Scientists from The Ohio State University have a new theory about how the building blocks of life – the many proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids that compose every organism on Earth – may have evolved to favor a certain kind of molecular structure.
Tag: Molecules
Chemists design brand-new kind of nanomaterial
Scientists developed a way to make carbon-based molecules with a unique structural feature: interlocking rings.
UC Irvine scientists create new chemical imaging method
Irvine, Calif., Jan. 4, 2023 – A new visualization technology that captures spectral images of materials in the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum has been developed by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. The discovery, which was recently featured on the cover of the journal Science Advances, promises to help researchers and industries across many fields, including medical and tech, quickly visualize the chemical composition of various materials or tissues.
A better way to create compounds for pharmaceuticals, other chemicals
What do gunpowder, penicillin and Teflon all have in common? They were inventions that took the world by storm, but they were all created by complete accident.
Cleveland Clinic Study Links Gut Microbiome and Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Cleveland Clinic researchers have shown for the first time that diet-associated molecules in the gut are associated with aggressive prostate cancer, suggesting dietary interventions may help reduce risk. Findings from the study were published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Rutgers Professor Joan Bennett Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Joan W. Bennett, a Distinguished Professor of plant biology and pathology at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She joins neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center atmospheric scientist Ann Thompson and media entrepreneur and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey.
A project by Russian scientists to help create capsules for targeted drug delivery
Scientists from MIPT and ITMO University and their colleagues have studied the formation and growth of crystals from simple organic molecules into large associations. These experiments will help create capsules for targeted drug delivery to specific tissues in the human body. The scientific paper was published in the journal Crystal Growth & Design.

Charges Cascading Along a Molecular Chain
Removing one charged molecule from a one-dimensional array causes the others to alternately turn ‘on’ or ‘off,’ paving the way for information transfer in tiny circuits
UCI scientists get ‘initial hit’ in developing drug to treat COVID-19
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020 – When the coronavirus pandemic hit, almost everyone at the University of California, Irvine – and colleges across the nation – had to abandon campus. But James Nowick, professor of chemistry, was not a part of that exodus. That’s because his lab, which designs and constructs chemical molecules, had the right equipment to help in the global push to find treatments for COVID-19.
Roll over, Aristotle, nature doesn’t always hate a vacuum
The study, published in Nature Chemistry, provides new insights on how to modify the stickiness of these molecular building blocks, allowing engineers to build materials, like gels, from the bottom-up.

‘Molecular Distancing’ Presents Pathway to Remote Chemical Reactions
The study introduces a generic way of engineering artificial forces between photons and molecules to enable new energy transfer pathways between molecules.

Scientists Have Discovered the Origins of the Building Blocks of Life
Rutgers researchers have discovered the origins of the protein structures responsible for metabolism: simple molecules that powered early life on Earth and serve as chemical signals that NASA could use to search for life on other planets. Their study, which predicts what the earliest proteins looked like 3.5 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists Develop Molecular “Fishing” to Find Individual Molecules in Blood
Like finding a needle in a haystack, Liviu Movileanu can find a single molecule in blood.
Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss RNA Discovery
New Brunswick, N.J. (Jan. 29, 2020) – Nearly 30 years after scientists first showed that RNA molecules can act as biological catalysts, researchers at Rutgers have discovered how an important RNA enzyme works in unprecedented detail. The research, led by scientists…