Watching viruses fail

Surfaces with antiviral properties: Findings can be used to optimize facial masks

12-Dec-2022 - Using a new analytical method, Empa researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should now accelerate the development of surfaces that can kill viruses, the team writes in the journal ...

Attosecond boost for electron microscopy

Attosecond time resolution in a transmission electron microscope by combining it with a continuous-wave laser achieved

13-Nov-2020 - Electron microscopes provide deep insight into the smallest details of matter and can reveal, for example, the atomic configuration of materials, the structure of proteins or the shape of virus particles. However, most materials in nature are not static and rather interact, move and reshape all ...

High-capacity battery material using salmon DNA

20-Apr-2020 - A Korean research team has succeeded in developing next-generation high-capacity cathode material for lithium-ion batteries. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, Acting President Seok-jin Yoon) announced that the joint research team of Dr. Kyung Yoon Chung (head of the Center for ...

Monitoring the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium

Better prediction of degradation rate of magnesium implants

28-Oct-2019 - ETH researchers have recently been able to monitor the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium alloys at the nanoscale over a time scale of a few seconds to many hours. This is an important step towards accurately predicting how fast implants are resorbed by the body to enable the development of ...

New molecular blueprint advances our understanding of photosynthesis

Shedding light on the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide into sugar

19-Feb-2019 - Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have used one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to reveal the structure of a large protein complex crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into cellular ...

Key mysteries of spider silk unraveled

25-Oct-2018 - Scientists at ASU are celebrating their recent success on the path to understanding what makes the fiber that spiders spin - weight for weight - at least five times as strong as steel. One of the fundamental mysteries of spider silk which has limited scientists' ability to produce artificial ...

Scientists capture colliding organic nanoparticles on video for first time

20-Nov-2017 - A Northwestern University research team is the first to capture on video organic nanoparticles colliding and fusing together. This unprecedented view of "chemistry in motion" will aid Northwestern nanoscientists developing new drug delivery methods as well as demonstrate to researchers around the ...

Tilted microscopy technique better reveals protein structures

New cryo-EM method to facilitate a better understanding of proteins involved in disease

05-Jul-2017 - The conventional way of placing protein samples under an electron microscope during cryo-EM experiments may fall flat when it comes to getting the best picture of a protein's structure. In some cases, tilting a sheet of frozen proteins -- by anywhere from 10 to 50 degrees -- as it lies under the ...

What makes erionite carcinogenic?

Mineralogists provide new findings on carcinogenic silicate

17-Jan-2017 - The mineral erionite is considered to be highly carcinogenic and is on the World Health Organisation’s list of substances that cause cancer. A few years ago, an entire village in Turkey actually had to be moved, because the substance was very common in the surrounding area and every second ...

Chemical cages: New technique advances synthetic biology

12-Feb-2016 - Living systems rely on a dizzying variety of chemical reactions essential to development and survival. Most of these involve a specialized class of protein molecules--the enzymes. In a new study, Hao Yan, director of the Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics at Arizona State University's ...