Forcing fluorines into shape
For some, the phrase ‘total synthesis’ conjures images of Robert Woodward lighting another cigarette as he works into the evening on his groundbreaking preparation of vitamin B12. For others, KC Nicolaou’s searing yellow structures of polycylic brevetoxins on infinitely black slides are a most vivid image, while for a younger generation, the term is inherently linked to Phil Baran’s eternal […]
Synthetic protein packages its own genetic material and evolves
Computationally designed protein assemblies are advancing research in synthetic life and in targeted drug delivery Summary: Scientists have created computationally designed protein assemblies, that display some functions normally associated with living things, in the search for ways to transport therapeutic cargo into specific types of cells without using viruses as vehicles. These encapsulate their own […]
Graphene transformed into diamond under pressure
Effect unique to bilayer graphene could be exploited to make ultrathin protective coatings Crushing a double layer of graphene under extremely high pressures can turn it into an ultrathin diamond film, researchers in the US have found. The phenomenon, which is not seen in either monolayer or multilayer graphene, may one day be used to […]
Clegg introduces a failed rocket fuel oxidiser with a very tricky structure
As a teenager, I made good use of nitromethane – which has the CH4 structure of methane with one hydrogen atom replaced by nitrogen dioxide – it was an oxidiser in the fuel for glow plug motors. But I wasn’t aware of the compound’s big brother, tetranitromethane, in which all of methane’s four hydrogen atoms are replaced with […]
Human cells and microorganisms found to be biochemically similar, according to astonishing study
Science earlier in 2017 and featured proof that both archaea and eukaryotic cells have a common mechanism that compacts, organizes, and structures their genomes. Karolin Luger led the study, and she is currently a structural biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder. However, most of the reports published in Science were accomplished when Luger was […]
