Scientists explore the origins of energy in chemical reactions using experimental quantum chemistry

(Phys.org)One thing that all chemical reactions have in commonwhether they are the reactions that take place inside a battery, the metabolic reactions inside a living organism, or the combustion reactions that cause ...

A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developing a bioinorganic hybrid approach to artificial photosynthesis have achieved another milestone. Having generated ...

(Phys.org)One of the mysteries in biology is how cells can selectively diffuse potassium across a membrane. Biological systems rely on a delicate balance between these potassium and sodium ion concentrations in the surrounding ...

(Phys.org)A group of researchers have provided a proof-of-concept procedure for making a solid-state molecular-sized switch. They combined a mechanically interlocked molecule with a pre-synthetized metal-organic framework ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California has developed a porous material that is able to split carbon dioxide molecules into carbon monoxide and oxygen. ...

New research by scientists from the University of Southampton has found that water molecules react differently to electric fields, which could provide a new way to study spin isomers at the single-molecule level.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. Now, scientists from the Florida campus ...

In the second part of his lab's recent one-two punch, Florida State University researcher Daniel Kaplan said he has solved a cell division mystery in a way that will intrigue the makers of cancer-fighting drugs.

Invading microbial pathogens must scavenge essential nutrients from their host organism in order to survive and replicate. To defend themselves from infection, hosts attempt to block pathogens' access to these nutrients.

By teasing apart the structure of an enzyme vital to the infectious behavior of the parasites that cause toxoplasmosis and malaria, Whitehead Institute scientists have identified a potentially 'drugable' target that could ...

(Phys.org)Diseases like mad cow disease or Alzheimer's are a result of protein mis-folding. Proteins are comprised of an amino acid chain that folds into a three-dimensional structure. According to the Anfinsen Principle, ...

Leaves of the European chestnut tree contain ingredients with the power to disarm dangerous staph bacteria without boosting its drug resistance, scientists have found.

Mimicking photosynthesis is not easy. The bottleneck of artificial photosynthesis is visible light as converting it into other energy is not efficient. Researchers at Michigan Technological University have found a way to ...

Why have we never been able to manufacture fibers as strong and tough as the silks spun by silkworms and spiders?

Finding a technology to shift carbon dioxide (CO2 ), the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas, from a climate change problem to a valuable commodity has long been a dream of many scientists and government officials. ...

(Phys.org)By using solar energy to reversibly attach and detach hydrogen atoms on a 6-carbon ring called benzene, scientists have developed a simple and efficient method to store, transport, and release hydrogen potentially ...

(Phys.org)Last October, researchers at Ohio State demonstrated the world's first solar batterya solar cell and a lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) battery combined into a single device. The main attraction of the solar battery ...

New research from the University of East Anglia could one day help build computers from DNA.

Capture and convertthis is the motto of carbon dioxide reduction, a process that stops the greenhouse gas before it escapes from chimneys and power plants into the atmosphere and instead turns it into a useful product.

(Phys.org)The most intriguing property of nano-scale organic devices is their tunability. Their properties can be tweaked by changing the organic structure. There have been several studies exploring the organic structure ...

In the 1930s, Irving Langmuir and his colleague Katharine Blodgett were working long days in the General Electric Company's research laboratory. Together, they discovered that by spreading molecules with volatile organic ...

Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and it heats up metal slides and bleachers until they're too hot to use. To fend off damage and heat from the sun's ...

The use of solar energy in the U.S. is growing, but panels on rooftops are still a rare sight. They cost thousands of dollars, and homeowners don't recoup costs for years even in the sunniest or best-subsidized locales. But ...

When a fever strikes in a developing area, the immediate concern may be: Is it the common flu or something much worse that requires quarantine? To facilitate diagnosis in remote, low-resource settings, researchers have developed ...

Human consumption of bacterially contaminated water causes millions of deaths each year throughout the worldprimarily among children. While studying the material properties of paper as a graduate student, Theresa Dankovich, ...

A bomb blast or a rough tackle can inflict brain damage that destroys lives. Yet at the time of impact, these injuries are often invisible. To detect head trauma immediately, a team of researchers has developed a polymer-based ...

Gels are useful: we shave, brush our teeth, and fix our hair with them; in the form of soft contact lenses they can even improve our eyesight.

Native North Americans have long adorned themselves and their homes with fragrant sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata), a native plant used in traditional medicine, to repel biting insects, and mosquitoes in particular. Now, researchers ...

A new world of flexible, bendable, even stretchable electronics is emerging from research labs to address a wide range of potentially game-changing uses. The common, rigid printed circuit board is slowly being replaced by ...

In the battle against cancer, which kills nearly 8 million people worldwide each year, doctors have in their arsenal many powerful weapons, including various forms of chemotherapy and radiation. What they lack, however, is ...

The performance of solar cells, flat panel displays, and other electronics are limited by today's materials. A new material, created by modifying a transparent insulating oxide, replacing up to 25 percent of the lanthanum ...

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have determined that natural sunlight triggers the release of smog-forming nitrogen oxide compounds from the grime that typically coats buildings, statues and other outdoor surfaces ...

When life on Earth began nearly 4 billion years ago, long before humans, dinosaurs or even the earliest single-celled forms of life roamed, it may have started as a hiccup rather than a roar: small, simple molecular building ...

Using a hybrid silica sol-gel material and self-assembled monolayers of a common fatty acid, researchers have developed a new capacitor dielectric material that provides an electrical energy storage capacity rivaling certain ...

In the beginning, there were simple chemicals. And they produced amino acids that eventually became the proteins necessary to create single cells. And the single cells became plants and animals. Recent research is revealing ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers at the Pennsylvania State University has created a new polymer that is able to store energy at higher temperatures than conventional polymers without breaking down. In their paper published ...

Researchers from the Depa
rtment of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have developed a manufacturing technique that could double the electricity output of inexpensive solar cells by using ...

(Phys.org)Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are lightweight fuel cells being developed for applications in vehicles and portable electronics. One of the biggest challenges facing their development is the need ...

Solar panels are an investmentnot only in terms of money, but also energy. It takes energy to mine, process and purify raw materials, and then to manufacture and install the final product.

Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, collaborating with PerkinElmer and UCL (University College London), have witnessed atoms of one chemical element morph into another for the first time evera feat ...

(Phys.org)Clean energy, or energy that comes from renewable sources, is of interest in the developing world. One path toward clean energy is harnessing solar energy and converting it into electrical energy, which could ...

The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time. A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers working at Sandia National Labs working with another team from the University of Rostock in Germany, has succeeded in squeezing liquid deuterium into becoming what appeared to be a metal. ...

Some proteins exist so fleetingly in the bloodstream that they can't be given effectively as therapies. However, building them into larger proteins, such as antibodies, can make them persist long enough to be useful. Now ...

esearchers at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute have developed a dramatically advanced tool for analyzing how chemicals called nanocatalysts convert chemical reactions into electricity.

If you want to change a situation, it's often best to get to the heart of the matter. For chemists, this often means delving into the active sites of catalysts, which speed the reactions behind billions of dollars worth of ...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Babraham Institute have found that a naturally occurring modified DNA base appears to be stably incorporated in the DNA of many mammalian tissues, possibly representing ...

Chemists working in a variety of industries and fields typically go through a laborious process to measure and mix reagents for each reaction they perform. And many of the common reagents they use sit for months or years ...

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Chemistry News - Biochemistry, Polymers, Materials Science