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Category: chemistry

‘Listening in’ on the brain’s hidden language: Engineered protein detects the faintest incoming signals

Scientists have engineered a protein able to record the incoming chemical signals of brain cells (as opposed to just their outgoing signals). These whisper-quiet incoming messages are the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays a critical role in how brain cells communicate with one another but until now has been extremely difficult to capture.

The findings are published in Nature Methods and could transform how neuroscience research is done as it pertains to measuring and analyzing neural activity.

The special protein that researchers at the Allen Institute and HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus have engineered is a molecular “glutamate indicator” called iGluSnFR4 (pronounced ‘glue sniffer’). It’s sensitive enough to detect the faintest incoming signals between neurons in the brain, offering a new way to decipher and interpret their complex cascade of electrical activity that underpins learning, memory, and emotion. iGluSnFR4 could help decode the hidden language of the brain and deepen our understanding of how its complex circuitry works. This discovery allows researchers to watch neurons in the brain communicate in real time.

Production of hydrogen and carbon nanotubes from methane using a multi-pass floating catalyst chemical vapour deposition reactor with process gas recycling

Methane pyrolysis produces hydrogen and carbon materials, but some approaches based on chemical vapour deposition actually consume hydrogen to mitigate unwanted side reactions. Here Peden et al. use gas recycling in a multi-pass floating catalyst chemical vapour deposition reactor to produce hydrogen alongside carbon nanotube aerogels.

A molecular switch for green hydrogen: Catalyst changes function based on how it’s assembled

Hydrogen production through water electrolysis is a cornerstone of the clean energy transition, but it relies on efficient and stable catalysts that work under acidic conditions—currently dominated by precious metals like iridium and platinum.

A research team from the Singular Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) in Spain, led by María Giménez-López, has made a fundamental advance toward Earth-abundant alternatives. Their work, published in the journal Advanced Materials, shows that a single molecular compound can act as a catalytic “switch,” toggling between oxygen and hydrogen production.

Scalable method enables ultrahigh-resolution quantum dot displays without damaging performance

Over the past decade, colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as promising materials for next-generation displays due to their tunable emission, high brightness, and compatibility with low-cost solution processing. However, a major challenge is achieving ultrahigh-resolution patterning without damaging their fragile surface chemistry. Existing methods such as inkjet printing and photolithography-based processes either fall short in resolution or compromise QD performance.

To address this, a research team led by Associate Professor Jeongkyun Roh from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea, has introduced a universal, photoresist-free, and nondestructive direct photolithography method for QD patterning. Instead of exposing QDs to harsh chemical modifications, the team engineered a photocrosslinkable blended emissive layer (b-EML).

This layer is formed by mixing QDs with a hole-transport polymer and a small fraction of an ultraviolet (UV)-activated crosslinker, enabling precise patterning while preserving QD integrity. The study was published in the journal of Advanced Functional Materials on 29 September 2025.

Tiny Molecule Made by Gut Bacteria Could Cut Type 2 Diabetes Risk

A compound produced by gut bacteria could play a vital role in managing and preventing type 2 diabetes, according to a study led by researchers from Imperial College London (ICL).

The small molecule, called trimethylamine (TMA), is a major type of bacterial metabolite – a class of chemicals produced naturally through processes of transforming nutrients into energy and building blocks.

Scientists have now found evidence in human cell models and lab mice that TMA could protect the body from some of the damage triggered by a high-fat diet. Specifically, it has the effect of dampening down inflammation and improving insulin response, both of which reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Reining In a Chaotic Fluid

Fluid flows mimicking biological flows can be controlled in the lab using a feedback system, which could be useful in robotics and other technologies.

Ordinary fluids can flow when driven by pressure or gravity, but biological fluids, such as those inside cells, generate complex flows through internal sources of chemical energy. Flows of such “active fluids” could be extremely useful in robotics and other areas of engineering, but controlling them remains difficult. Now researchers have demonstrated a method of control that maintains a constant fluid speed despite changing conditions [1]. They hope that the approach can be used to stabilize active-matter flows in future technologies.

Life depends on biochemical processes that respond to many situations while maintaining fixed chemical conditions despite external and internal disruptions. Inspired by this impressive stability, researchers have been developing analogous artificial systems by assembling active fluids from key biochemical components akin to those inside cells. For example, they have created fluids that can generate their own bulk contractions or undergo spontaneous flows. Although these rudimentary designs mimic some features of living matter, researchers have so far failed to demonstrate techniques that keep properties such as fluid flow speeds stable over time.

Turning plastic waste into valuable chemicals with single-atom catalysts

The rapid accumulation of plastic waste is currently posing significant risks for both human health and the environment on Earth. A possible solution to this problem would be to recycle plastic waste, breaking it into smaller molecules that can be used to produce valuable chemicals.

Researchers at Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University recently introduced a new approach to convert polystyrene (PS), a plastic widely used to pack some foods and other products, into toluene, a hydrocarbon that is of value in industrial and manufacturing settings. Their proposed strategy, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, entails heating polystyrene waste in hydrogen and breaking it down into smaller vapor molecules, a process known as hydro-pyrolysis.

Life-cycle and techno-economic analyses performed by the team showed that the newly introduced process could reduce the carbon footprint of toluene production by 53%, producing toluene at an estimated cost of $0.61/kg, which is below the current industry benchmark.

From Big Bang To AI, Unified Dynamics Enables Understanding Of Complex Systems

Experiments reveal that inflation not only smooths the universe but populates it with a specific distribution of initial perturbations, creating a foundation for structure formation. The team measured how quantum fluctuations during inflation are stretched and amplified, transitioning from quantum to classical behavior through a process of decoherence and coarse-graining. This process yields an emergent classical stochastic process, captured by Langevin or Fokker-Planck equations, demonstrating how classical stochastic dynamics can emerge from underlying quantum dynamics. The research highlights that the “initial conditions” for galaxy formation are not arbitrary, but constrained by the Gaussian field generated during inflation, possessing specific correlations. This framework provides a cross-scale narrative, linking microphysics and cosmology to life, brains, culture, and ultimately, artificial intelligence, demonstrating a continuous evolution of dynamics across the universe.

Universe’s Evolution, From Cosmos to Cognition

This research presents a unified, cross-scale narrative of the universe’s evolution, framing cosmology, astrophysics, biology, and artificial intelligence as successive regimes of dynamical systems. Rather than viewing these fields as separate, the work demonstrates how each builds upon the previous, connected by phase transitions, symmetry-breaking events, and attractors, ultimately tracing a continuous chain from the Big Bang to contemporary learning systems. The team illustrates how gravitational instability shapes the cosmic web, leading to star and planet formation, and how geochemical cycles establish stable, long-lived attractors, providing the foundation for life’s emergence as self-maintaining reaction networks. The study emphasizes that the universe is not simply evolving in state, but also in its capacity for description and learning, with each transition.

How tumors thrive in acidic, low-oxygen environments?

The authors determined the 3.3 Å cryoEM structure of the human NBCn1 outward facing (OF) conformational state with densities corresponding to the transported ions in the ion coordination site. They also generated NBCn1 inward facing (IF) and intermediate (occluded) structures and characterized the transport cycle and the ion dynamics in the IF and OF states.

The results showed that NBCn1 utilizes an elevator-type transport mechanism with a small vertical shift of the ion coordination site between OF and IF conformational states and that the transported ions permeate without significant energy barriers.

The researchers showed that NBCn1 moves two sodium ions and one carbonate ion through an efficient “elevator-like” motion that minimizes energy use. This allows NBCn1 to achieve a high transport rate of approximately 15,000 ions per second, helping tumor cells maintain an internal pH that promotes survival, division and resistance to acidic stress.

By understanding the structure and function of NBCn1, the study provides a blueprint for designing drugs that could potentially block this transporter and disrupt the internal chemical balance that cancer cells depend on. Targeting this protein in cancer cells specifically could offer a precise way to weaken tumors while minimizing harm to normal tissue.

Scientists have characterized the structure and function of a key survival protein in breast cancer cells that helps explain how these tumors resist environmental stress and thrive in acidic, low-oxygen environments that would normally be toxic to healthy cells.

Breast cancer cells rely on a transporter protein called NBCn1 to bring alkali ions into the cell and maintain a favorable internal pH.

Continue reading “How tumors thrive in acidic, low-oxygen environments?” | >

Consciousness breaks from the physical world by keeping the past alive

Conscious experiences of change, from seeing a bird take flight to listening to a melody, cannot be broken down into ever smaller units of experience. They must inhabit what William James called the “specious present,” a sliding window of time where the immediate past and present overlap. Philosopher Lyu Zhou argues that this exposes a deep rift between mind and matter. When the physical world undergoes change, it does so through succession – one physical state replaces another, and the past is gone – whereas consciousness requires the active retention of the past inside the present, revealing its fundamentally non-physical nature.

1. Consciousness, change and time

You are now conscious as you read this article. Is your consciousness physical? Many today think it is. They claim that it either is a physical system made of matter – most likely the neural network of your brain – or is realized by matter through a physical process, most likely by your brain through a neural biochemical process. However, I hope to convince you that this view is wrong. I hope to show you that your immediate present consciousness has certain features that physical systems and processes cannot have.

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