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Life Sciences - Chemistry - 21.05
Scientists identify molecular trigger for Alzheimer’s disease
New research establishes nature of malfunction in protein molecules that can lead to onset of dementia. - We have to solve what happens at the molecular level before we can progress and have real impact - Tuomas Knowles - Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease - when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain.

Environmental Sciences - Chemistry - 6.05
Organic vapours affect clouds leading to previously unidentified climate cooling
06 May 2013 - University of Manchester scientists, writing Geoscience, have shown that natural emissions and manmade pollutants can both have an unexpected cooling effect on the world's climate by making clouds brighter.

Physics/Material Science - Chemistry - 26.04
Movement of pyrrole molecules defy ’classical’ physics
Quantum laws loom ever larger in physical world as new research finds quantum phenomena in effect on a molecular level - The balance between the activation energy and the energy barrier that sticks the molecules to the surface is critical in determining which networks are able to form under different conditions.

Life Sciences - Chemistry - 19.04
Random walks on DNA
Scientists have revealed how a bacterial enzyme has evolved an energy-efficient method to move long distances along DNA.

Chemistry - Earth Sciences - 4.04
Power behind primordial soup discovered
Researchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. - While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life.

Physics/Material Science - Chemistry - 28.03
Shedding new light on enzyme crucial to life processes
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have revealed the crystal structure of a bacterial enzyme that offers clues on how electrons in the body move from one protein molecule to another.

Astronomy - Chemistry - 11.03
Beyond the blinding starlight
Study reveals chemical composites of exoplanet atmospheres 128 light years away. Scientists say techniques will "one day provide evidence of life beyond Earth". - The really exciting thing is that, one day, the techniques we've developed will give us our first secure evidence of the existence of life on a planet outside our solar system - Ian Parry - Astronomers have conducted the first remote reconnaissance of a distant solar system, using new telescope imaging techniques to reveal the chemical composition of exoplanets orbiting a star 128 light years from Earth.

Chemistry - Medicine/Pharmacology - 1.03
Cell movement explained by molecular recycling
Working under Martin Humphries, the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Mark Morgan and his team at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research studied the role of integrins. These molecules are able to grab hold of the fibres surrounding the cell, like hands, allowing the cell to drag its self along.

Chemistry - Physics/Material Science - 28.01
Secret of scent lies in molecular vibrations
Molecular vibrations, rather than molecular shape, give substances their distinct smell according to a new study by UCL scientists. - In a study designed to find out how smell is written into a molecule's structure, scientists tested whether changing how a molecule vibrates on a nano-scale changes its smell.

Chemistry - 14.01
Gas that triggers ozone destruction
Scientists at the Universities of Leeds and York have discovered that the majority of ozone-depleting iodine oxide observed over the remote ocean comes from a previously unknown marine source. - The research team found that the principal source of iodine oxide can be explained by emissions of hypoiodous acid (HOI) – a gas not yet considered as being released from the ocean – along with a contribution from molecular iodine (I 2 ).

Physics/Material Science - Chemistry - 14.01
Graphene plasmonics beats the drug cheats
Writing , the scientists, working with colleagues from Aix-Marseille University , have created a device which potentially can see one molecule though a simple optical system and can analyse its components within minutes.

Life Sciences - Chemistry - 3.01
Scientists pinpoint molecular signals that make some women prone to miscarriage
Scientists have identified molecular signals that control whether embryos are accepted by the womb, and that appear to function abnormally in women who have suffered repeated miscarriages. - The research, carried out at Imperial College London and the University of Warwick , suggests these signals could be targets for drugs that would help prevent miscarriage in women who are particularly vulnerable.

History/Archeology - Chemistry - 12.12.2012
Chemical analysis of sieve vessels reveals first cheese making in Northern Europe in the 6th millennium BC
The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Northern Europe made cheese more than 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, published today in Nature.

Chemistry - 27.11.2012
Route to a 'long-life' mobile fuel cell
A new catalyst developed by a team led by Oxford University scientists could be the key to creating small, long-lasting fuel cells for powering mobile devices. - The catalyst can directly convert methanol into hydrogen at the relatively low temperature of 150 degrees Celsius and, crucially, generates no detectable amount of carbon monoxide (CO) – a poison that damages fuel cells and gives them a short lifespan.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Chemistry - 9.11.2012
Understanding antibiotic resistance using crystallography and computation
Scientists at the University of Bristol, together with collaborators at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, have solved the structure of an enzyme that breaks down carbapenems , antibiotics 'of last resort' which, until recently, were kept in reserve for serious infections that failed to respond to other treatments.