ALKALOIDS

• Alkaloids are a very diverse group of chemicals produced by vegetables.
• They are highly reactive substances and have an effect on biological systems in low doses.
• They are produced by amino acids within the plant.
• Alkaloids are "true" if formed in plants or "pseudo" if not derived from plants or amino acids. 
• Read more here.

Credit: http://www.launc.tased.edu.au

Properties of Gases

 


Credit: http://www.learnerstv.com/

Computer Scientists Suggest New Spin On Origins of Evolvability: Competition to Survive Not Necessary?

Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.

Read more here. 

 

The average evolvability of organisms in each niche at the end of a simulation is shown. The lighter the color, the more evolvable individuals are within that niche. The overall result is that, as in the first model, evolvability increases with increasing distance from the starting niche in the center. (Credit: Joel Lehman, Kenneth O. Stanley. Evolvability Is Inevitable: Increasing Evolvability without the Pressure to Adapt. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e62186 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062186)

Credit: http://today.ucf.edu

Vaterite: Crystal Within a Crystal Helps Resolve an Old Puzzle

With the help of a solitary sea squirt, scientists have resolved the longstanding puzzle of the crystal structure of vaterite, an enigmatic geologic mineral and biomineral. 

A form of calcium carbonate, vaterite can be found in Portland cement. Its quick transformation into other more stable forms of calcium carbonate when exposed to water helps make the cement hard and water resistant. As a biomineral, vaterite is found in such things as gallstones, fish otoliths, freshwater pearls, and the healed scars of some mollusk shells.  

Read more here.

Just 10 micrometers in diameter, the needlelike spicule from the sea squirt Herdmania momus helped researchers in Israel and Wisconsin unlock the crystal structure of vaterite, a geologic and biogenic mineral whose structural secrets have stymied scientists for almost 100 years. (Credit: Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert, Lee Kabalah-Amitai, Boaz Pokroy)

Credit: http://www.news.wisc.edu

Explore the World of Bedbugs - Some of the Greatest Invaders in History

 
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/user/minuteearth

Scientists Map All Possible Drug-Like Chemical Compounds: Library of Millions of Small, Carbon-Based Molecules Chemists Might Synthesize

Durham, NC - Drug developers may have a new tool to search for more effective medications and new materials. 

It's a computer algorithm that can model and catalogue the entire set of lightweight, carbon-containing molecules that chemists could feasibly create in a lab. For more click here.

This map shows regions of the small molecule universe that chemists have explored and the ones they haven't. (Credit: Virshup et. al. JACS, 2013.

Technique Unlocks Design Principles of Quantum Biology

Ultrafast technique unlocks design principles of quantum biology

Newswise — University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar-energy technologies. 

Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 19 edition of Science.

 

University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis. The compound may enable fundamentally new routes to creative solar light harvesting technologies. (Credit: Graham Griffith)

Credit: http://www.newswise.com

Quantum Computing Taps Nucleus of Single Atom

Quantum computing taps nucleus of single atom

This is, from left: Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, Ph.D. Student Jarryd Pla (lead experimental author) and Associate Professor Andrea Morello, University of New South Wales. All three are engineers in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. (Credit: University of New South Wales)

Lab-grown Kidneys Transplanted into Rats

The connective scaffold of a rat kidney, seeded with human endothelial and rat kidney cells, growing in an organ bioreactor.

Credit: Ott Lab, Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

 
Credit: http://www.nature.com/news

UC Research Demonstrates Why Going Green Is Good Chemistry

UC Research Demonstrates Why Going Green Is Good Chemistry

Shaken, not stirred, is the essence of new research that’s showing promise in creating the chemical reactions necessary for industries such as pharmaceutical companies, but eliminating the resulting waste from traditional methods.

James Mack, UC associate professor of chemistry

James Mack, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of chemistry, will present this research into greener chemistry on April 9, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

Greatest Chemists of All-Time

The editors at Nature Chemistry conducted a Twitter poll to answer the age-old question: ”Who is the greatest chemist of all-time?”  Such a conversation falls right in my wheelhouse, and in honour of the lads at NChem, I am going to write this post in English.  (I am qualified to do this, as my mother’s from England.)
 

The results of the poll are summarized on the NChem blog, Sceptical Chymist.  Of the 86 votes cast, the following chemists received three or more:

• Linus Pauling (16)
• Dmitri Mendeleev (11)
• Antoine Lavoisier (7)
• Marie Curie (6)
• R.B. Woodward (4)
• Michael Faraday (4)
• Gilbert Lewis (3)

Read more here
Credit: http://blog.chembark.com

Metalloenzymes

• Metals play roles in approximately one-third of the known enzymes. Metals may be a co-factor or they may be incorporated into the molecule, and these are known as metalloenzymes. 
• Amino Acids in peptide linkage posses groups that can form coordinate-covalent bonds with the metal atom. The free amino and carboxy group bind to the metal affecting the enzymes structure resulting in its active conformation.
• Metals main function is to serve in electron transfer. Many enzymes can serve as electrophiles and some can serve as nucleophilic groups. This versatility explains metals frequent occurrence in enzymes. Some metalloenzymes include hemoglobins, cytochromes, phosphotransferases, alcohol dehydrogenase, arginase, ferredoxin, and cytochrome oxidase.
• Carboxypeptidase A is a zinc metalloenzyme that breaks peptide linkages in the digestion of proteins. The zinc ion that the enzyme contains in its active site plays a key role in that function.

Structure of Fe(III)-peroxo complex, [Fe(TMC)(OO)]+. Hydrogen atoms are omitted for clarity. Key bond distances are shown on the structure. Image Credit: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/

Credit:  http://www.cs.stedwards.edu/

See-through Brain Clarify Connections

A chemical treatment that turns whole organs transparent offers a big boost to the field of ‘connectomics’ — the push to map the brain’s fiendishly complicated wiring. 

Scientists could use the technique to view large networks of neurons with unprecedented ease and accuracy. 

The technology also opens up new research avenues for old brains that were saved from patients and healthy donors.  

Credit: www.nature.com

New Insight Into Photosynthesis: Carotenoids Can Capture Blue/Green Light and Pass Energy On to Chlorophylls

TORONTO, ON – Pigments found in plants and purple bacteria employed to provide protection from sun damage do more than just that. 

Researchers from the University of Toronto and University of Glasgow have found that they also help to harvest light energy during photosynthesis.

Carotenoids, the same pigments which give orange color to carrots and red to tomatoes, are often found together in plants with chlorophyll pigments that harvest solar energy. 

Their main function is photoprotection when rays of light from the sun are the most intense. However, a new study published in Science this week shows how they capture blue/green light and pass the energy on to chlorophylls, which absorb red light.

 

A custom-built programmable 3D printer can create materials with several of the properties of living tissues, Oxford University scientists have demonstrated: Droplet network c.500 microns across with electrically conductive pathway between electrodes mimicking nerve. (Credit: Oxford University/G Villar)

Credit: http://www.eurekalert.org

Breakthrough Cancer-Killing Treatment Has No Side-Effects in Mice: New Chemistry May Cure Human Cancers

MU News Bureau | MU News Bureau

M. Frederick Hawthorne’s team developed a new form of radiation therapy that successfully put cancer into remission in mice. Hawthorne received the National Medal of Science from President Obama in the East Room of the White House on February 1, 2013.

Plastic Film Is the Future of 3-D On-The-Go

Ditch the 3D glasses. Thanks to a simple plastic filter, mobile device users can now view unprecedented, distortion-free, brilliant 3D content with the naked eye. 

This latest innovation from TP and IMRE is the first ever glasses-free 3D accessory that can display content in both portrait and landscape mode, and measures less than 0.1 mm in thickness.

The Singapore developed EyeFly3D unlocks 3D on-the-go fo mobile devices. (Credit: Copyright Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore)

Credit: Copyright Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore

Light May Recast Copper As Chemical Industry 'Holy Grail'

Light may recast copper as chemical industry 'holy grail'

The test reactor holds the catalyst in a tiny circular bed and exposes it to propylene and oxygen gasses. When the reactor is closed, a light shines down from the top, allowing the copper to keep the oxygen from binding to its surface. The copper can instead bind the propylene to the oxygen, forming the industrially important chemical propylene oxide. Photo: Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering Communications & Marketing.

The First Caffeine-Addicted Bacteria

The first caffeine-addicted bacteria

Genetically engineered bacteria are “addicted” to caffeine in a way that promises practical uses ranging from decontamination of wastewater to bioproduction of medications for asthma. (Credit: © volff / Fotolia)