News July 2007

Seeds of doubt
18 December 2007
Uncertainty hangs over plans to fertilise the world's oceans with iron

FDA advised: Avandia should stay on the market
31 July 2007
FDA Advisory Committee votes 22-1 for GSK's diabetes drug to continue to be marketed in the US

Car tyres and brakes produce toxic metal emissions
31 July 2007
Your exhaust emissions may be up to standard, but your car's not as green as you think

The measure of cell immortality
31 July 2007
US scientists are catching tiny amounts of DNA in a drive to develop a test for enzyme activity linked to tumour growth.

Graphene sensor achieves ultimate sensitivity
30 July 2007
Carbon sheet detects single molecules of gas

Cell transplant hope for diabetes sufferers
30 July 2007
Insulin-producing cells carried in protective magnetocapsules are tracked by MRI

Polluted penguin poop
30 July 2007
Penguin guano in the Antarctic is adding to organic pollutant problems there, say Belgian scientists.
Space monster discovered
27 July 2007
Octatetraynyl ion is the largest negatively charged molecule ever seen in space

Instant insight: Molecular memory
27 July 2007
Nicolas Weibel, Sergio Grunder and Marcel Mayor, University of Basel, Switzerland look at functional molecules in electronic circuits

Shortcut protein synthesis ditches amino acids
26 July 2007
Polymerisation route using carbon monoxide is fast and cheap

Counterion does the twist
26 July 2007
Chiral phosphate and catalyst work together to improve selectivity

Novel aerogels to absorb toxic heavy metals
26 July 2007
Chalcogenide gels bind mercury better than traditional oxides

Lift-off for fingerprint analysis
25 July 2007
New non-destructive technique for chemically analysing fingerprints collected from crime scenes

Exciting changes for cancer detection
25 July 2007
A new development from scientists in Taiwan could simplify the detection and monitoring of various cancers.

A clearer view of heart disease
25 July 2007
Versatile pyrazole ligands offer a promising future for heart imaging radiotracers.

Newly identified side to global warming
25 July 2007
An atmospheric mechanism has emerged that could lift global temperatures even higher than current predictions

A DNA light switch
25 July 2007
A light-activated molecular padlock protects DNA from cleaving enzymes and could halt gene transcription.

Molecular gate with a silver key
24 July 2007
French scientists reveal the design of a new molecular gate locked by a silver ion.

Goat antidote
23 July 2007
Gram quantities of a potent chemical-weapon antidote have been produced in goats' milk

Cool fuel
23 July 2007
Materials scientists from Spain and the UK have made a cathode material that allows solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to be used at lower temperatures.

Interview: Molecular aesthetics
23 July 2007
John Arnold talks to May Copsey about the joys of molecular inorganic chemistry

Polonium clean-up leaves trail of destruction
20 July 2007
Decontamination of polonium traces from Litvinenko case presented a mammoth task

Interview: Transport on a chip
20 July 2007
Microfluidics meets analytical chemistry. Paul Bohn talks to Jenna Wilson about molecular transport in small channels.

Instant insight: Revealing the hidden depths
20 July 2007
Emerging spectroscopic techniques that promise to change cancer and bone disease diagnosis.

Antarctic atmosphere could give Gaia hypothesis a boost
19 July 2007
Unexpectedly high and persistent levels of halogen oxides found in the Antarctic atmosphere

Striped nanorods feel the strain
19 July 2007
Silver-sulfide quantum dots have been lined up in a cadmium-sulfide rod using strain forces

Relax, it's fluorine-19
19 July 2007
Fluorinated lanthanide probes allow much faster collection of fluorine-19 magnetic resonance spectra.

Optimism greets China's quest for clean coal
18 July 2007
Chinese scientists are on the verge of successfully producing clean fuels from underground coal deposits

Nanoparticles send peptides round the twist
18 July 2007
Nanoparticles with flexible side chains cause peptides to adopt a helical form, making them promising anticancer agents.

Current affairs of the cell
18 July 2007
Population patch clamp electrophysiology could cut drug screening times.

Neurotransmitter levels linked to amnesia
17 July 2007
Latest findings question widely accepted link between protein synthesis and memory formation.

Hallucinogenic drug in the clinic
16 July 2007
The use of LSD in psychotherapy is to be studied for the first time in 35 years

Tasting sour flavours is genetic
16 July 2007
Genes play a large role in the recognition of sour tastes but not in the recognition of saltiness

Genetic display for butterflies
16 July 2007
Does the beauty of butterfly wings hold the key to understanding evolution?

Crystals as genes?
16 July 2007
The hypothesis that crystals could have been primitive genetic materials has been put to the test by US scientists.

Chinese legislation to increase drug safety
13 July 2007
New drug registration laws expected to boost the country's pharmaceutical industry

Superconductivity: explosive new images
13 July 2007
UK chemists have created superconducting images, including the Chemistry World logo, on paper

From glycerol to gas
13 July 2007
Liquid alkane fuel can be produced from a by-product of biomass processing, thanks to researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, US.

Calcium is key for platinum drug delivery
13 July 2007
A porous silica material, doped with calcium, gives targeted delivery of a new platinum anticancer drug.

Interview: Happiness on a chip
13 July 2007
Yoshinobu Baba tells Celia Clarke how nanotechnology could measure our health and happiness.

Model enzyme attacks alkyl mercury
12 July 2007
US chemists have devised a molecular mimic of an enzyme that destroys toxic alkyl mercury pollutants

Aphids defend colony with cabbage chemistry
12 July 2007
Ladybirds bite off more than they can chew when eating aphids armed with a chemical weapon based on mustard-oil

Older women should not use HRT
12 July 2007
Clinical trial confirms that hormone replacement therapy should not be prescribed for women long past menopause

How to make worms turn
11 July 2007
Electric fields used to steer nematode worms like 'remote-controlled cars'

Magnetic force drives device
11 July 2007
A magnet-driven microchip can rapidly and reliably replicate DNA, for many uses including forensic investigation at crime scenes.

Instant insight: An adsorbing tale
11 July 2007
Hong-Cai (Joe) Zhou at Miami University, Ohio, US, describes how metal-organic frameworks could play their part in the hydrogen economy.

Dye-namic transitions
11 July 2007
Fluorescent dyes incorporating transition metals offer significant advantages over existing dyes in cell imaging, say UK scientists.

Attosyringe shows potential
10 July 2007
Precise and tiny volumes of fluids can be injected directly into cells

Keeping your powder dry
10 July 2007
Ever wondered why there is a little packet marked 'Do not eat' inside the box for your new DVD player?

Is folding laundry bad for your health?
10 July 2007
Levels of laundry detergent particles found in house dust are 'close to the margins of safety', say scientists in Sweden.

Smoking cessation drug shows promise for alcohol dependency
09 July 2007
A drug that helps people stop smoking could also be used to treat alcohol addiction

One good turn
09 July 2007
French researchers have been using spectroscopy to tell their left from their right.

Whitesides charges to the top
06 July 2007
US chemist George Whitesides has overtaken Harvard compatriot E J Corey to top a league table measuring the research achievements of living chemists.

Predicting how proteins fold
06 July 2007
Researchers have developed new ways of simulating the folding of membrane proteins, which could aid drug development

Delivering RNA with pinpoint precision
06 July 2007
A microelectrode array allows controlled delivery of genetic material to cell cultures.

Cold chemistry
05 July 2007
Chemical reactions at extremely low temperatures, for instance in interstellar clouds, can run at surprisingly fast rates

New UK science minister
05 July 2007
Ian Pearson, formerly of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has replaced Malcolm Wicks as science minister

Ionic liquids on tap
05 July 2007
Researchers in Germany have developed an intensive process for preparing ionic liquids using a continuously operating micro-reactor system.

Cheaper biodiesel
05 July 2007
Producing biodiesel from cheap feedstocks could become easier and more environmentally friendly thanks to scientists in the US.

Stiff drink for Europe's legislators
04 July 2007
European parliament drafts legally binding technical standards for around 50 spirit drinks

Clearing a path to cancer detection
04 July 2007
Improved imaging of prostate cancer proteins in single cells is possible thanks to scientists at the University of Manchester.

The third age of ionic liquids?
04 July 2007
Scientists in the US and Poland have shown that ionic liquids could have significant biological applications in drug delivery.

No more pumping iron?
04 July 2007
A series of potential drugs to treat iron-overload disorders show unusual iron binding properties, say researchers in Australia.

Institute to study how we age
03 July 2007
Germany's Max Planck society has formally approved creation of a new research institute that will focus on the biology of aging

Virulence from the deep sea
03 July 2007
Genetic traits of chemosynthetic bacteria living in the deep sea have evolved into virulence traits in common gut bacteria

Is the clock ticking for cancer cells?
03 July 2007
Scientists in China have found a way to reset cancer cells' biological clock that could lead to new anticancer agents.

Golden future for addition reaction
03 July 2007
Spanish chemists have found a mercury-free method of catalysing the addition of alcohols to alkenes.






