News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Engineers at UT Austin develop world's first method for controlling the motion of nanomotors with simple visible light as the stimulus.

Osaka University researchers prepared 2D layered, visible-light-absorbing bismuth sulfide semiconductors using a two-step process. The resulting film exhibited morphology that supported excellent semiconductor performance. The simplicity and versatility of the processing method, which uses non-toxic, abundant materials, makes bismuth sulfide a viable alternative to commercially available photoresponsive devices.

A new cell culture platform allows researchers to observe never-before-seen behaviors of live cancer cells under the microscope, leading to explanations of long-known cancer characteristics.

Osaka University researchers developed the first device that can detect single-electron events in a self-assembled quantum dot in real time. The device detects the single-electron tunneling events of one quantum dot as changes in the current produced by a second quantum dot in close proximity. This device allows single-electron events in quantum dots to be investigated, which is beneficial for the development of photonic devices and quantum computing.

The spatial and temporal dynamics of proteins or organelles plays a crucial role in controlling various cellular processes and in development of diseases. Yet, acute control of activity at distinct locations within a cell cannot be achieved. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists from Umeå University (Sweden) and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (Germany) present a new chemo-optogenetic method that enables tunable, reversible, and rapid control of activity at multiple subcellular compartments within a living cell.

Serratia marcescens Chitinase A (SmChiA) is a molecular motor efficiently hydrolyzing recalcitrant crystalline chitin by moving on the surface processively. By using gold-nanoparticle probe, researchers revealed 1-nm stepping motion of SmChiA rectified forward by fast catalysis. X-ray crystallography and molecular dynamics simulation also revealed that motion of SmChiA is driven by the Brownian motion. The results show SmChiA is 'burnt-bridge' Brownian ratchet monorail, and give an insight to design engineered and artificial molecular motors.

Young-Shin Jun, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, and Quingun Li, a former doctoral student in her lab, are the first to measure the activation energy and kinetic factors of calcium carbonate's nucleation.

In research that may help bridge the divide between the nano and the macro, Brown University chemists have used pyramid-shaped nanoparticles to create what might be the most complex macroscale superstructure ever assembled.