Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels that would both solve the problem of dwindling supplies of oil and cut the net carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles running on hydrocarbon fuels is a cause high on the environmental agenda. The use of biomass as a source for fuels compounds has benefits, but the setting aside of the great tracts of land required to “grow” adequate crops for conversion into biodiesel detracts from a parallel agenda of …
Drugs used to overcome cancer may also combat antibiotic resistance: McMaster researchers – The pharmaceutical sector has made a big investment in targeting kinases proteins, so there are a lot of compounds and drugs out there that, although they were designed to overcome cancer, they can in fact be looked at with fresh eyes and maybe repurposed to address the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Jan 15, 2021
One-pot synthesis creates anticancer candidates – Researchers in Germany have developed a simple, rapid and high-yielding cascade synthesis of a collection of polycyclic compounds that resemble indole alkaloid natural products and which interfere with cell division. The compounds could be promising new anticancer drug candidates.
Jan 14, 2021
First electronic optical fibers with hydrogenated amorphous silicon are developed – A new chemical technique for depositing a non-crystalline form of silicon into the long, ultra-thin pores of optical fibers has been developed by an international team of scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom. The technique, which is the first of its kind to use high-pressure chemistry for making well-developed films and wires of this particular kind of silicon semiconductor, will …
Jan 13, 2021
MSU chemists become the first to solve an 84-year-old theory – The same principle that causes figure skaters to spin faster as they draw their arms into their bodies has now been used by Michigan State University researchers to understand how molecules move energy around following the absorption of light. In the current issue of Science, MSU chemist Jim McCusker demonstrates for the first time the effect is real and also suggests how scientists …
Jan 12, 2021
New synthetic molecules treat autoimmune disease in mice – A team of Weizmann Institute scientists has turned the tables on an autoimmune disease. In such diseases, including Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues. But the scientists managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body's players in autoimmune processes, an enzyme known as MMP9. The results of their research appear today in Nature …