Organic Chemistry News

April 27, 2024

Top Headlines

The Longer Spilled Oil Lingers in Freshwater, the More Persistent Compounds It Produces

Apr. 25, 2024 — Oil is an important natural resource for many industries, but it can lead to serious environmental damage when accidentally spilled. While large oil spills are highly publicized, every year there are ...

The Secret to Saving Old Books Could Be Gluten-Free Glues

Apr. 25, 2024 — 'Bookworm' is a cute thing to call a voracious reader, but actual bookworms -- as well as microorganisms and time -- break down the flour pastes commonly used to keep old publications in one piece. Now, researchers have analyzed the proteins in ...

Researchers Create Artificial Cells That Act Like Living Cells

Apr. 23, 2024 — Researchers describe the steps they took to manipulate DNA and proteins -- essential building blocks of life -- to create cells that look and act like cells from the body. This accomplishment, a first in the field, has implications for efforts in ...

From Defects to Order: Spontaneously Emerging Crystal Arrangements in Perovskite Halides

Apr. 17, 2024 — A new hybrid layered perovskite featuring elusive spontaneous defect ordering has been found, report scientists. By introducing specific concentrations of thiocyanate ions into FAPbI3 (FA = ...

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Nanomaterial That Mimics Proteins Could Be Basis for New Neurodegenerative Disease Treatments

Apr. 25, 2024 — A newly developed nanomaterial that mimics the behavior of proteins could be an effective tool for treating Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative ...

A Chemical Mystery Solved -- The Reaction Explaining Large Carbon Sinks

Apr. 24, 2024 — A mystery that has puzzled the scientific community for over 50 years has finally been solved. A team has discovered that a certain type of chemical reaction can explain why organic matter found in ...

Biophysics: Testing How Well Biomarkers Work

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method to determine how reliably target proteins can be labeled using super-resolution fluorescence ...

New Copper-Catalyzed C-H Activation Strategy

Apr. 20, 2024 — Inspired by what human liver enzymes can do, chemists have developed a new set of copper-catalyzed organic synthesis reactions for building and modifying pharmaceuticals and other molecules. The new ...

Researchers Advance Pigment Chemistry With Moon-Inspired Reddish Magentas

Apr. 16, 2024 — A researcher who made color history in 2009 with a vivid blue pigment has developed durable, reddish magentas inspired by lunar mineralogy and ancient Egyptian ...

Innovative Antiviral Defense With New CRISPR Tool

Apr. 12, 2024 — The rise of RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 highlights the need for new ways to fight them. RNA-targeting tools like CRISPR/Cas13 are powerful but inefficient in the cytoplasm of cells, where many RNA ...

Nanoscale Movies Shed Light on One Barrier to a Clean Energy Future

Apr. 11, 2024 — New research is shedding light on one barrier to a clean energy future: corrosion. Using nanoscale imaging techniques, researchers have captured high-resolution videos of tiny crystals of ruthenium ...

New Strategy for Assessing the Applicability of Reactions

Apr. 10, 2024 — Chemists show that a machine-based method prevents widespread 'bias' in chemical ...

Protecting Art and Passwords With Biochemistry

Apr. 8, 2024 — A new molecular test method helps to prove the authenticity of works of art. The new method could also help to make passwords secure against quantum ...

A Simple, Inexpensive Way to Make Carbon Atoms Bind Together

Apr. 5, 2024 — The active ingredient in many drugs is what's known as a small molecule: bigger than water, much smaller than an antibody and mainly made of carbon. It's tough, however, to make these molecules if ...

Light Show in Living Cells

Apr. 19, 2024 — Observing proteins precisely within cells is extremely important for many branches of research but has been a significant technical challenge -- especially in living cells, as the required ...

A New Spin on Organic Shampoo Makes It Sudsier, Longer Lasting

Apr. 11, 2024 — While there's no regulation in the U.S. for what's in organic shampoos, they tend to contain ingredients perceived as safe or environmentally friendly. However, these 'clean' ...

Chemistry Researchers Modify Solar Technology to Produce a Less Harmful Greenhouse Gas

Apr. 2, 2024 — Researchers are using semiconductors to harvest and convert the sun's energy into high-energy compounds that have the potential to produce environmentally-friendly ...

Engineers 'Symphonize' Cleaner Ammonia Production

Apr. 1, 2024 — Among the many chemicals we use every day, ammonia is one of the worst for the atmosphere. The nitrogen-based chemical used in fertilizer, dyes, explosives and many other products ranks second only ...

New Approach to Monitoring Freshwater Quality Can Identify Sources of Pollution, and Predict Their Effects

Mar. 28, 2024 — Analysing the diversity of organic compounds dissolved in freshwater provides a reliable measure of ecosystem health, say ...

Research Lights Up Process for Turning CO2 Into Sustainable Fuel

Mar. 25, 2024 — Researchers have successfully transformed CO2 into methanol by shining sunlight on single atoms of copper deposited on a light-activated material, a discovery that paves the way for creating new ...

New Reactor Could Save Millions When Making Ingredients for Plastics and Rubber from Natural Gas

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new way to make an important ingredient for plastics, adhesives, carpet fibers, household cleaners and more from natural gas could reduce manufacturing costs in a post-petroleum economy by millions ...

Recyclable Reagent and Sunlight Convert Carbon Monoxide Into Methanol

Mar. 20, 2024 — Scientists have demonstrated the selective conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol using a cascade reaction strategy. The two-part process is powered by sunlight, occurs at room temperature ...

Is Food Waste the Key to Sustainable, Plastic-Free Diapers and Sanitary Pads?

Mar. 19, 2024 — Once thrown away, disposable diapers and sanitary pads can take hundreds of years to decompose, because they contain plastics and other synthetic polymers. But now, researchers are replacing these ...

Molecular Crystal Motors Move Like Microbes When Exposed to Light

Mar. 19, 2024 — At first glance, Rabih Al-Kaysi's molecular motors look like the microscopic worms you'd see in a drop of pond water. But these wriggling ribbons are not alive; they're made from ...

Spectroscopy and Theory Shed Light on Excitons in Semiconductors

Mar. 19, 2024 — Researchers have made very fast and very precise images of excitons -- in fact, accurate to one quadrillionth of a second and one billionth of a meter. This understanding is essential for developing ...

Sustainable Solution for Wastewater Polluted by Dyes Used in Many Industries

Mar. 19, 2024 — Water pollution from dyes used in textile, food, cosmetic and other manufacturing is a major ecological concern with industry and scientists seeking biocompatible and more sustainable alternatives to ...

Harnessing Hydrogen at Life's Origin

Mar. 18, 2024 — A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air ...

Engineers Measure pH in Cell Condensates

Mar. 18, 2024 — In a first for the condensate field, researchers have figured out how nucleolar sub-structures are assembled. This organization gives rise to unique pH profiles within nucleoli, which they measured ...

Printed Polymer Allows Researchers to Explore Chirality and Spin Interactions at Room Temperature

Mar. 15, 2024 — A printable organic polymer that assembles into chiral structures when printed has enabled researchers to reliably measure the amount of charge produced in spin-to-charge conversion within a ...

Breakthrough Could Make Automated Dosing Systems Universal

Mar. 15, 2024 — Automated insulin dosing systems combine low-cost blood-glucose monitors with insulin pumps that use precision dosing to continuously regulate blood-sugar and hold it steady. Synthetic biologists ...

New Bioengineered Protein Design Shows Promise in Fighting COVID-19

Mar. 14, 2024 — A recent scientific breakthrough has emerged from the work of researchers aiming to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. The study focuses on the design and development of a novel ...

New Simpler and Cost-Effective Forensics Test Helps Identify Touch DNA

Mar. 14, 2024 — Research has found a less expensive and easier to use test to learn more about forensic touch DNA. This research has important implications for forensic investigations and being able to identify DNA ...

New Computational Strategy Boosts the Ability of Drug Designers to Target Proteins Inside the Membrane

Mar. 13, 2024 — Hitting targets embedded within the cell membrane has long been difficult for drug developers due to the membrane's challenging biochemical properties. Now, chemists have demonstrated new ...

A Simple and Robust Experimental Process for Protein Engineering

Mar. 12, 2024 — A protein engineering method using simple, cost-effective experiments and machine learning models can predict which proteins will be effective for a given purpose, according to a new ...