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In a recent article published in Nature Materials, researchers reported a conductance-based organic electrochemical neuron (c-OECN) that mimicked biological signaling in neurons, especially activation/inactivation of their sodium and potassium channels.

Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year.

Scientists at University of Galway delved into the issue of antimicrobial resistance—one of the greatest threats to human health—discovering the potential to improve treatment options for superbug MRSA infections using penicillin-type antibiotics that have become ineffective on their own.

The research has been published in the journal mBio.

Professor James P O’Gara and Dr. Merve S Zeden in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, led the study.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a popular technique for interrogating surfaces on the micro and nano scales. The most common use for AFM is imaging; however, there are a variety of more specialized AFM techniques that can be used to determine electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties of surfaces. To adequately control the application of forces to surfaces for these techniques (especially mechanical property measurements), accurate stiffness calibrations of test cantilevers should be used.

There are a variety of test cantilever stiffness calibration techniques available, based on dimensional, static force and displacement, and dynamic vibrational methods, but in general, these have large uncertainties in the range of ± 10% to ± 30% and unknown accuracy. More rigorous calibrated balance techniques, with SI traceability have been pioneered, mostly by National Metrology Institutes (NMIs), but their complexity, expense, and time-consuming operation make them an out-of-reach technique for most AFM researchers. The reference cantilevers represented by NIST SRM 3,461 are an accurate and precise force calibration artifact for use in the field.

SRM 3,461 is a silicon microfabricated device containing seven cantilevers of carrying length and stiffness is used for validating methods for determining the stiffness of atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers as well as directly calibrating AFM test cantilevers using the reference cantilever method.

Scientists have developed a wireless, battery-free implant capable of monitoring dopamine signals in the brain in real-time in small animal models, an advance that could aid in understanding the role neurochemicals play in neurological disorders.

The device, detailed in a study published in ACS Nano, activates or inhibits specific neurons in the brain using light, a technique known as optogenetic stimulation. It also records dopamine activity in freely behaving subjects without the need for bulky or prohibitive sensing equipment, said John Rogers, Ph.D., the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, and a co-author of the study.

“This device allows neuroscientists to monitor and modulate brain activity in real-time and in a programmable fashion, in mice—a very important class of animal model for neuroscience studies,” Rogers said.

There are many ways to initiate chemical reactions in liquids, but placing free electrons directly into water, ammonia and other liquid solutions is especially attractive for green chemistry because solvated electrons are inherently clean, leaving behind no side products after they react.

In theory, solvated electrons could be used to safely and sustainably break down carbon dioxide or chemical pollutants in contaminated water, but it has been impractical to find out because they’ve been difficult and expensive to make in pure form.

That could change thanks to new research from chemists at Rice University, Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin. In a published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features (CAFF) uncovered the long-sought mechanism of a well-known but poorly understood process that produces solvated electrons via interactions between light and metal.

The ultraviolet nail polish drying devices used to cure gel manicures may pose more of a public health concern than previously thought. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have studied these ultraviolet (UV) light emitting devices, and found that their use leads to cell death and cancer-causing mutations in human cells.

The devices are a common fixture in nail salons, and generally use a particular spectrum of UV light (340-395nm) to cure the chemicals used in gel manicures. While tanning beds use a different spectrum of UV light (280-400nm) that studies have conclusively proven to be carcinogenic, the spectrum used in the nail dryers has not been well studied.

“If you look at the way these devices are presented, they are marketed as safe, with nothing to be concerned about,” said Ludmil Alexandrov, a professor of bioengineering as well as cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego, and corresponding author of the study published in Nature Communications. “But to the best of our knowledge, no one has actually studied these devices and how they affect human cells at the molecular and cellular levels until now.”

For millions of years, nature has basically been getting by with just a few elements from the periodic table. Carbon, calcium, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, magnesium and potassium are the building blocks of almost all life on our planet (tree trunks, leaves, hairs, teeth, etc). However, to build the world of humans—including cities, health care products, railways, airplanes and their engines, computers, smartphones, and more—many more chemical elements are needed.

A recent article, published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and written by researchers from CREAF, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), warns that the range of chemical elements humans need (something scientifically known as the human elementome) is increasingly diverging from that which nature requires (the biological elementome).

In 1900, approximately 80% of the elements humans used came from biomass (wood, plants, food, etc.). That figure had fallen to 32% by 2005, and is expected to stand at approximately 22% in 2050. We are heading for a situation in which 80% of the elements we use are from non-biological sources.

Scientists from UNSW Sydney have demonstrated a novel technique for creating tiny 3D materials that could eventually make fuel cells like hydrogen batteries cheaper and more sustainable.

In the study published in Science Advances, researchers from the School of Chemistry at UNSW Science show it’s possible to sequentially “grow” interconnected hierarchical structures in 3D at the nanoscale which have unique chemical and physical properties to support energy conversion reactions.

In chemistry, hierarchical structures are configurations of units like molecules within an organization of other units that themselves may be ordered. Similar phenomena can be seen in the natural world, like in flower petals and tree branches. But where these structures have extraordinary potential is at a level beyond the visibility of the human eye—at the nanoscale.

Photosynthesis is the greatest natural process converting sunlight into chemical energy on a massive scale and maintaining life on Earth. There are basically two successive stages of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is how plants and some microorganisms use sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water.