Chemical reactions are often understood as molecules crossing a high-energy saddle point, known as a transition state, before following a downhill pathway toward a product. Conventional quantum chemical calculations typically trace this single pathway to determine how a reaction proceeds.
When asteroids travel too close to white dwarfs, the dense remnants of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel, powerful gravitational forces can tear them apart. However, new research from Planetary Science Institute (PSI) suggests that these asteroids don't immediately break into dust. Instead, most of the mass initially remains in larger fragments, revealing a previously overlooked step in how debris forms around dying stars.
A reaction on a single electrode can tell scientists a remarkable amount about the chemical nature and number of analytes involved. The challenge comes when they want to distinguish many reactions on the same electrode. After more than a decade of trying to overcome that limitation, Ravi Saraf and his Nebraska Engineering graduate students have demonstrated a way to quantify many reactions on the same electrode without sacrificing extraordinary sensitivity.
Decoding of messenger RNA (mRNA) occurs during translation, the vital cellular process that builds proteins. Errors in this process are known to lead to cancer growth. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital identified how one factor involved in mRNA decoding can be altered, identifying potential cancer origins and new targets for KRAS-related treatment resistance. The results are published in Nature Cell Biology.
For more than 30 years, MBARI technology has recorded real-time data about Monterey Bay, from oceanographic conditions at the surface to biological surveys in the depths of Monterey Canyon. These data are integral to understanding our changing ocean and underpin the institute's efforts to monitor the impacts of the incoming El Niño, which has been predicted to be among the strongest since the beginning of modern oceanography.
Polynyas are one of Antarctica's great counterintuitive features: recurring areas of open water surrounded by vast expanses of sea ice. These unusual environments are hot spots for sea-ice production, ocean–atmosphere exchange and biological productivity. They are commonly maintained by powerful winds that push newly formed ice away from the coast, repeatedly exposing the ocean to the freezing Antarctic atmosphere.
Silicones are widely used in industry, medicine and everyday products due to their exceptional thermal and chemical stability. However, it is precisely these properties that have made recycling silicones extremely problematic in the past. Researchers at the Institute of Chemistry at TU Berlin have now succeeded in breaking down the polymer chains of silicone molecules into their basic building blocks. The resulting molecule dimethyldichlorosilane can then be reused as a starting material for the production of new silicone compounds.
Indonesia is battling one of its most severe wildfire seasons in over a decade, as intense El Niño conditions fuel widespread drought. Some of the most severely affected areas are on the island of Borneo. Peatlands across West, Central and South Kalimantan are smoldering underground, releasing smoke haze that threatens human health and the environment.
A new study has pieced together the evolutionary history of terrestrial animals on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), offering a comprehensive picture of how the distinctive fauna of the "Third Pole" took shape over millions of years.
Experts in climate, nature, health, national security, and financial risk have joined forces to call for a more integrated approach to government climate and nature risk assessments. In a commentary published in Nature Climate Change, they warn that conflicting advice can give policymakers very different pictures of the severity of the risks ahead, making it harder to judge how seriously to act and how much to spend.
