Chemical propulsion has long been the standard for spaceflight, but for humans to reach Mars, we’ll need a much more powerful and efficient propulsion. Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engines offer thrust as high as conventional chemical propulsion with much higher efficiency.
A new approach to developing semiconductor materials at tiny scales could help boost applications that rely on converting light to energy. A Los Alamos-led research team incorporated magnetic dopants into specially engineered colloidal quantum dots—nanoscale-size semiconductor crystals—and was able to achieve effects that may power solar cell technology, photo detectors and applications that depend on light to drive chemical reactions.
“In quantum dots comprising a lead-selenide core and a cadmium-selenide shell, manganese ions act as tiny magnets whose magnetic spins strongly interact with both the core and the shell of the quantum dot,” said Victor Klimov, leader of the Los Alamos nanotechnology team and the project’s principal investigator. “In the course of these interactions, energy can be transferred to and from the manganese ion by flipping its spin—a process commonly termed spin exchange.”
In spin-exchange carrier multiplication, a single absorbed photon generates not one but two electron-hole pairs, also known as excitons, which occur as a result of spin-flip relaxation of an excited manganese ion.
The term molybdenum disulfide may sound familiar to some car drivers and mechanics. No wonder: the substance, discovered by U.S. chemist Alfred Sonntag in the 1940s, is still used today as a high-performance lubricant in engines and turbines, but also for bolts and screws.
This is due to the special chemical structure of this solid, whose individual material layers are easily displaceable relative to one another. However, molybdenum disulfide (chemically MoS2) not only lubricates well, but it is also possible to exfoliate a single atomic layer of this material or to grow it synthetically on a wafer scale.
The controlled isolation of a MoS2 monolayer was achieved only a few years ago, but is already considered a materials science breakthrough with enormous technological potential. The Empa team now wants to work with precisely this class of materials.
DNA can do more than pass genetic code from one generation to the next. For nearly 20 years, scientists have known of the molecule’s ability to stabilize nanometer-sized clusters of silver atoms. Some of these structures glow visibly in red and green, making them useful in a variety of chemical and biosensing applications.
Stacy Copp, UCI assistant professor of materials science and engineering, wanted to see if the capabilities of these tiny fluorescent markers could be stretched even further—into the near-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum—to give bioscience researchers the power to see through living cells and even centimeters of biological tissue, opening doors to enhanced methods of disease detection and treatment.
“There is untapped potential to extend fluorescence by DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters into the near-infrared region,” she says. “The reason that’s so interesting is because our biological tissues and fluids are much more transparent to near-infrared light than to visible light.”
This is a good use of AI. Definitely regular it but I can see it’s contributing to medical research.
Summary: Researchers have utilized artificial intelligence to uncover the promising potential of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in combating Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
By integrating AI, chemistry, and omics research, the study identified specific bioactive compounds in EVOO that could contribute to the treatment and prevention of AD. Ten phytochemicals within EVOO, such as quercetin, genistein, luteolin, and kaempferol, were found to exhibit potential impacts on AD protein networks.
Continue reading “AI Unlocks Olive Oil’s Potential in Alzheimer’s Battle” »
In some deep subterranean aquifers, cells have a chemical trick for making oxygen that could sustain whole underground ecosystems.
Year 2022 😗😁
Better chemistry through computing: #ILLINOIS researchers led an international team that combined powerful AI and a molecule-making machine to automate complex chemistry.
A potent anti-cancer therapy has been created using Nobel prize-winning “click chemistry,” where molecules click together like LEGO bricks, in a new study by UCL and Stanford University researchers.
The study, published in Nature Chemistry, opens up new possibilities for how cutting-edge cancer immunotherapies might be built in future.
The research team created an anti-cancer therapy with three components: one targeting the cancer cell, another recruiting a white blood cell called a T cell to attack the cancer cell, and a third knocking out part of the cancer cell’s defenses.
Microscopic materials made of clay, designed by researchers at the University of Missouri, could be key to the future of synthetic materials chemistry. By enabling scientists to produce chemical layers tailor-made to deliver specific tasks based on the goals of the individual researcher, these materials, called nanoclays, can be used in a wide variety of applications, including the medical field or environmental science.
A paper describing this research is published in the journal ACS Applied Engineering Materials.
A fundamental part of the material is its electrically charged surface, said Gary Baker, co-principal investigator on the project and an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry.
This video, which is a part of the Distinguished Lecture Series by Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, Prof. Jack W. Szostak discusses why life began with RNA. Why was Ribose sugar chosen in the primordial soup, and not several other alternative sugars that may have been available? He shows this using elegant experiments that include chemistry and structural biology.
Distinguished Speaker: Prof. Jack W. Szostak.
2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
