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    Plastic Nanoparticles inspired by Nature could improve Cancer Drug Delivery

    November 2, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    Polymer synthesis, spectroscopic properties and self-assembly. a Synthesis of the perylene-bearing diblock terpolymer PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9). b Normalized absorption (solid lines) and fluorescence spectra (dashed lines) of the amine-reactive perylene derivative PDMI-PFP (red) and PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9) (blue) in THF. c TEM image of spherical aggregates formed by PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9) in a dilute THF solution (0.1 mg mL−1). Scale bar, 100 nm. d Schematic representation depicting the solvent-switch method used to induce self-assembly of PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9). e Schematic representations, average major axis lengths, aspect ratios, and TEM images of resulting self-assembled structures formed at different THF content. f Normalized absorption spectra of all five polymersomes in water

    Polymer synthesis, spectroscopic properties and self-assembly. a Synthesis of the perylene-bearing diblock terpolymer PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9). b Normalized absorption (solid lines) and fluorescence spectra (dashed lines) of the amine-reactive perylene derivative PDMI-PFP (red) and PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9) (blue) in THF. c TEM image of spherical aggregates formed by PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9) in a dilute THF solution (0.1 mg mL−1). Scale bar, 100 nm. d Schematic representation depicting the solvent-switch method used to induce self-assembly of PEG43-b-P(NIPAM21-co-PDMI9). e Schematic representations, average major axis lengths, aspect ratios, and TEM images of resulting self-assembled structures formed at different THF content...

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    How Life Arose from Primordial Muck: Experimental evidence Overturns accepted Theory

    November 2, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    In the beginning, there were chemicals. Credit: Illustration by Max Englund

    In the beginning, there were chemicals. Credit: Illustration by Max Englund

    Life on Earth originated in an intimate partnership between the nucleic acids and peptides, according to two new papers from biochemists and biologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Auckland. Their “peptide-RNA” hypothesis contradicts the widely-held “RNA-world” hypothesis, which states that life originated from nucleic acids and only later evolved to include proteins. The new papers show how recent experimental studies of two enzyme superfamilies surmount the tough theoretical questions about how complex life emerged on Earth more than 4 billion years ago.

    “Until now, it has been thought to be impossible to conduct experiments to penetrate the origins of genetics,” said C...

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    Aliens may be More Like Us than we think

    November 1, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    These illustrations represent different levels of adaptive complexity we might imagine when thinking about aliens. (a) A simple replicating molecule, with no apparent design. This may or may not undergo natural selection. (b) An incredibly simple, cell-like entity. Even something this simple has sufficient contrivance of parts that it must undergo natural selection. (c) An alien with many intricate parts working together is likely to have undergone major transitions. Credit: Helen S. Cooper

    These illustrations represent different levels of adaptive complexity we might imagine when thinking about aliens. (a) A simple replicating molecule, with no apparent design. This may or may not undergo natural selection. (b) An incredibly simple, cell-like entity. Even something this simple has sufficient contrivance of parts that it must undergo natural selection. (c) An alien with many intricate parts working together is likely to have undergone major transitions. Credit: Helen S. Cooper

    What evolutionary biology tells us about how aliens could look. For the first time, researchers show how evolutionary theory can be used to support alien predictions and better understand their behavior...

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    Graphene Enables High-Speed Electronics on Flexible Materials

    November 1, 2017, Categories  Uncategorized

    With the help of the two-dimensional material graphene, the first flexible terahertz detector has been developed by researchers at Chalmers. The opportunities are great within health and Internet of Things, and for new types of sensors. Credit: Boid - Product Design Studio, Gothenburg/Chalmers University of Technology

    With the help of the two-dimensional material graphene, the first flexible terahertz detector has been developed by researchers at Chalmers. The opportunities are great within health and Internet of Things, and for new types of sensors. Credit: Boid – Product Design Studio, Gothenburg/Chalmers University of Technology

    A flexible detector for terahertz frequencies (1,000GHz) has been developed using graphene transistors on plastic substrates. It is the first of its kind, and can extend the use of terahertz technology to applications that will require flexible electronics, such as wireless sensor networks and wearable technology. Terahertz radiation has a wide range of uses from radio astronomy to medicine...

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