A magazine providing a snapshot of the latest developments across the chemical sciences.
Issue 5
Screening ligands
Predicting the usefulness of ligands for aiding luminescence in lanthanide complexes may save time and money in experimental discovery. Scientists from France have attempted to theoretically screen groups of ligands by using quantum chemistry to delve into their energy states. An energy scale for a series of terbium complexes was predicted and agreed well with experimental results. It is possible that in future new bioanalytical lanthanide molecules can be tailor-made following the theoretical prediction of their properties.
Compost control
Nasty smells from compost are being brought under control by analytical scientists from Austria and Germany. The chemical processes responsible for the odours need to be controlled and to help with this Franz Dickert and co-workers have designed a sensor array to characterise the composting phase at any given time. The sensors continuously monitor water, 1-propanol, limonene and ethyl acetate, representatives of the key compound classes produced during the different composting stages. The work should improve process monitoring in industrial composters.
Drug screening one cell at a time
Monitoring real-time changes in single cells is becoming a reality. Paul Li and colleagues from Simon Fraser University in Canada were able to trap single cells, and retain their viability using a specially made U-shaped microstructure (the authors have demonstrated this process in a movie clip). Once trapped, the effect of an added drug on the cell can be tested by fluorescence monitoring of the cellular conversion of fluorescein diacetate to fluorescein.
Beryllium sensitization
The airborne mass of beryllium may not be the best measure of exposure for workers at risk of beryllium sensitization or chronic beryllium disease claim a team of US-based scientists. Ronald Scripsick from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and colleagues measured the composition of powders and aerosols along production lines involving beryllium. They show that the composition of the different samples varies greatly and suggest that this could explain previously reported relationships between exposure and response.
Essential Elements
Checking your experimental data for publication has just been made easier, thanks to a collaboration between the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics (at the Universit...
The second RSC Editors' Symposium was held in Glasgow, UK, from 13-15 March.
Current developments in crystal engineering, and their future potential, are the topic of the forthcoming CrystEngComm Discussion meeting, being held at the University of Nottingha...
Research Highlights
Joining forces to understand ozone
Three different groups provide new insight into atmospheric reactions.
Artificial musks are causing scientists to look to new ways of detecting pollutants.
New sensor detects cholera toxin
Hope for cholera sufferers in developing countries.
Using sunlight to remove oil from polluted beaches.
Fine tuning cancer-killing molecules
New cancer-beating molecules may be a step closer, thanks to collaboration between chemists and biomedical scientists in Australia.
Physical chemistry helps biology
A new biolabel to help biologists monitor dynamic processes in biological systems is being developed by a team at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.
Technological advance from Nature's design
Letting Nature do the hard work in preparing complex structures for microdevices is looking more likely thanks to a team of materials scientists from Ohio State University and the ...
Nanomaterials with a core and a shell made from the same material have been synthesised for the first time.
Microfluidic devices could soon be improving the success of in vitro fertilisation, according to a team of scientists from the universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, US.
A new cage molecule with a unique 'double-propellor' structure and interesting magnetic properties has been prepared in a collaboration between universities.
Chemists are turning their hand to solving the world's electrical energy crisis.
