High-resolution images of human metabolism have been caught on camera for the first time thanks to a new technique that can track glucose metabolism in a single cell. Tracking glucose could provide insights and even new therapies to treat cancer – a disease which often disrupts cellular metabolism. The new technology combines fluorescence resonance energy […]

Researchers in China and Hungary have discovered a new marine natural product with an unprecedented carbon skeleton and unusual structural features. The compound, which they’ve named benthol A, was isolated from unicellular algae known as dinoflagellates from the South China Sea. Marine organic compounds with long polyol carbon chains and many stereocentres are known as […]

A light-activated molecular switch could drive down the cost of a useful, but difficult to make γ-cyclodextrin. Cyclodextrins are ring-shaped structures typically made from six to eight glucose units. Their hydrophilic exterior and hydrophobic cavity makes them important host molecules used in supramolecular chemistry, with applications ranging from food chemistry to drug delivery. γ-cyclodextrin, made […]

Researchers in the UK have developed a fast and mild method for deconstructing SF6. The method converts the potent greenhouse gas into stable aluminium(iii) fluoride and sulfide compounds, which can serve as nucleophilic sources of F− and S2- in further reactions to make valuable organic products.  Due to its highly inert nature and excellent thermal […]

If ever a science fiction movie director were seeking inspiration for how to depict tiny robotic alien life forms, they need look no further than those created by a team of scientists in Bulgaria, Poland, the UK and China. Beginning as innocuous oily droplets about 20–40μm across floating in water, these structures take on faceted, […]

Scientists in South Korea have made a stable species that incorporates a superatom into another superatom. Superatoms are nanoclusters of atoms that display properties mimicking those of an elemental atom. The protons and neutrons from the constituent atoms cluster together to form a nucleus surrounded by a delocalised electron cloud, which behaves as one stable […]

Calls are growing for a global science-policy platform to oversee chemicals and waste, equivalent to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But there are concerns over how long it is taking for the UN to act on the proposal. In response, the Swiss government will table a resolution to establish a body at UNEA5.2, […]

For the first time, chemists have used mechanical force to access unconventional trajectories on a reaction’s potential energy surface, making products that differ from the ones predicted by statistical thermodynamics. The researchers hope the technique can be exploited to discover new reaction schemes as well as to design probes of reaction dynamics. Mechanical force can […]

Chemical patterns proposed in 1952 by the British mathematician Alan Turing have been discovered at the atomic scale. Appearing as stripes in a single atomic layer of bismuth adsorbed on crystalline niobium selenide, the patterns are only 2nm (around five atoms) wide – much smaller than all other Turing patterns. The study shows ‘that on […]

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has approved the first overall testing strategy to predict skin allergic reactions without using animals. The strategy was developed in a decade-long collaboration between German chemicals company BASF, and Swiss flavour and fragrance specialist Givaudan. According to Givaudan’s head of in vitro molecular screening, Andreas Natch, it […]