Lifeboat Foundation

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials have gained immense attention, as they are promising in various application fields, such as energy storage, thermal management, photodetectors, catalysis, field-effect transistors, and photovoltaic modules. These merits of 2D materials are attributed to their unique structure and properties. Chirality is an intrinsic property of a substance, which means the substance can not overlap with its mirror image. Significant progress has been made in chiral science, for chirality uniquely influences a chiral substance’s performance. With the rapid development of chiral science, it became unveiled that chirality not only exists in chiral organic molecules but can also be induced in 2D inorganic materials and 2D organic-inorganic hybrid materials by breaking the chiral symmetry within their framework to form 2D chiral materials. Compared with 2D materials that do not have chirality, these 2D inorganic chiral materials and 2D organic-inorganic hybrid chiral materials exhibit innovative performance due to chiral symmetry breaking. Nevertheless, at present, only a fraction of work is available which comprehensively sums up the progress of these promising 2D chiral materials. Thus, given their high potential, it is urgent to summarize these newly developed 2D chiral materials comprehensively. In the current study, to feature and highlight their major significance, the recent progress of 2D inorganic materials and 2D organic-inorganic hybrid materials from their chemical composition and categories, application potential associated with their unique properties, and present synthesis strategies to fabricate them along with discussion concerning the development challenges and their bright future were reviewed. This review is anticipated to be instructive and provide a high understanding of advanced functional 2D materials with chirality.

Keywords: Chirality, two-dimensional, inorganic, organic-inorganic hybrid, asymmetric, enantioselective, chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS), photoelectronic, spintronics.

Dr. Vopson proposes that information has mass and is the fifth state of matter, expanding our current understanding of the universe’s basic building blocks.

Physicist Dr. Melvin Vopson from the University of Portsmouth has proposed an experiment to prove that information is the fifth state of matter, alongside solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. His theory suggests that information possesses mass and is a fundamental component of the universe, similar to DNA in living organisms. The experiment involves using particle-antiparticle collisions to detect and measure this information. If proven correct, this could radically change our understanding of physics, suggesting that information might even be the elusive dark matter that makes up nearly a third of the universe.

After reading the article, a Reddit user gained more than 1.7k upvotes with this comment: “Here’s explanation: When you collide an electron and a positron (an anti-electron) they are completely destroyed, releasing their mass equivalent energy as photons. The information equivalence theory predicts that you aren’t just destroying the mass but also internal information the particle has. If this is true, the annihilation would also release photons equal to the information-energy equivalence.” This article will amaze you by showing how information might be the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Don’t forget to discuss this fascinating theory in the comment section below!

This experiment offers new insights into quantum mechanics, simulating how an electron might spontaneously move backward in time.

Researchers at Argonne have developed an innovative technique that creates “fingerprints” of different materials that can be read and analyzed by a neural network to yield previously inaccessible information — https://bit.ly/3LCklZw.

The goal of the AI is just to treat the scattering patterns as…

Study shows how materials change as they are stressed and relaxed.

Continue reading “Scientists develop new artificial intelligence method to create material ‘fingerprints’” »

Capone, C., Paolucci, P.S. Sci Rep 14, 14,656 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65631-y.

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Have you ever wonder how SNNs work and their difference from traditional neural networks? Or how SNNs play an important role in computing beyond the Moore’s Law?

What is SNN?
Spiking neural network (SNN) is a new form of neural networks with biologically realistic mechanisms designed to emulate the efficiency and effectiveness of the biological brain.

Here, the authors present a data storage and computation engine comprised of DNA adsorbed to soft dendricolloids, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities from archival storage to non-destructive file access for reading, erasing, rewriting and computing.

“DNA, RNA and proteins are the key players to regulate all processes in the cells of our body,” Leiden Professor John van Noort explains. “To understand the (mis-)functioning of these molecules, it is essential to uncover how their 3D structure depends on their sequence and for this it is necessary to measure them one molecule at a time. However, single-molecule measurements are laborious and slow, and the number of possible sequence variations is massive.”

Now the team of scientists developed an innovative tool, called SPARXS (Single-molecule Parallel Analysis for Rapid eXploration of Sequence space), that allows for studying millions of DNA molecules simultaneously.

Continue reading “Revealing DNA behavior in record time (w/video)” »

CRISPR-Cas systems, defense systems in bacteria, have become a plentiful source of technologies for molecular diagnostics. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg have expanded this extensive toolbox. Their novel method, called PUMA, enables the detection of RNA with Cas12 nucleases, which naturally target DNA. PUMA promises a wide range of applications and high accuracy.

The team published its results in the journal Nature Communications (“TracrRNA reprogramming enables direct PAM-independent detection of RNA with diverse DNA-targeting Cas12 nucleases”).

Bacteria have developed special defense mechanisms to protect themselves against viruses, which by no means infect only humans. As part of these so-called CRISPR-Cas systems, a CRISPR ribonucleic acid (crRNA), which serves as a “guide RNA,” recognizes regions of a foreign genome, such as viral DNA. The CRISPR-associated (Cas) nuclease, directed by a crRNA, then renders it harmless by cutting it like a pair of scissors.