EurekAlert! News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics - News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics

Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2025 11:10 ET (21-Jun-2025 15:10 GMT/UTC)

Breakthrough molecular movie reveals DNA’s unzipping mechanism with implications for viral and cancer treatments

University of Leicester
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the University of Leicester have captured the first detailed “molecular movie” showing DNA being unzipped at the atomic level – revealing how cells begin the crucial process of copying their genetic material.

Journal: Nature
Funder: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Boosting the efficiency of sustainable aviation fuel production

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Business Announcement

Fuels like kerosene can be produced in a climate-friendly way from CO₂, water and green electricity using Power-to-Liquid processes. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have already demonstrated this with systems in actual operation. Now, researchers working on the Kopernikus P2X project have succeeded for the first time in coupling – at an industrial 220-kilowatt scale – the highly efficient co-electrolysis process with fuel synthesis. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Graz University of Technology team decodes heat conduction of complex materials

Graz University of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using machine learning workflows developed in-house, the researchers were able to establish that heat conduction is much more intricate than previously thought. Findings offer potential for developing specific materials.

Journal: npj Computational Materials
Funder: Austrian Science Fund, Austrian Science Fund

The fine control of cell mechanics

Université de Genève
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Our skin and mucous membranes are protected by epithelial cells. This “barrier” tissue performs its function thanks to specialized structures called “junctions”. They ensure cell cohesion and regulate exchanges across the space between cells. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC) in Göttingen, have studied the role of a specific protein, gamma-actin, in the organization and mechanics of epithelial cells and their junctions. Their work, published in Nature Communications, reveals a mechanism of interdependence of different forms of the cytoskeletal proteins actin and myosin, and their functions. The team also demonstrates the key role of gamma-actin in the rigidity of cell membranes and the dynamics of junctional proteins, which may provide a mechanism of hearing loss.

Journal: Nature Communications

How a Y chromosome gene may shape the course of heart valve disease

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have shed new light on how a type of heart valve disease—aortic valve stenosis—progresses differently in males and females. The research paves the way for treatments that can be tailored to a patient's biological sex.

Journal: Science Advances

Overcoming stacking constraints in hexagonal boron nitride via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

POSTECH and University of Montpellier researchers demonstrate wafer-scale AA-stacked hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) growth.

Journal: Nature Materials

Muonic atoms unlock new possibilities in nuclear physics

University of Queensland
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Queensland researchers have combined theory and experiments to show that nuclear polarisation does not limit studies of muonic atoms, clearing the way for new nuclear physics experiments.

Journal: Physical Review Letters