Chemists make beds with soft landings

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RICHLAND, Wash. -- Bedsprings aren't often found in biology. Now, chemists have succeeded in making a layer of tiny protein coils attached to a surface, much like miniature bedsprings in a frame. This thin film made of stable and very pure helices can help researchers develop molecular electronics or solar cells, or to divine the biology of proteins.

Cataloguing invisible life: Microbe genome emerges from lake sediment

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When entrepreneurial geneticist Craig Venter sailed around the world on his yacht sequencing samples of seawater, it was an ambitious project to use genetics to understand invisible ecological communities. But his scientific legacy was disappointing – a jumble of mystery DNA fragments belonging to thousands of unknown organisms.

Green catalysts provide promise for cleaning toxins and pollutants

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New 52-city report examines use of wastewater in urban agriculture

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Synthetic moleculues could add spice to fight against cancer

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Seeking to improve on nature, scientists used a spice-based compound as a starting point and developed synthetic molecules that, in lab settings, are able to kill cancer cells and stop the cells from spreading.

The researchers are combining organic chemistry, computer-aided design and molecular biology techniques in developing and testing pharmaceutical compounds that can fight breast and prostate cancer cells. The synthetic molecules are derived from curcumin, a naturally occurring compound found in the spice turmeric.

Newly detected air pollutant mimics damaging effects of cigarette smoke

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Chemists move closer toward developing safer, fully-synthetic form of heparin

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Researchers create safer alternative to heparin

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Troy, N.Y. — Robert Linhardt has spent years stitching together minuscule carbohydrates to build a more pure and safer alternative to the commonly used and controversial blood thinner heparin. At the national conference of the American Chemical Society on August 17, 2008, Linhardt announced that his research team may have accomplished this task by building the first fully synthetic heparin. Their creation is the largest dose of heparin ever created in the lab.

Survivors of 1918 flu pandemic protected with a lifetime immunity to virus

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Toward plastic spin transistors

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