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Category: chemistry

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing and Huazhong University of Science and Technology have conducted a theoretical analysis demonstrating how a “topological quantum battery”—an innovative device that leverages the topological properties of photonic waveguides and quantum effects of two-level atoms—could be efficiently designed. The work, published in Physical Review Letters, holds promise for applications in nanoscale energy storage, optical quantum communication, and distributed quantum computing.

With increasing global awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, developing next-generation storage devices has become a critical priority. Quantum batteries—hypothetical miniature devices that, unlike classical batteries that store energy via chemical reactions, rely on quantum properties such as superposition, entanglement, and coherence—have the potential to enhance the storage and transfer of energy.

From a mechanistic perspective, they offer potential performance advantages over classical batteries, including improved charging power, increased capacity, and superior work extraction efficiency.

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Metabolic crosstalk – the exchange of metabolites between cancer cells and non-malignant cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) – contributes to the aggressiveness of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) through a diverse array of mechanisms.

Under the selection pressure imposed by chemical stressors (acidosis, hypoxia) and scarcity of essential nutrients in the TME, PDAC cells establish mutually fitness-enhancing metabolic crosstalk pathways with cancer-associated fibroblasts, tumor-associated macrophages, and other stromal cells.

PDAC cell metabolism inhibits the activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells by outcompeting them for essential nutrients (glucose, amino acids, nucleosides, vitamins) and by flooding the TME with immunosuppressive metabolites (lactate, kynurenine, adenosine, and others).

Critical nodes of tumorigenic metabolic crosstalk pathways (enzymes and cell membrane transporters) are readily druggable and likely non-essential for healthy tissues. https://sciencemission.com/Tumor%E2%80%93stromal-metabolic-crosstalk-in-PC

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive malignancy with a dire prognosis. Standard-of-care chemotherapy regimens offer marginal survival benefit and carry risk of severe toxicity, while immunotherapy approaches have uniformly failed in clinical trials. Extensive desmoplasia in the PDAC tumor microenvironment (TME) disrupts blood flow to and from the tumor, thereby creating a nutrient-depleted, hypoxic, and acidic milieu that suppresses the function of antitumor immune cells and imparts chemotherapy resistance. Additionally, recent seminal studies have demonstrated crucial roles for metabolic crosstalk – the exchange of metabolites between PDAC cells and stromal cell populations in the TME – in establishing and maintaining core malignant behaviors of PDAC: tumor growth, metastasis, immune evasion, and therapy resistance.

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Artificial photosynthesis is a technology with immense potential that aims to emulate the natural photosynthetic process. The process of natural photosynthesis involves the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy, which is stored in organic compounds. Catalysis is an essential aspect of artificial photosynthesis, as it facilitates the reactions that convert solar energy into chemical energy. In this review, we aim to provide an extensive overview of recent developments in the field of artificial photosynthesis by catalysis. We will discuss the various catalyst types used in artificial photosynthesis, including homogeneous catalysts, heterogeneous catalysts, and biocatalysts.

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IN A NUTSHELL 🔬 Rice University researchers discovered copper boride, a novel two-dimensional material with transformative potential. 🧪 The study highlights copper boride’s strong covalent bonding and distinct electronic properties, setting it apart from other 2D materials. 🔋 This breakthrough could significantly impact electrochemical energy storage and applications in quantum information technology. 🌟 The discovery

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A new study led by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh geologist Timothy Paulsen and University of Colorado Boulder thermochronologist Jeff Benowitz advances the understanding of the geologic history of Transantarctic Mountains bedrock, with implications for understanding the evolution of landscapes lying beneath the ice sheets covering Antarctica.

The team of researchers analyzed the chemistry of mineral grains commonly found in igneous rocks, like granite, from the Transantarctic Mountains. The research team includes other scientists from the University of Arizona, St. Louis University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The study was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

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Organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs, are a type of photoluminescence device that utilizes organic compounds to produce light. Compared to traditional LEDs, OLEDs have shown to be more efficient, can be built into super-thin and flexible materials, and have higher dynamic range in image quality. To further develop better OLEDs, researchers around the world work to understand the fundamental chemistry and physics behind the technology.

Now, researchers at Kyushu University have developed a new analytical model that details the kinetics of the exciton dynamics in OLED materials. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have the potential to enhance the lifetime of OLED devices, and accelerate the development of more advanced and efficient materials.

Fluorescence devices like OLEDs light up because of , or excitons. When you add energy into atoms, their electrons get excited and jump to a higher energy state. When they come back down to their regular energy state, they produce .

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Enantiomers, or molecule pairs that are mirror images of each other, make up more than half of FDA-approved drugs in use today, including those used in treatments for cancer, neurologic diseases and arthritis. Separating enantiomers is critical for drug manufacturing because the effect of each molecule in the pair can be very different—for example, one enantiomer might cure a headache while its mirror-image could cause a headache.

Faster and more accurate separations would help with the overall drug discovery and screening process, but by their very nature, enantiomers—which have identical compositions and only differ by not being superimposable (think left hand and right hand)—are notoriously difficult to separate.

An effort by a group of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to find an efficient, sustainable way to perform these critical enantiomer separations is the focus of a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Being cut off in traffic, giving a presentation or missing a meal can all trigger a suite of physiological changes that allow the body to react swiftly to stress or starvation. Critical to this “fight-or-flight” or stress response is a molecular cycle that results in the activation of protein kinase A (PKA), a protein involved in everything from metabolism to memory formation. Now, a study by researchers at Penn State has revealed how this cycle resets between stressful events, so the body is prepared to take on new challenges.

The details of this reset mechanism, uncovered through a combination of imaging, structural and biochemical techniques, are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“Some of the early changes in the fight-or-flight response include the release of hormones, like adrenaline from stress or glucagon from starvation,” said Ganesh Anand, associate professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and in the Penn State Eberly College of Science and lead author of the paper.

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Life on Earth possesses an exceptional ability to self-reproduce, which, even on a simple cellular level, is driven by complex biochemistry. But can self-reproduction exist in a biochemistry-free environment?

A study by researchers from Harvard University demonstrated that the answer is yes.

The researchers designed a non-biochemical system in which synthetic cell-like structures form and self-reproduce by ejecting polymeric spores.

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Several key moments in Earth’s history help us humans answer the question “How did we get here?” These moments also shed light on the question “Where are we going?” and offer scientists deeper insight into how organisms adapt to physical and chemical changes in their environment.

Among them is an extended evolutionary occurrence over 2 billion years ago, known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). This marked the first time that oxygen produced by photosynthesis—essential for the survival of humans and many other life forms—began to accumulate in significant amounts in the atmosphere.

If you traveled back in time to before the GOE (more than 2.4 billion years ago), you would encounter a largely anoxic (oxygen-free) environment. The organisms that thrived then were anaerobic, meaning they didn’t require oxygen and relied on processes like fermentation to generate energy. Some of these organisms still exist today in extreme environments such as acidic hot springs and hydrothermal vents.

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