Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: chemistry

Researchers in Australia are working on a way to lower the cost of producing solar thermal energy by as much as 40% with the help of shatterproof rear-view mirrors originally designed for cars.

That could be huge for agriculture and industrial facilities which need large amounts of heat for large-scale processes at temperatures between 212 — 754 °F (100 — 400 °C). That addresses food production, drying crops, grain and pulse drying, sterilizing soil and treating wastewater on farms; industrial applications include producing chemicals, making paper, desalinating water, and dyeing textiles.

A quick refresher in case you’re out of the loop: solar thermal energy and conventional solar energy (photovoltaic) systems both harvest sunlight, but they work in fundamentally different ways. Solar thermal setups capture the Sun’s heat rather than its light, use reflectors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, and convert solar radiation directly into heat energy. This heat can be used directly for heating buildings, water, or the aforementioned industrial processes.

Read more | >

When a molecule absorbs light, it undergoes a whirlwind of quantum-mechanical transformations. Electrons jump between energy levels, atoms vibrate, and chemical bonds shift—all within millionths of a billionth of a second.

These processes underpin everything from photosynthesis in plants and DNA damage from sunlight, to the operation of solar cells and light-powered cancer therapies.

Yet despite their importance, chemical processes driven by light are difficult to simulate accurately. Traditional computers struggle, because it takes vast computational power to simulate this quantum behavior.

Read more | >

The earliest cells harnessed energy through geochemical reactions, a process that LMU researchers have now successfully replicated in the lab. The earliest ancestor of all life on Earth likely thrived in warm environments, relied on hydrogen for energy, and produced methane as a byproduct. Resear

Read more | >

Scientists have developed a method to alter the color and brightness of rare earth element luminescence by changing their chemical environment, enabling the design of advanced light-emitting materials. Researchers at HSE University and the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the Russian Acade

Read more | >

The role of fungi in the biogeochemical cycling of gold remains unclear. Here the authors show that fungi can initiate gold oxidation under supergene conditions, thereby impacting gold mobilisation and secondary deposit formation in terrestrial environments.

Read more | >

Researchers at the University of Sydney have successfully performed a quantum simulation of chemical dynamics with real molecules for the first time, marking a significant milestone in the application of quantum computing to chemistry and medicine.

Understanding in real time how atoms interact to form new compounds or interact with light has long been expected as a potential application of quantum technology. Now, quantum chemist Professor Ivan Kassal and Physics Horizon Fellow Dr. Tingrei Tan have shown it is possible using a quantum machine at the University of Sydney.

The innovative work leverages a novel, highly resource-efficient encoding scheme implemented on a trapped-ion quantum computer in the University of Sydney Nanoscience Hub, with implications that could help transform medicine, energy and materials science.

Read more | >

Gene therapy is a technique that rectifies defective or abnormal genes by introducing exogenous genes into target cells to cure the disease. Although gene therapy has gained some accomplishment for the diagnosis and therapy of inherited or acquired cardiovascular diseases, how to efficiently and specifically deliver targeted genes to the lesion sites without being cleared by the blood system remains challenging. Based on nanotechnology development, the non-viral vectors provide a promising strategy for overcoming the difficulties in gene therapy. At present, according to the physicochemical properties, nanotechnology-based non-viral vectors include polymers, liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, and inorganic nanoparticles. Non-viral vectors have an advantage in safety, efficiency, and easy production, possessing potential clinical application value when compared with viral vectors. Therefore, we summarized recent research progress of gene therapy for cardiovascular diseases based on commonly used non-viral vectors, hopefully providing guidance and orientation for future relevant research.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) leads to almost a third of all deaths worldwide, resulting from atherosclerotic plaque leading to hemadostenosis and blood flow restriction (Park et al., 2020; Tsao et al., 2022). Despite progress in medical technology, CVD is still a major cause of death (Yang et al., 2023). Conventional treatment strategies for CVD include anticoagulation, antiplatelet, thrombolytics, hypolipidemic drugs, and invasive therapies like vascular bypass grafting and stent transplantation (Zhu et al., 2021). However, small molecule drug therapy in conventional treatment strategies is characterized by short half-life and low bioavailability, and long-term use of certain drugs may also lead to side effects such as drug resistance and potential hematological toxicity (Missri, 1979; Fu et al., 2014). Surgical treatment, on the other hand, is more pro-traumatic, requires a longer recovery time, and has a high risk of postoperative complications.

Read more | >

Depending on the type of artificial blood that is made, various raw materials are used. Hemoglobin-based products can use either isolated hemoglobin or synthetically produced hemoglobin.

To produce hemoglobin synthetically, manufacturers use compounds known as amino acids. These are chemicals that plants and animals use to create the proteins that are essential for life. There are 20 naturally occurring amino acids that may be used to produce hemoglobin. All of the amino acid molecules share certain chemical characteristics. They are made up of an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a side chain. The nature of the side chain differentiates the various amino acids. Hemoglobin synthesis also requires a specific type of bacteria and all of the materials needed to incubate it. This includes warm water, molasses, glucose, acetic acid, alcohols, urea, and liquid ammonia.

For other types of hemoglobin-based artificial blood products, the hemoglobin is isolated from human blood. It is typically obtained from donated blood that has expired before it is used. Other sources of hemoglobin come from spent animal blood. This hemoglobin is slightly different from human hemoglobin and must be modified before being used.

Read more | >

Meta released a massive trove of chemistry data Wednesday that it hopes will supercharge scientific research, and is also crucial for the development of more advanced, general-purpose AI systems.

The company used the data set to build a powerful new AI model for scientists that can speed up the time it takes to create new drugs and materials.

The Open Molecules 2025 effort required 6 billion compute hours to create, and is the result of 100 million calculations that simulate the quantum mechanics of atoms and molecules in four key areas chosen for their potential impact on science.

Read more | >