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Category: chemistry

Teaching AI to Invent Enzymes Nature Never Imagined

Evolution is an extraordinary engine for enzymatic diversity, yet the chemistry it has explored remains a narrow slice of what DNA can encode. Deep generative models can design new proteins that bind ligands, but none have created enzymes without pre-specifying catalytic residues.

In this webinar, Chenghao Liu and Jarrid Brooks from the Arnold Lab at Caltech will introduce DISCO (DIffusion for Sequence-structure CO-design). This multimodal model co-designs protein sequence and 3D structure around arbitrary biomolecules, as well as inference-time scaling methods that optimize objectives across both modalities. Conditioned solely on reactive intermediates, DISCO designs diverse heme enzymes with novel active-site geometries. These enzymes catalyze new-to-nature carbene-transfer reactions, including alkene cyclopropanation, spirocyclopropanation, B-H, and C(sp^3)-H insertions, with high activities exceeding those of engineered enzymes. Random mutagenesis of a selected design further confirmed that enzyme activity can be improved through directed evolution. By providing a scalable route to evolvable enzymes, DISCO broadens the potential scope of genetically encodable transformations.

Laser pulses capture unexplored polaronic states

In an international experiment, researchers observed Jahn–Teller polarons—quasiparticles that could play an important role in future ultrafast spintronic devices. These polarons emerged within the crystal lattice of cobalt oxide that had been activated by carefully tailored laser pulses.

When a cobalt oxide crystal is exposed to carefully tailored laser pulses, they induce specific local distortions of the crystal lattice that strongly affect the material’s structural, electrical and magnetic properties. The correlative experimental approaches that revealed these unexpected properties of cobalt oxide were carried out by a large international team of scientists from the University of Pavia (Italy), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland), the University of Texas at Austin, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University (U.S.). The theoretical description of the phenomenon, which made it possible to uncover the nature of the observed oscillations, was developed by physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow.

Chemical catalysts, battery electrodes, photovoltaic cells and semiconductor gas sensors—these are just some of the modern applications of cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄). Despite its simple chemical formula, the unit cell of its crystal lattice consists of 56 atoms: 24 cobalt and 32 oxygen. Depending on their position within the unit cell, the cobalt atoms exist here in two oxidation states.

New energy-boosting quantum mechanism discovered in photosynthetic bacteria

Researchers have discovered how certain photosynthetic bacteria use a sophisticated quantum mechanism to increase their efficiency when capturing sunlight. The study, published today in the journal Nature Chemistry and led by Professor Jenny Clark, reveals that nature has been using a process called “singlet fission,” effectively a “two-for-one” energy deal, to optimize solar harvesting. The findings provide a new blueprint for green technology, particularly as engineers attempt to copy this mechanism to build next-generation solar panels and quantum technologies.

While scientists have long understood the basic rules of how plants and bacteria convert light into chemical fuel, the biological role of singlet fission has historically remained poorly understood.

Turning low-value diamond dust into high-performance quantum materials

Diamonds have long been coveted for their beauty. Their dazzling color and clarity make them perfect candidates for luxury jewelry. However, it’s their other unique characteristics, including their hardness, thermal conductivity and chemical resistance, that make diamonds suitable for various applications in industry and advanced technologies.

At the quantum scale, carefully engineered diamonds can behave like tiny sensors—able to ‘feel’ magnetic signals from nearby molecules. In simple terms, they can pick up incredibly faint signals that would otherwise be invisible to conventional instruments. This capability could help us detect contaminants in water, identify disease biomarkers and monitor chemical processes in real time.

The project strengthens one of Australia’s most important international science partnerships, bringing together complementary expertise in quantum materials, advanced manufacturing and characterization to accelerate the development of next-generation sensing technologies.

Quantum squeezing sidesteps the limits on mechanical transducers

From detecting the ripples of colliding black holes to imaging individual chemical bonds, mechanical transducers have repeatedly transformed our understanding of the universe. So far, however, the sensitivity of these devices has been intrinsically limited by the laws of quantum mechanics itself.

Through new research published in Physical Review Letters, researchers led by Lukas Novotny at ETH Zurich have found a way to push past that ceiling using a quantum trick called squeezing, opening a new chapter in precision measurement.

Ultrafast X-rays allow researchers to ‘watch’ how molecules rearrange during a chemical reaction controlled by light

Since the 1980s, researchers have sought to use laser light to control chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, catalysis and light-responsive materials. But this technique, known as coherent control, has a blind spot: There has been no way to directly see the molecules in these reactions as their structures rearrange.

Now, researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have imaged a coherently controlled chemical reaction for the first time. Their work, published in Physical Review A, uses ultrafast X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to show in real time how atoms move in a molecule that was excited and manipulated with laser light.

“There are many challenges with controlling chemical reactions, but seeing is believing,” said study lead author Tom Hopper, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who was a postdoctoral researcher at SLAC at the time of the study. “If you can see something directly, it opens up a new level of control.”

Growing a new ‘leaf’ that harnesses sun, water and CO2 to make liquid fuel

Bit.ly/4g59l7h

A Yale-led research team has developed the first standalone device that produces the liquid fuel methanol using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as the ingredients.

The artificial “leaf,” like its namesake in nature, is a chemistry marvel. It brings the scientific mimicry of photosynthesis — the process of converting sunlight and water into chemical energy — to a new level, converting sunlight to methanol 32 times more efficiently than the previous conversion record for artificial leaf technologies that generate alcohol products.

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