Month: March 2022

Mar 15, 2022 (Nanowerk News) To quote veteran science writer Ed Yong’s simple yet extremely accurate words in The Atlantic, “The immune system is very complicated.” As the COVID-19 pandemic had made abundantly clear, science still doesn’t fully understand the sophisticated defense mechanisms that protect us from microbe invaders. Why...

Mar 15, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A group of researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and the Lithuanian Energy Institute proposed a method for wind turbine blades’ recycling (Fuel, "Catalytic pyrolysis kinetic behaviour of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy resin composites over ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst"). Using pyrolysis, they broke the composite materials...

Mar 15, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Molecules that have the ability to change their structure in response to a chemical or physical stimulus are called ‘responsive molecules’. This type of molecule plays an important role in signal transduction at the nanoscale. The typical time profile of a structural change of a...

Mar 15, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The regulation of plastics has emerged as a significant science-policy challenge, initiated by growing societal concerns regarding plastic pollution. A specific focus is now on nanoplastics, i.e., plastic particles smaller than 1000 nanometres in size. The need to include nanoplastics in existing regulatory frameworks arises...

Mar 15, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An imaginative approach to polymer surface coating has produced a sustainable way to remove mercury from water – while providing a wide range of protection including for preventing metal corrosion and solvent damage of plastic PVC pipes. The smart coating, made from low-cost chemicals from...

Mar 14, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Small spheres suspended in a liquid move enough like molecules that the physics for one can be used to mimic the physics of the other. That’s why the discovery of some unusual physics in colloids -- particles dispersed in a solution such as milk, for...

Mar 14, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft discovered abundant molecular oxygen bursting from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) in 2015, it puzzled scientists. They had never seen a comet emit oxygen, let alone in such abundance. But most alarming were the deeper implications: that researchers had to...

Mar 14, 2022 (Nanowerk News) It may be only a tiny change in the genome, but this small difference can have fatal consequences: Muscular dystrophies are almost always caused by a single faulty gene. As different as the mutations are in this group of approximately 50 disorders, they all ultimately...

Mar 14, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery and Hokkaido University have developed a virtual ligand-assisted (VLA) screening method, which could drastically reduce the amount of trial and error required in the lab during transition metal catalyst development. The method, published in the...

Mar 14, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in demand for surgical masks and respirators has led to a global manufacturing rush. However, not all mask filter materials are suitable for all pollutants and pathogens since the contaminants in breathable air differ vastly in size. For...