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Chemical engineering researchers have developed a new catalyst that significantly increases yield in styrene manufacturing, while simultaneously reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Styrene is a synthetic chemical that is used to make a variety of plastics, resins and other materials, says Fanxing Li, corresponding author of the work and Alcoa Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University. Because it is in such widespread use, we are pleased that we could develop a technology that is cost effective and will reduce the environmental impact of styrene manufacturing. Industry estimates predict that manufacturers will be producing more than 33 million tons of styrene each year by 2023.
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IMAGE: The SARS-CoV-2 virus inserts itself into the membrane of a host human cell using a small part of its spike protein (yellow), called a fusion peptide. Computer simulations revealed the. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Defne Gorgun.
ROCKVILLE, MD - If the coronavirus were a cargo ship, it would need to deliver its contents to a dock in order to infect the host island. The first step of infection would be anchoring by the dock, and step two would be tethering to the dock to bring the ship close enough that it could set up a gangplank and unload. Most treatments and vaccines have focused on blocking the ability of the ship to anchor, but the next step is another potential target. New research by Defne Gorgun, a graduate student, and colleagues in the lab of Emad Tajkhorshid at the University of Illinois addresses the molecular details of this second step, which could inform the design of drugs that block it. Gorgun will present her research on Thursday,
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VIDEO: Imaging of the same spot shows that cracks eventually self-heal, an important trademark that maintains the integrity of structured liquids. Real-time video of 70 nm nanoparticles (red) and 500 nanometer. view more
Credit: Paul Ashby and Tom Russell/Berkeley Lab and Science Advances
Liquid structures - liquid droplets that maintain a specific shape - are useful for a variety of applications, from food processing to cosmetics, medicine, and even petroleum extraction, but researchers have yet to tap into these exciting new materials full potential because not much is known about how they form.
Now, a research team led by Berkeley Lab has captured real-time high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape as nanoparticle surfactants (NPSs) - soap-like particles just billionths of a meter in size - jam tightly together, side by side, to form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water.
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IMAGE: A structure of an antibody, called Z004 (shown in purple), bound to the envelope domain III protein of Zika virus (shown in gold). view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Shannon Esswein.
ROCKVILLE, MD - The Zika outbreak of 2015 and 2016 is having lasting impacts on children whose mothers became infected with the virus while they were pregnant. Though the numbers of Zika virus infections have dropped, which scientists speculate may be due to herd immunity in some areas, there is still potential for future outbreaks. To prevent such outbreaks, scientists want to understand how the immune system recognizes Zika virus, in hopes of developing vaccines against it. Shannon Esswein, a graduate student, and Pamela Bjorkman, a professor, at the California Institute of Technology, have new insights on how the body s antibodies attach to Zika virus. Esswein will present the work, which was published in PNAS, on Thursday, February 25 at the 65th Biophysical Society Ann