Bolt makes its silk protein via fermentation with recombinant yeast that contains DNA copied from spiders. In 2015, Bolt said it would introduce a commercial spider silk thread-spinning process in the summer of 2016. That deadline came and went. Now, the firm says the spinning process is in place. In the past few weeks, Bolt adds, it has begun transferring its lab-scale process into commercial-scale operations for three customers, including apparel maker Patagonia, with which it is developing non-toxic processes for textile manufacturing.
by Alex Scott | February 20, 2017
To create isotopically labeled KcsA, Valiyaveetil and coworkers expressed in Escherichia coli two recombinant peptides about 70 amino acids long, one each from the N- and C-terminal ends of the KcsA channel. Separately, they synthesized a 12-amino acid piece that would go in between, with 13C and 18O labels added to three protein backbone carbonyls that help make up the selectivity filter.
by Jyllian Kemsley | September 26, 2016
In addition, the charge carriers in blue OLEDs recombine through the absorption of ultraviolet light. Moreover, from a performance point of view, the energy efficiency of blue OLEDs is also lower than for other colors. When it comes to blue, says a spokesperson for the Japanese OLED materials supplier Idemitsu, display manufacturers can only convert about 40% of the electricity used into visible color.
by Jean-François Tremblay | July 11, 2016
The measure would exempt foods that contain modifications found in nature, “those in which technology cannot as yet detect the novel genetic material, and foods made with non in vitro recombinant DNA techniques,” the coalition warns. /articles/94/i28/US-Senate-advances-bill-labeling.html 20160708 Measure would prohibit states from enacting their own laws News of The Week 94 28 /magazine/94/09428.html U.S.
by Britt E. Erickson | July 08, 2016
—HPLC struggles with its version of Moore’s Law “Technique confronts practical limitations in pursuit of greater speed and accuracy” High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) gives chemists access to a world of knowledge about molecules both large and small. When combined with high-resolution detection methods such as mass spectrometry, the historic separation technique can not only help reveal hitherto unseen paths leading to new treatments for diseases, but it can also shed light on the complex array of contaminants in the water we drink or reveal banned pesticides in the food we might place on our tables.
by Marc S. Reisch | June 13, 2016
And unlike silicon cells, the emerging ones can be fabricated on flexible supports via inexpensive solution-phase techniques common in plastics manufacturing, such as high-speed roll-to-roll printing. Historically, the lower price tag on emerging photovoltaics has gone hand in hand with significantly lower performance.
by Mitch Jacoby | May 02, 2016
—Fluorescence Method Maps Reactivity Hot Spots On A Catalyst’s Surface “Imaging: Technique could help improve catalyst performance and make reactions such as water splitting viable” Solid chunks of matter catalyze most of today’s industrial-scale chemical processes. If scientists knew exactly where reactions occur on these catalytic solids, they could customize them to improve the performance of catalysts already in use and help bring new ones to market. By devising a fluorescence microscopy technique with single-molecule resolution, researchers at Cornell University have created a method for pinpointing the sites of catalytic reactions with nanoscale resolution. The scientists used the method to generate surface maps of microscopic catalytic hot spots and then boosted the activity of those spots by decorating them with a cocatalyst (Nature 2016, DOI: 10.1038/nature16534).
by Mitch Jacoby | February 04, 2016
—Brighter Attosecond X-Ray Pulses “Spectroscopy: Technique could enable advances in photoemission spectroscopy and nanostructure imaging” With an eye toward enabling higher-resolution time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and nanostructure imaging, a research team has achieved a long-held goal of creating much brighter trains of attosecond X-ray pulses (Science 2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.aac9755). The technique involves high-harmonic generation, in which a laser pulse drives an electron out of an atom then pushes the electron back. If the electron recombines with the atom, it releases its kinetic energy as a burst of attosecond-duration X-rays. The X-ray emission per atom is highest when the driver is an ultraviolet laser.
by Jyllian Kemsley | December 07, 2015
Led by ETH Zurich’s Hans Jakob Wörner, the researchers used a technique called high harmonic generation in which a laser pulse causes an electron to tunnel out and away from an atom—in this case, primarily the iodine of iodoacetylene. When the electron and hole recombine, the process releases a burst of attosecond-duration X-rays.
by Jyllian Kemsley | October 26, 2015
—Celebrating The International Year Of Light “C&EN explores the past and future interplay of light and chemistry” In 1666, Isaac Newton separated white light into a rainbow of colors using one prism, and then he added a second prism that recombined the hues. The experiment led him to a crucial conclusion: Light is a spectrum.
by Jyllian Kemsley | October 13, 2015