Tag: Chemistry
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Nation & World
A new spin on an old question
Understanding how DNA and proteins interact — or fail to — could help answer fundamental biological questions about human health and disease.
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Nation & World
Soft robots for all
The first soft ring oscillator gets plushy robots to roll, undulate, sort, meter liquids, and swallow.
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Nation & World
Combing out a tangled problem
A new technique speeds creation of nanowire devices, boosting research into what’s happening inside cells.
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Nation & World
Gut microbes eat our medication
Study published in Science shows that gut microbes can chew up medications, with serious side effects.
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Nation & World
Learning why cancer drugs work (or don’t)
Assistant Professor Brian Liau of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department has answered the question of why some new drugs for acute myeloid leukemia don’t work by combining CRISPR gene editing with small-molecule inhibitor treatments in a technique he calls CRISPR-suppressor scanning.
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Nation & World
Microbial manufacturing
Emily Balskus and a team of researchers untangled how soil bacteria are able to manufacture streptozotocin, an antibiotic and anti-cancer compound.
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Nation & World
Learning catalysts’ secrets
Cynthia Friend, who recently received a multimillion dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, is well positioned to help “change the face and carbon footprint of the chemical industries sector,” one of her team’s goals.
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Nation & World
A role for cyanide in recipe for life
New Harvard findings show that a mixture of cyanide and copper, when irradiated with UV light, could have helped form the building blocks of life on early Earth.
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Nation & World
‘I had the conviction that my ideas were correct’
Interview with Nobel Prize winner Martin Karplus as part of the Experience series.
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Nation & World
Catalyzing discovery
In a trio of studies published earlier this month, researchers have shown that the process of catalysis is more dynamic than previously imagined, and that molecular forces can vastly influence the process.
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Nation & World
New way to model molecules
Scientists from Harvard and Google have demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer could be used to model the electron interactions in a complex molecule.
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Nation & World
Defending breakthrough research
Harvard initiates patent infringement suits to protect inventors’ rights in computer-chip technology.
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Nation & World
Tiny wires, great potential
Harvard scientists have developed a method for creating a class of nanowires that could one day see applications in everything from consumer electronics to solar panels.
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Nation & World
Adam Cohen receives 2014 Blavatnik Award
Adam Cohen, professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics, has been named one of three winners of the 2014 Blavatnik National Awards, which honor young scientists and engineers who have demonstrated important insights in their respective fields and who show exceptional promise going forward.
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Nation & World
Chemist Thérèse Wilson dies at 88
Thérèse Wilson, a chemist at Harvard for more than five decades and an expert in chemiluminescence and bioluminescence, died peacefully in Cambridge on April 28.
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Nation & World
Breaking down ‘Bad’
“Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan spoke with Harvard President Drew Faust about the origins and evolution of the show.
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Nation & World
Battery offers renewable energy breakthrough
A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a new type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and sun far more economical and reliable.
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Nation & World
Nobel in chemistry awarded to Martin Karplus
Martin Karplus, the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry Emeritus in Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology is one of three to share in the Nobel Prize in chemistry, the The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced this morning.
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Nation & World
Map to renewable energy?
Researchers hoping to make the next breakthrough in renewable energy now have plenty of new avenues to explore — Harvard researchers this week released a database of more than 2 million molecules that might be useful in the construction of organic solar cells for the production of renewable energy.
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Nation & World
Evolutionary oomph
Scientists may soon be able to turn to one of the most powerful forces in biology — evolution — to help in their quest to develop new synthetic polymers.
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Nation & World
Pickles, prisms, and scientists
Celebrating its 11th year of public engagement, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ (SEAS) Holiday Lecture Series dazzled and delighted audiences on Dec. 8 with a show guaranteed to kindle curiosity about the natural world.
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Nation & World
Soft Robots, in color
Having already broken new ground in robotics with the development, last year, of a class of “soft”, silicone-based robots based on creatures like squid and octopi, Harvard scientists are now working to create systems that would allow the robots to camouflage themselves, or stand out in their environment.
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Nation & World
Airborne pollutants lead a double life
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have provided visual evidence that atmospheric particles — which are ubiquitous, especially above densely populated areas — separate into distinct chemical compositions during their life cycle.
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Nation & World
Fuel cell keeps going after hydrogen runs out
Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated that a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC), which converts hydrogen into electricity, can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out.
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Nation & World
William von Eggers Doering
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 1, 2012, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late William von Eggers Doering, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Time called Professor Doering’s synthesis of quinine “one of the greatest scientific achievements in a century.”
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Nation & World
Evans wins Welch Award in Chemistry
David A. Evans, the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, was awarded the 2012 Welch Award in Chemistry in recognition of his pioneering research.
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Nation & World
Bubble, bubble — without toil or trouble
Among the advances linked to Harvard is one that came in a field not normally associated with the University: the culinary arts. Cooks use a professor’s 1850s invention, baking powder, as a time-saving replacement for yeast.
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Nation & World
Professor Charles Lieber receives Israel’s Wolf Prize
Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize.
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Nation & World
Reading life’s building blocks
A team led by Harvard researcher Charles Lieber has for the first time succeeded in creating a device that opens the door to using tiny holes called nanopores in an electrically charged membrane to quickly and easily sequence DNA.
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Nation & World
Imaging instruction
Harvard researchers have developed a “primer” to identify some of the most useful probes for super-resolution imaging. As described recently on Nature Methods’ website, the work also identified the key characteristics that are important for imaging, giving researchers a framework for evaluating other probes, or even designing custom-made molecules to use in imaging.