Tag Archives: molecules

Cannibal Tadpoles Key to Understanding Digestive Evolution

By Guest PostMay 25, 2013Scienceafrican clawed frog, anne everly, budgetts frog, cannibal tadpoles, carlos infante, carnivorous, cris ledon rettig, digestive evolution, function, human birth defects, intestinal birth defects, james hanken, lepidobatrachus laevis, molecules, nanette nascone yoder, north Carolina, proteins, state university, tadpole, xenopus, xenopus embryos, xenopus laevis

A carnivorous, cannibalistic tadpole may play a role in understanding the evolution and development of digestive organs, according to research from North Carolina State University. These findings may also shed light on universal rules of organ development that could lead to better diagnosis and prevention of intestinal birth defects.

NC State developmental biologist Nanette Nascone-Yoder, graduate student Stephanie Bloom and postdoc Cris Ledon-Rettig looked at Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) and Lepidobatrachus laevis (Budgett’s frog) tadpoles. These frog species differ in diet and last shared a common ancestor about 110 million years ago. Like most tadpoles, Xenopus exist primarily on a diet of algae, and their long, simple digestive tracts are not able to process insects or proteins until they become adult frogs. Budgett’s is an aggressive species of frog which is carnivorous – and cannibalistic – in the tadpole stage. (more…)

Researchers Solve Riddle of What Has Been Holding Two Unlikely Materials Together

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2013Sciencebi2te3, bismuth telluride, bonds, electricity, electronics, gaas, gallium arsenide, heat into electricity, houston dycus, james lebeau, jonathan pierce, molecules, north Carolina, rama venkatasubramanian, rti international, state university, super x, thin films, van der waals, weak electrical forces

For years, researchers have developed thin films of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) – which converts heat into electricity or electricity to cooling – on top of gallium arsenide (GaAs) to create cooling devices for electronics. But while they knew it could be done, it was not clear how – because the atomic structures of those unlikely pair of materials do not appear to be compatible. Now researchers from North Carolina State University and RTI International have solved the mystery, opening the door to new research in the field.

“We’ve used state-of-the-art technology to solve a mystery that has been around for years,” says Dr. James LeBeau, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. “And now that we know what is going on, we can pursue research to fine-tune the interface of these materials to develop more efficient mechanisms for converting electricity to cooling or heat into electricity. Ultimately, this could have applications in a wide range of electronic devices.” (more…)

Jurassic Park molecules?

By Guest PostFebruary 10, 2013Science3d architectures, alpha helices, amino acids, animal bodies, autoimmune disorders, beta strands, biochemist, biofuels, bundles of protein, burckhard seelig, chains, copies of genes, diversity, dna sequences, early life, earth, enzyme shapes, enzymes, fa an chao, fossil enzymes, gianluigi veglia, helixes, human dna, jurassic park, molecules, NASA, pcr, pieces of rna, sea anemones, sequencing rna, sponges, starfish, symmetric, university of minnesota, useful function, years of evolution

Enzymes evolved in the lab hold commercial and scientific promise

Whether big, small, slimy, or tall, most animal bodies are symmetric.

Except for sea anemones, starfish, sponges, and the like, animals have bilateral, or right-left, symmetry. Us included.

The bilateral body plan became the norm over eons of evolution. But what about molecules? Have any evolved common structures like a body plan? (more…)

JILA Physicists Achieve Elusive ‘Evaporative Cooling’ of Molecules

By Guest PostDecember 30, 2012Scienceatoms, bec, bose einstein condensate, boulder, chemical reaction, colorado, control, cool atoms, cup of coffee, electromagnetic pulses, energy state, evaporative cooling, gas, hydrogen atom, hydroxyl radicals, jila, jila theorist, john bohn, jun ye, magnetic fields, millikelvin, mk, molecules, novel way, oh, oh molecules, oxygen atom, physicists, potassium, potassium rubidium molecules, quantum simulators, reactive molecules, rubidium atoms, ultracold chemistry, university

Achieving a goal considered nearly impossible, JILA physicists have chilled a gas of molecules to very low temperatures by adapting the familiar process by which a hot cup of coffee cools.

JILA is a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology located on the CU-Boulder campus. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Help Develop Promising Therapy for Huntington’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2012Healthalzheimers, antidepressants, bacterial membrane, berkeley lab, cells, cerebral cortex, chemist, coenzyme q, cognitive decline, compound, cynthia mcmurray, DNA, genetic disorder, genetic mutation, huntingtons disease, loss, mice, mitochondria, mitochondrial function, molecules, motor coordination, motor skills, muscle coordination, neurodegenerative diseases, neuron, organelle, oxidative damage, parkinson's, peter wipf, pittsburgh, power plant, reactive oxygen species, striatum, suppress, survival, symptoms, synthetic antioxidant, university, untreated neuronal cultures, vitamin e, xjb 5 131, xjb treated mice, zhiyin xun

Initial results in mice could lead to new way to fight neurodegenerative diseases

There’s new hope in the fight against Huntington’s disease. A group of researchers that includes scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a compound that suppresses symptoms of the devastating disease in mice.

The compound is a synthetic antioxidant that targets mitochondria, an organelle within cells that serves as a cell’s power plant. Oxidative damage to mitochondria is implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. (more…)

At Yale, Quantum Computing is a (qu)bit Closer to Reality

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2012Scienceartificial atoms, computation, delft university of technology, eric gershon, errors, exponentially faster, information processing, l dicarlo, l frunzio, l sun, matthew reed, molecules, Nature, Netherlands, physicists, quantum bits, quantum computing, quantum error correction, qubit states, qubits, robert schoelkopf, s e nigg, s m girvin, superconducting circuits, trapped ions, yale university

Physicists at Yale University have taken another significant step in the development of quantum computing, a new frontier in computing that promises exponentially faster information processing than the most sophisticated computers of today.

In research published online this month in the journal Nature, the Yale physicists demonstrate the most basic form of quantum error correction — a way to compensate for quantum computing’s intrinsic susceptibility to errors. Developing technology to correct these errors on the fly is a necessary step for fully realizing quantum computers. (more…)

The Next Big Step Toward Atom-Specific Dynamical Chemistry

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2012Science2p orbitals, 2s orbitals, advanced light source, ali belkacem, america, atomic levels, atoms, berkeley lab, chemical bonding, chemical energy, chemistry, complex systems, components, electrical conductivity, electron, electronic spectroscopy, electronic states of neon, emergence, energy flow in photosynthesis, evolution of energy, fels, femtoseconds, free electron lasers, graham fleming, harmonics, high frequency x rays, molecular level, molecules, nonlinear, nonlinear multidimensional spectroscopy, nonlinear spectroscopic technique, orbitals, photon flux, positive charge, pulse, quadrillionths of second, s orbitals, spectroscopy, stimulated coherent raman scattering, sunlight energy, synchrotron light sources, table top laser, ultraviolet light, valence electrons, valence shell, x ray lasers, x ray photon, x ray spectroscopy, x-rays

*Berkeley Lab scientists push chemistry to the edge, testing plans for a new generation of light sources*

For Ali Belkacem of Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, “What is chemistry?” is not a rhetorical question.

“Chemistry is inherently dynamical,” he answers. “That means, to make inroads in understanding – and ultimately control – we have to understand how atoms combine to form molecules; how electrons and nuclei couple; how molecules interact, react, and transform; how electrical charges flow; and how different forms of energy move within a molecule or across molecular boundaries.” The list ends with a final and most important question: “How do all these things behave in a correlated way, ‘dynamically’ in time and space, both at the electron and atomic levels?” (more…)

Andrew Artenstein: Essential Enzymes Key to Disease, Maybe Treatments

By Guest PostJanuary 2, 2012Healthalzheimer, andrew artenstein, anthrax, athlerosclerosis, bacteria and viruses, biodefense, body, cancer, chemical reactions, david orenstein, disease, ebola, enzymes, essential proteins, Europe, flu, iaips, infectious diseases, inter alpha inhibitor proteins, measles, microscopic level, molecules, natural human proteins, outbreak of h1n1, pathways, pcs, proprotein convertases, proteins, sars, steven opal, therapies, viruses

*Proprotein convertases are enzymes that activate many essential proteins, but they are also implicated in many processes that cause disease. In a research review in the New England Journal of Medicine, Andrew Artenstein and Steven Opal argue that proprotein convertases are potentially rich targets for developing therapies.*

Most people have never heard of proprotein convertases, but the enzymes activate many proteins that are essential for life. Unfortunately, their fundamental role puts them in the middle of many processes that cause disease – not just cancer or athlerosclerosis, but both of those and Alzheimer’s and anthrax and the flu and an amazing variety of other maladies.

In a research review article appearing Dec. 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Andrew Artenstein, physician-in-chief in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Hospital, and Steven Opal, chief of infectious diseases at Memorial Hospital, argue that proprotein convertases (PCs) are potentially rich targets for developing therapies. Artenstein, who with Opal is on the faculty of the Warren Alpert School of Medicine, explained PCs to David Orenstein. (more…)