Scientists analysing the first wave of the UK’s Covid-19 outbreak have produced the most comprehensive genomic analysis of transmission of any epidemic to date. Read this and more exciting chemistry-related articles in C&I magazine.
US researchers have created an autonomous drone that can navigate towards smells using an antenna from a moth. In future, the moth antenna could be genetically hacked to sense other smells, say the researchers, such as the volatile chemicals from an unexploded improvised explosive device, or a gas leak. Read this article and more from C&I Magazine.
A few doses of a small molecule turned back the hands of time – at least in the mouse brain. The study by University of California, San Francisco scientists found that the molecule reversed spatial memory gaps and improved the working memory of elderly mice. Read this article and more in C&I Magazine.
Letter from Edward J Behrman, Prof. Emeritus, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Ohio State University, US on Teaching chemophobia.
Anticancer drug doxorubicin could have broader utility in treating cancer when carried by iron oxide nanoparticles, researchers report.
A new drug candidate could help tackle hard-to-treat cancers arising due to mutations in the KRAS gene. The KRAS gene is important in controlling cell growth, but KRAS mutations occur in about a quarter of cancers, including lung and pancreatic cancer, and scientists have been working to find ways to target the KRAS signalling pathway for decades. Read this and more articles in C&I magazine.
The African Union’s target of achieving use of 50kg of fertiliser per hectare of arable land in the continent has received a boost after a $4m agreement between Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) and OCP Africa, part of Moroccan based phosphate rock miner, OCP Group.
Rising CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere have allowed green plants to add more biomass, also helping to mitigate climate change by removing some of the CO2. Now, an international team of scientists reports that the productivity of vegetation has stopped rising. (Science, 2020, 370, 1295)
At least 700,000 people die every year from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the World Health Organization. Now, a team at the University of Basel, Switzerland, has developed a way of rapidly detecting resistance in bacteria from patient samples. Read this and more articles in C&I magazine.