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The presence of water on the moon is now certain, less so its origin. New experimental findings support the idea of water being released from protonated lunar silicates due to heating from micro-meteorite impacts.
The aroma profile of dark chocolate has been elucidated and could be used as a benchmark to study the effect of changes in recipe, processing and storage conditions on its flavour.
All organisms have developed vital sensory processes that enable prompt reactions in response to external environmental changes. Su and co-workers propose a bioinspired thermoresponsive device made of solid-state nanochannels that induce thermally selective ion transport.
Thermal denaturation of proteins affords species that differ in terms of cofactors and conformations. Ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry can be used to unravel these mixtures and learn the factors stabilizing certain protein forms.
A rapid synthesis of the antibacterial drug linezolid using flow chemistry has been reported that does not require isolation or purification of any intermediates and is completed in seven synthetic steps
Analysis of complex mixtures often requires time consuming separation techniques. Mathias Nilsson and co-workers have, now, developed a new approach to dissecting the NMR spectra of unaltered complex mixtures.
Seven-membered rings are rare motifs in fullerene derivatives. However, these motifs can be stabilized by adjacent five-membered rings and feature in a hydrofullerene isolated from combustion soot.
Formylglycine residues are important functional handles on native and synthetic proteins. The formation of these residues is mediated by a copper enzyme operating via a superoxo intermediate.
Creating exam questions is a skill. Understanding the anatomy of a question can help teachers write good questions and help students maximize their score.
Bacteria sense metal ions using proteins whose interactions with DNA are sensitive to metal ion availability and identity. Less competitive metal ions trigger protein–DNA binding only at high concentrations.
Careful reaction design has enabled the use of single electron transfer reagent samarium diiodide in substoichiometric amounts to catalyse radical cyclizations.
X-ray structures of reactant and product states, as well as theoretical calculations, have helped uncover the mechanism of Escherichia coli phosphofructokinase 2.