One of the most powerful tools in today’s biological and medical science is the ability to artificially remove and add bits of DNA to an organism’s genome. This has helped scientists to understand problems caused by defective genes, for example, which have now been linked to thousands of human diseases. So far the technology has been limited to small segments of DNA. But four years ago, Francis Stewart and his colleagues at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg) developed a new techn

Nanocomposites for space

A microscopy technique originally developed to image the molecular-scale topography of surfaces is now helping engineers choose the right materials for a new generation of lightweight high-strength composites based on carbon nanotubes.

Light, conductive and nearly as strong as steel, carbon nanotubes are being combined with lightweight polymers to produce composite materials with properties attractive for use on future space vehicles. But choosing th

A new generation of nanoscale devices are being developed based on inspiration found in nature. Grazyna Sroga, a postdoctoral researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is using DNA and related proteins to construct microscopic structures that may one day conduct electricity, deliver drugs, boost computer memory, or sense the presence or absence of chemicals. She is working in the laboratory of Jonathan S. Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann ’42 professor of chemical engineering.

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In recent years chemists and materials scientists have enthusiastically searched for ways to make materials with nanoscale pores — channels comparable in size to organic molecules — that could be used, among other things, to separate proteins by size. Recently Cornell University researchers developed a method to “self-assemble” such structures by using organic polymers to guide the formation of ceramic structures.

Now they have advanced another step by incorporating tiny magnetic particle

Researchers hope to someday develop an enzyme to repair UV-damaged DNA in humans

Plants, pond scum, and even organisms that live where the sun doesn’t shine have something that humans do not — an enzyme that repairs DNA damaged by ultraviolet (UV) light.
Cabell Jonas of Richmond, Va., an undergraduate honors student in biology at Virginia Tech, will report on the molecular details of the DNA-repair enzyme at the 225th national meeting of the American Chemical Society March

Vegetable oil similar to the stuff you use to cook your food may one day fill your car’s engine. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have developed a chemically modified version of the edible oil that shows promise as a cleaner, renewable alternative to petroleum-based motor oil, while enhancing its protective properties.

Veggie motor oil could eventually be produced cheaper than petroleum-based oil and may help reduce this country’s dependence on foreign oil, the re