How to unmix a mixed fluid

 

Credit: http://www.newscientist.com

Snapshots Differentiate Molecules from Their Mirror Image

Small difference, large effect: Most biological molecules occur in two variants, an original and its mirror image. As a result, they are related to one another like the left hand to the right. For instance, the left- and right-handed variant of the same molecule makes lemons smell different from oranges. This so-called chirality also plays an important role in pharmaceutical research. 

Working in close collaboration, physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and chemists from Heidelberg University have now developed a method which, so to speak, takes a snapshot of chiral molecules and so reveals their spatial atomic structure. The molecule's handedness, or chirality, can be directly derived from this information. 

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Molecular mirror images of, so-called enantiomeres, of dideuterooxirane (grey: hydrogen, green: deuterium, blue: carbon, red: oxygen). (Credit: Rupprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg/O.Trapp)

Credit: Dr. Holger Kreckel, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was awarded to

• Martin Karplus, Université de Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA,
• Michael Levitt, Stanford University, Los Angeles, CA, USA,
• Arieh Warshel, University of Southern California (USC), CA, USA,

"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems".

In the 1970s, they laid the foundation for the powerful programs that are now used to understand and predict chemical processes. Today, computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry.

Credit: Chemistryviews.org

Physicists Study Coldest Objects in Universe

They are the coldest objects in the Universe and are so fragile that even a single photon can heat and destroy them.

In a new study published today, 28 November 2013, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society’s New Journal of Physics, a group of researchers from the UK and Australia have come up with a new way of measuring BECs by using a filter to cancel out the damage caused by the streams of light that are typically used to measure them.

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Known as Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and consisting of just a cluster of atoms, it has up until now been impossible to measure and control these remarkable forms of matter simultaneously. (Credit: Institute of Physics)

Credit: New Journal of Physics

From Cellulose to Textile Fiber and a Ready Product

Aalto University has developed a new process with global significance for working cellulose into a textile fiber.

The world’s first textile product made from Ioncell cellulose fiber as well as other results yielded by research programs will be introduced at a seminar to be held by the Finnish Bioeconomy Cluster FIBIC Oy on November 20, 2013.

New solutions for utilising fiber-based material in the textile process attract global interest. “The production volumes of cotton cannot keep growing due to the volumes of water and cultivation area it demands. On the other hand, viscose is problematic because of the highly toxic chemicals used in its production,” says researcher Michael Hummel at Aalto University.

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Marjaana Tanttu, student in the Master's Degree Programme in Textile Art and Design, works on the scarf. (Credit: Aalto University)

Credit: http://www.aalto.fi

Making a Gem of a Tiny Crystal: Slowly Cooled DNA Transforms Disordered Nanoparticles Into Orderly Crystal

Nature builds flawless diamonds, sapphires and other gems. Now a Northwestern University research team is the first to build near-perfect single crystals out of nanoparticles and DNA, using the same structure favored by nature.

"Single crystals are the backbone of many things we rely on -- diamonds for beauty as well as industrial applications, sapphires for lasers and silicon for electronics," said nanoscientist Chad A. Mirkin. "The precise placement of atoms within a well-defined lattice defines these high-quality crystals. 

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Cut diamond. Nature builds flawless diamonds, sapphires and other gems. Now a Northwestern University research team is the first to build near-perfect single crystals out of nanoparticles and DNA, using the same structure favored by nature. (Credit: © tiero / Fotolia)

Credit: Northwestern University research team

Steering Electrons Along Chemical Bonds

Electron motions induced by a strong electric field are mapped in space and time with the help of femtosecond x-ray pulses. An x-ray movie of the crystal lithium hydride shows that the electric interaction between electrons has a decisive influence on the direction in which they move. An ionic crystal is a regular arrangement of positively and negatively charged ions in space. 

Crystals with rock salt structure. Upper crystal: sodium chloride (NaCl) with blue balls for Na+ ions and green balls for Cl- ions. Lower crystal: lithium hydride (LiH) with small blue balls for Li0.5+ ions and white balls for H0.5- ions. The grey-shaded plane indicates the sectional views. (Credit: MBI)

Credit: http://www.fv-berlin.de

Scientists ID New Catalyst for Cleanup of Nitrites

Chemical engineers at Rice University have found a new catalyst that can rapidly break down nitrites, a common and harmful contaminant in drinking water that often results from overuse of agricultural fertilizers.

Nitrites and their more abundant cousins, nitrates, are inorganic compounds that are often found in both groundwater and surface water. The compounds are a health hazard, and the Environmental Protection Agency places strict limits on the amount of nitrates and nitrites in drinking water. While it’s possible to remove nitrates and nitrites from water with filters and resins, the process can be prohibitively expensive.

Researchers at Rice University's Catalysis and Nanomaterials Laboratory have found that gold and palladium nanoparticles can rapidly break down nitrites. (Credit: M.S. Wong/Rice University)

Credit: http://news.rice.edu

Organic lights and solar cells straight from the printer

Time is slowly running out for bulky television sets, boxy neon signs and the square-edged backlit displays we all know from shops and airports. It won’t be long before families gathering together to watch television at home will be calling out: “Unroll the screen, dear, the film’s about to start!” And members of the public may soon encounter screens everywhere they go, as almost any surface can be made into a display. “These may just be ideas at the mo- ment, but they have every chance of becoming reality,” says Dr. Armin Wedel, head of division at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam-Golm. The first curved screens were on display at this year’s consumer electronics trade show (IFA) in Berlin. The technology behind it all? OLEDs: flexible, organic, light-emitting diodes.

 

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) – here at the bus stop of the future – will soon come out of printing machines.
© Fraunhofer IAP / Till Budde

Credit: http://www.fraunhofer.de

NIST’s New Compact Atomic Clock Design Uses Cold Atoms to Boost Precision

NIST’s New Compact Atomic Clock Design Uses Cold Atoms to Boost Precision

Three-Dimensional Carbon Goes Metallic

A theoretical, three-dimensional (3D) form of carbon that is metallic under ambient temperature and pressure has been discovered by an international research team. 

The findings, which may significantly advance carbon science, are published online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Carbon science is a field of intense research. Not only does carbon form the chemical basis of life, but it has rich chemistry and physics, making it a target of interest to material scientists. From graphite to diamond to Buckminster fullerenes, nanotubes and graphene, carbon can display in a range of structures. 

3D Metallic carbon with interlocking hexagons. (Credit: Courtesy of Qian Wang, Ph.D.)

 Credit: http://news.vcu.edu