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Category: chemistry – Page 7

Self-driving system makes key plastic ingredient using in-house generated H₂O₂

An eco-friendly system capable of producing propylene oxide (PO) without external electricity or sunlight has been developed. PO is a vital raw material used in manufacturing household items such as polyurethane for sofas and mattresses, as well as polyester for textiles and water bottles.

A research team led by Professors Ja Hun Kwak and Ji-Wook Jang from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Sung June Cho of Chonnam National University, has successfully created a self-driven PO production system utilizing in-situ generated hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂).

The research is published in Nature Communications.

A toast to BRD4: How acidity changes the immune response

It started with wine. Or more precisely, a conversation about it. “My colleagues and I were talking about how some people think drinking wine may be anti-inflammatory,” recalls Xu Zhou, Ph.D., from the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital. “There’s no scientific ground for that, but we know wine is acidic.”

Around the same time, Zhou and his team were exploring a broader blind spot in immunology: the role of the tissue microenvironment (such as pH, oxygen, and salt concentration) in shaping . While most research had focused on cellular messengers like cytokines, Zhou was curious about how the physical and chemical makeup of tissues might influence , especially in disease.

Inspired by their wine conversation and intrigued by these overlooked components, Zhou’s team launched a study to investigate how acidity affects immune cells. Their findings, published in Cell, show that a drop in pH can suppress immune responses by disrupting a protein called BRD4—an important regulator of gene activity in immune cells. That small chemical shift could have big implications for treating inflammation-related diseases.

Goodbye, Cavities? Scientists Just Found a Way to Regrow Tooth Enamel

A newly developed material has been used to create a gel capable of repairing and rebuilding tooth enamel, offering a potential breakthrough in both preventive and restorative dental care.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy and Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering designed this bioinspired substance to restore damaged or eroded enamel, reinforce existing enamel, and help guard against future decay. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.

This protein-based gel, which contains no fluoride, can be quickly applied to teeth using the same method dentists use for traditional fluoride treatments. It imitates the natural proteins responsible for guiding enamel formation early in life. Once in place, the gel forms a thin, durable coating that seeps into the tooth surface, filling small cracks and imperfections.

Composite metal foam could lead to safer hazmat transportation

A new study finds that composite metal foam (CMF) can withstand tremendous force—enough to punch a hole in a railroad tank car—at much lower weight than solid steel. The finding raises the possibility of creating a safer generation of tanker cars for transporting hazardous materials.

The researchers have also developed a that can be used to determine what thickness of CMF is needed in order to provide the desired level of protection necessary for any given application. The paper, “Numerical Model and Experimental Validation of Composite Metal Foam in Protecting Carbon Steel Against Puncture,” is published in Advanced Engineering Materials.

“Railroad tank cars are responsible for transporting a wide range of hazardous materials, from acids and chemicals to petroleum and liquefied ,” says Afsaneh Rabiei, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.

Scientists Discover a Potential Bacterial Solution to “Forever Chemicals”

A photosynthetic bacterium shows promise in capturing PFAS, offering new hope for microbial cleanup of “forever chemicals.” Researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Engineering are turning to an unexpected source in their effort to combat toxic “forever chemicals.” In the

Ingredients for Life Spotted in Harsh, “Early Universe-Like” Galaxy

In a finding that may transform our understanding of how life’s chemical precursors are distributed across the universe, astronomers have detected organic molecules containing more than six atoms frozen in ice around a young star named ST6, located in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way.

Using the James Webb Space Telescopes (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the team identified five distinct carbon-based compounds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, our nearest neighboring galaxy. The research, led by University of Maryland and NASA scientist Marta Sewilo, was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 20, 2025.

New antibiotic for drug-resistant bacteria found hiding in plain sight

Chemists from the University of Warwick and Monash University have discovered a promising new antibiotic that shows activity against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, including MRSA and VRE.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the world’s most urgent health challenges, with the WHO’s new report showing there are ‘too few antibacterials in the pipeline’. Most of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has already been found, and the limited commercial incentives deter investment in antibiotic discovery.

In a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from the Monash Warwick Alliance Combatting Emerging Superbug Threats Initiative have discovered a promising new antibiotic — pre-methylenomycin C lactone. The newly discovered antibiotic was ‘hiding in plain sight’ – as an intermediate chemical in the natural process that produces the well-known antibiotic methylenomycin A.

Stellar Giants Forged the Chemical Diversity of Ancient Clusters

“Extremely massive stars may have played a key role in the formation of the first galaxies,” said Dr. Paolo Padoan.

How did the extremely massive stars (EMS) in the early universe help form the oldest star clusters? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the role that EMS played in not only forming globular clusters (GCs), but how the latter were responsible for forming the first black holes. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions of the early universe and what this could mean to better understanding our existence.

For the study, the researchers presented a new computational model to help explain how EMS contributed to GC formation with bodies celestial objects being between 1,000 to 10,000 times as massive as our Sun and containing hundreds of thousands to millions of stars, respectively. Given the massive sizes and short lifetimes of EMS, they go supernova when they die, and the new model postulates they become black holes while releasing massive amounts of chemical and hydrogen that mixes with surrounding gas and dust, resulting in the formation of GCs. Additionally, data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered nitrogen-rich galaxies had chemical signatures obtained from GCs.

This Awesome Periodic Table Shows The Origins of Every Atom in Your Body

Here’s something to think about: the average adult human is made up of-1 (7 octillion) atoms, and most of them are hydrogen — the most common element in the Universe, produced by the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

The rest of those atoms were forged by ancient stars merging and exploding billions of years after the formation of the Universe, and a tiny amount can be attributed to cosmic rays — high-energy radiation that mostly originates from somewhere outside the Solar System.

As astronomer Carl Sagan once said in an episode of Cosmos, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”

Bisphenol A causes sex-specific changes in metabolism and the immune system, study reveals

Even small amounts of bisphenol A can lead to long-term health effects. When researchers studied adult rats exposed in the fetal stage, they found that females had developed a more masculine and males a more feminine gene expression pattern. This led to females progressing towards a cancer-like state, while males progressed towards metabolic syndrome, which can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Bisphenol A is a synthetic chemical with estrogen-like properties that is commonly used in food packaging materials. The substance is banned in many products, but is still present in some packaging. Levels of bisphenol A in people’s bodies are often above levels considered safe, with previous research showing that the substance can cause adverse health effects.

Females masculinized and males feminized In the current study, published in Communications Medicine, researchers investigated how bisphenol A affects the body during the fetal stage.

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