Latest Molecule Stories
Kansas State University engineers think the possibilities are deep for a very thin material.Vikas Berry, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is leading research combining biological materials with graphene, a recently developed carbon material that is only a single atom thick."The biological interfacing of graphene is taking this material to the next level," Berry said. "Discovered only four years ago, this material has already shown a large number of capabilities....
Chemists at the University of Illinois have created a simple and inexpensive molecular technique that replaces an expensive atomic force microscope for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed.The researchers use stiff stilbene, a small, inert structure, as a molecular force probe to generate well-defined forces on various molecules, atom by atom."By pulling on different pairs of atoms, we can explore what happens when we stretch a molecule in...
To be useful in real-world applications, a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of molecules on a surface must have a stable and controllable geometry. Researchers at Penn State and the Sigma-Aldrich company have found a way to control geometry and stability by making SAMs out of different carboranethiol isomers, which are cage-like molecules. The research results will be published in the March 2009 issue of the journal ACS Nano."Our results allow us to control the chemical and physical...
When the University of Chicago's David Mazziotti talks about chemistry, perhaps he is thinking about how the behavior of all of the electrons in a molecule can be anticipated from the behavior of just two of its electrons.For 50 years theoretical chemists have puzzled over the problem of predicting many-electron chemistry with only two electrons, which many thought intractable and perhaps impossible to solve. Mazziotti, an associate professor in chemistry, will present a new approach to...
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- In conjunction with the opening of its new museum and conference center, the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) announces the launch of the Molecules That Matter Lecture Series. The series complements the museum's first changing exhibition, Molecules That Matter, which showcases scientific objects and artistic reactions to ten organic molecules that transformed the twentieth century. The exhibition, developed in collaboration with the Francis Young...
A former military technology can make almost any surface or fabric waterproof but remain breathable.Originally, the process was developed to ensure soldiers' clothing remained impermeable to chemical weapons.Now the developers of the process have signed a deal with shoemaker Hi-Tec to use the technology to waterproof many of its shoes.This week was the first commercial debut of the treated shoes in London.The Ministry of Defence funded the technology and it was developed at its Defence...
By Castelvecchi, Davide Bond lengths are different in heavy, light water molecules Heavy water is not just heavier. Swapping each H in H2O with a D- hydrogen's isotope deuterium - changes water's properties. The deuterium version is mildly poisonous, and its freezing point is 4[degrees] Celsius, instead of 0[degrees]C Such differences reveal that quantum effects, which aren't usually manifest to the naked eye, rule in ordinary water, researchers suggest. Alan Soper of the Rutherford...
Researchers have discovered an unusual molecule that is essential to the atmosphere's ability to break down pollutants, especially the compounds that cause acid rain.It's the unusual chemistry facilitated by this molecule, however, that will attract the most attention from scientists.Marsha Lester, the University of Pennsylvania's Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor, and Joseph Francisco, William E. Moore Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University, found the molecule, which...
A new form of energy-transfer, reported today in Nature (3 July 2008) may have implications for the study of reactions going on in the atmosphere, and even for those occurring in the body.Imagine a simple molecule consisting of two atoms as being like two balls attached together by a spring. If an incoming atom strikes one side of the molecule, the spring compresses and you would expect the molecule to jump backwards "“ remember Newton's cradle?...
By Castelvecchi, Davide Findings may challenge theory explaining vibrations Chemists can now watch the structures of molecules as they change shape, much like shooting multiple frames of a galloping horse. The new view reveals that when certain molecules switch between different conformations, they do so less often than expected - a finding that could require chemists to revise their theories and that could lead to a better understanding of processes such as how proteins fold. Brooks Pate of...
