Lifeboat Foundation

After several years of developing the theoretical ideas, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have validated multiple novel predictions about the fundamental mechanism of transport of atoms and molecules (penetrants) in chemically complex molecular and polymer liquid matrices.

The study from Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) Professor Ken Schweizer and Dr. Baicheng Mei, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), extended the theory and tested it against a large amount of experimental data. MatSE Associate Professor Chris Evans and graduate student Grant Sheridan collaborated on this research by providing additional experimental measurements.

“We developed an advanced, state-of-the art theory to predict how molecules move through complex media, especially in polymer liquids,” Schweizer said. “The theory abstracted what the important features are of the chemically complex molecules and of the polymeric medium that they’re moving through that control their rate of transport.”

In 2021, researchers from Toyota Central R&D Labs developed a large, cost-effective artificial photosynthesis system that produces industrial formate at a solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency (ηSTC) of 10.5%¹. Researchers from the lab say that, to their knowlege, this ηSTC is a first for a one metre squared cell.

Within the next 10 years, the company aims to establish artificial photosynthesis technology for wide-scale production of useful carbon compounds.

Artificial intelligence has long been a hot topic: a computer algorithm “learns” by being taught by examples: What is “right” and what is “wrong.” Unlike a computer algorithm, the human brain works with neurons—cells of the brain. These are trained and pass on signals to other neurons. This complex network of neurons and the connecting pathways, the synapses, controls our thoughts and actions.

Biological signals are much more diverse when compared with those in conventional computers. For instance, neurons in a biological neural network communicate with ions, biomolecules and neurotransmitters. More specifically, neurons communicate either chemically—by emitting the messenger substances such as neurotransmitters—or via electrical impulses, so-called “action potentials” or “spikes”.

Artificial neurons are a current area of research. Here, the efficient communication between the biology and electronics requires the realization of artificial neurons that emulate realistically the function of their biological counterparts. This means artificial neurons capable of processing the diversity of signals that exist in biology. Until now, most artificial neurons only emulate their biological counterparts electrically, without taking into account the wet biological environment that consists of ions, biomolecules and neurotransmitters.

Plastic waste is clogging up our rivers and oceans and causing long-lasting environmental damage that is only just starting to come into focus. But a new approach that combines biological and chemical processes could greatly simplify the process of recycling it.

While much of the plastic we use carries symbols indicating it can be recycled, and authorities around the world make a big show about doing so, the reality is that it’s easier said than done. Most recycling processes only work on a single type of plastic, but our waste streams are made up of a complex mixture that can be difficult and expensive to separate.

On top of that, most current chemical recycling processes produce end products of significantly worse quality that can’t be recycled themselves, which means we’re still a long way from the goal of a circular economy when it comes to plastics.

A molecular ratchet, in which a crown ether is pumped from solution onto an encoded molecular strand by a pulse of chemical fuel, opens the way for the reading of information along molecular tapes.

In a new study published in the journal PLOS Biology, a team of researchers at University College London posit that it became the “universal currency of life” by way of a little thing known as phosphorylation.

Basically, phosphorylation is the process by which ATP is created. A phosphate molecule is added to another chemical called ADP, and voíla: ATP is born. That same phosphate, as ScienceAlert explains, is then used for another process called hydrolysis, or the reaction of an organic chemical with water that breaks down ATP for use — and that connection with water may be where the secret to ATP’s metabolic dominance lies.

Well, partly. As the scientists discovered in their research, ATP couldn’t rise to the top alone. It needed both water and another phosphorylating molecule, called AcP, to do it. And in fact, it’s likely that ATP actually knocked out AcP as top energy-giving dog.

Building A More Secure World — Dr. James Revill, Ph.D. — Head of Weapons of Mass Destruction & Space Security Programs, UNIDIR, UN Institute for Disarmament Research United Nations.

Dr. James Revill, Ph.D. (https://unidir.org/staff/james-revill) is the Head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Space Security Program, at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

Continue reading “Dr. James Revill, Ph.D. — Head of Weapons of Mass Destruction & Space Security Programs, UNIDIR” »

Turing’s machine should sound familiar for another reason. It’s similar to the way ribosomes read genetic code on ribbons of RNA to construct proteins.

Cellular factories are a kind of natural Turing machine. What Leigh’s team is after would work the same way but go beyond biochemistry. These microscopic Turing machines, or molecular computers, would allow engineers to write code for some physical output onto a synthetic molecular ribbon. Another molecule would travel along the ribbon, read (and one day write) the code, and output some specified action, like catalyzing a chemical reaction.

Now, Leigh’s team says they’ve built the first components of a molecular computer: A coded molecular ribbon and a mobile molecular reader of the code.

One can split an atomic nucleus to produce energy, but can you also split water to create environment-friendly hydrogen fuel? Doing so currently has two drawbacks: It is both time and energy intensive.

But now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have taken a different path. BGU environmental physicist Prof. Arik Yochelis and Technion materials science professor Avner Rothschild believe they have identified new pathways that would speed up the catalytic process they think will reduce the invested electrical energy costs significantly.

Their splitting process is assisted by solar energy, which is known scientifically by the term photoelectrochemistry, and lowers the amount of the invested electrical energy needed to break the chemical bonds in the water molecule to generate hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen evolution – the process of generating molecular oxygen (O₂) by a chemical reaction, usually from water – requires the transfer of four electrons to create one oxygen molecule and then the adding of two hydrogen molecules to make water.