood flow, and identify diseases that are otherwise hidden deep within the body. Current scanners

Stanford Scientists Rethink How We Learn To Move in the World

Knight Initiative researchers are investigating the detailed processes behind how the brain learns to control movement. Their discoveries may eventually lead to improved therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Every motor skill you acquire, from simple actions like walking to precise tasks such as wat

Scientists Train AI to Forecast Over 1,000 Diseases, Years in Advance

Scientists said Wednesday that they had created an AI model able to predict medical diagnoses years in advance, building on the same technology behind consumer chatbots like ChatGPT.

Based on a patient’s case history, the Delphi-2M AI “predicts the rates of more than 1,000 diseases” years into the future, the team from British, Danish, German and Swiss institutions wrote in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Researchers trained the model on data from Britain’s UK Biobank – a large-scale biomedical research database with details on about half a million participants.

Rapamycin linked to DNA damage resilience in aging human immune cells

University of Oxford-led research finds low-dose rapamycin functions as a genomic protector in aging human immune cells, lowering DNA damage.

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a central signaling pathway that regulates and coordinates cell growth, metabolism, and survival in response to environmental cues. It helps cells integrate signals from growth factors, nutrients, and stress to control whether they are in an anabolic (building up) or catabolic (breaking down) state.

Aging immune systems accumulate DNA damage linked to immunosenescence. Rapamycin is a drug that inhibits the mTOR pathway. Originally developed for organ transplantation to prevent immune rejection, previous research has found that, at non-immunosuppressive doses, rapamycin can mitigate cellular senescence.

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