Imaging the smallest atoms provides insights into an enzyme's unusual biochemistry

This could help in the design of enzymes for the chemical industry

29-Sep-2023 - When your wounds heal and your liver detoxifies a poison such as histamine you ingested, you can thank the class of enzymes known as copper amine oxidases for their assistance. Identifying the exact positions of the smallest hydrogen atoms in these enzymes is challenging with commonly used ...

Materials synthesis research and study in terapascal range for the first time

Traveling to the centre of planet Uranus

13-May-2022 - Jules Verne could not even dream of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together with international partners, has pushed the boundaries of high-pressure and high-temperature research into cosmic dimensions. For the first time, they have succeeded in generating and ...

Crystallography for the misfit crystals

Advanced algorithms plus an exceptional X-ray laser can reveal the structures of not-so-neat-and-tidy materials unattainable by other techniques

24-Jan-2022 - Francis Crick, who famously co-discovered the shape of DNA, once said: “If you want to understand function, study structure.” Many decades later, this remains a tenet of biology, chemistry, and materials science. A key breakthrough in the quest for DNA’s structure came from X-ray crystallography, ...

Tiny spiders, big color

15-May-2018 - There's plenty that's striking about Phoroncidia rubroargentea, a species of spider native to Madagascar, starting with their size - at just three millimeters, they're barely larger than a few grains of salt. But the reason they caught Sarah Kariko's eye had more to do with their color. Unlike ...

How magnetic fields can fix crystal twinning

01-Feb-2018 - In many cases, it is important to be able to take measurements along different directions in the crystal lattice in order to study the physical properties of new materials, such as high-temperature superconductors. However, this requires single crystals without so-called twin domains, i.e., ...

CCDC Launches The FAIRE Programme to Support International Crystallography

31-Aug-2017 - The Frank H. Allen International Research & Education Programme to provide long-term grants to enable academic structural chemistry studies in developing countries. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (The CCDC) announces the creation of a programme to support structural chemistry research ...

Pinpoint creation of chirality by organic catalysts

11-Apr-2017 - Researchers at Nagoya University have reported on the development of an organic catalyst that triggers a highly stereoselective 1,6-addition of azlactones to a δ-aryl dienyl carbonyl compound to generate amino acid derivatives in high yields. The generated 1,6-adduct contains two carbon ...

Nanocages for gold particles: What is happening inside?

20-Mar-2017 - In living organisms, free metal ions are stored and transported through proteins assembled into highly ordered structures such as protein cages via a reaction called biomineralization. This sophisticated biological strategy has attracted the attention of biotechnologists who speculate that ...

Crystal unclear

Why might this uncanny crystal change laser design?

29-Aug-2016 - Laser applications may benefit from crystal research by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and China's Shandong University. They have discovered a potential way to sidestep longstanding difficulties with making the crystals that are a crucial part of laser ...

The complexity of modeling

05-Nov-2015 - In recent years, advances in materials synthesis techniques have enabled scientists to produce increasingly complex functional materials with enhanced or novel macroscopic properties. For example, ultra-small core-shell metallic nanoparticles used for catalysis, high entropy alloys made of 6 or 7 ...