A research team has succeeded in automating an established method for the gentle, artifact-avoiding isolation of volatile food ingredients. As the team's current comparative study now shows, automated solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (aSAFE) offers significant advantages over the manual process. It achieves higher yields on average and reduces the risk of contamination by nonvolatile substances.

Researchers have identified highly ionized species of the famous soccer ball-shaped 'Buckminsterfullerene' C60 molecule as plausible carriers of at least some of the most prominent and enigmatic Unidentified Infrared Emission (UIE) bands that have challenged astronomers since they were first discovered and studied over 30 years ago.

Previously, it has been impossible to capture the high-resolution images of nitrogenase, the only enzyme capable of reducing nitrogen into ammonia, during catalytic action. Now researchers report near-atomic-resolution snapshots of nitrogenase during catalysis using cryogenic electron microscopy.

Researchers have created protonic programmable resistors -- the building blocks of analog deep learning systems -- that can process data 1 million times faster than the synapses in the human brain. These ultrafast, low-energy resistors could enable analog deep learning systems that can train new and more powerful neural networks rapidly, which could then be used for novel applications in areas like self-driving cars, fraud detection, and health care.

The reaction generates amino acids and nucleic acids, the building blocks of proteins and DNA.

Researchers have developed a technique to control pH at the local level, creating a dense array of microsites where the amount of protons is 100 to 1000 times higher than the average in the rest of the solution.

Researchers have developed a new catalyst that improves the efficiency of converting butane, a component of natural gas, into butadiene -- a widely-used building block in synthetic rubber and a variety of plastics.

An enzyme that combats the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) may one day give scientists a potent new tool for reducing the amount of the gas in the atmosphere.

A team of researchers has developed new kind of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) probes in true three-dimensional shapes they call 3DTIPs. AFM technology allows scientists to observe, measure, and manipulate samples and micro and nanoscale entities with unprecedented precision. The new 3DTIPs, which are manufactured using a single-step 3D printing process, can be utilized for a wider variety of applications -- and potential observations and discoveries -- than standard, more limited silicon-based probes that are considered state-of-the-art in our current time.

Bacterial communities are often well adapted and stable in a particular environment whether it be a human mouth or a lake. Humans are altering environments at an increasing rate, none more so than in cities and their surroundings in the process of urbanization. New results reveal that urbanization introduces large amounts of nutrients, chemical pollutants and antimicrobial products, and thereby changes the makeup of the microbiome by favoring groups of bacteria that contain human pathogenic bacteria, with yet unknown consequences for ecosystem functioning and human and animal health.