Chemists working on tight budgets in developing countries may be able to substitute extracts of potatoes, celery, eggplant, carrot, cassava, horseradish or an array of inexpensive and locally available vegetable products for the costly reagents traditionally needed for chemical reactions, a new study suggests.
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New method enables design, production of extremely novel drugs
A new chemical synthesis method based on a catalyst worth many times the price of gold and providing a far more efficient and economical method than traditional ones for designing and manufacturing extremely novel pharmaceutical compounds is described by its University at Buffalo developers in a review article in the current issue of
Nature.
Cells Get Sprayed
Genetically engineered products have become indispensable. For example, genetically modified bacteria produce human insulin. In future, gene therapy should make it possible to introduce genes into the cells of a diseased organism so that they can address deficiencies to compensate for malfunctions in the body.
Bilberry extract -- can it help prevent certain cancers?
A Leicester cancer research project, which receives funding from Hope Against Cancer (formerly The Hope Foundation,) is investigating whether an extract from bilberries can prevent or delay the onset of certain cancers.
Microscale Chemical Factory
Miniaturization is invading the world of chemical syntheses. Since typical chemical syntheses take place in several reaction steps with various separation or purification steps in between, microchemistry has almost always been limited to one-step reactions or sequences of reactions requiring no purification between steps.
21st century technology cracks alchemists' secret recipe
A 500-year old mystery surrounding the centerpiece of the alchemists' lab kit has been solved by UCL (University College London) and Cardiff University archaeologists.
Magnetic nanoparticles boost green chemistry
Using the unique properties of new nanometer-scale magnetic particles, researchers have for the first time separated for reuse two different catalysts from a multi-step chemical reaction done in a single vessel.
New photocatalyst for hydrogen generation works by irradiation with visible light
Making energy useable is a central problem of our civilization. Couldn't we simply imitate green plants and
use photosynthesis to transform light into chemical energy? In principle, we could: hydrogen can be catalytically released from water to drive fuel cells that produce electricity -- a clean source of energy that doesn't require fossil fuels. In theory, photocatalytic cells are easy to make. Simply put the catalyst in water, irradiate with sunlight, collect the hydrogen, and there you are. So what are we waiting for? It turns out not to be so simple after all.
New noble gas chemical compounds created
Chemical compounds consisting of noble gases combined with hydrocarbon molecules a feat previously thought to be unattainable have been created as the result of the work of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This achievement by Benny Gerber, Saerree K. and Louis P. Fiedler Professor of Chemistry, and his associates at the Hebrew University Institute of Chemistry opens the way for further research to produce new chemical compounds in such areas as anesthesiology and high-energy fuels that will be more efficient, safer and ecologically less injurious than materials now in use.