Abra Science

  Molecular motion image. Credit: University of Nottingham New research has shown how a synthetic self-made fibers can guide molecular movement that can be fuelled by light over long distances, a discovery that could pave the way for new ways to use light as a source of sustainable energy. Researchers from the University of Nottingham have for the first time used a path of assembled molecules liquids that traveling molecules can be propelled along by light. The research 'Light-controlled micron-scale molecular motion' has been published today in Nature Chemistry.  Professor David Amabilino from the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham is one of the lead researchers, he explains: "In living organisms, molecular motors travel along specific molecular paths, it is an essential part of cell function. We have shown that a synthetic self-made molecular fiber in a liquid behaves like a path for the movement of a molecular traveler over a distance 10,000 tim...

  List (left) and MacMillan (right) are winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Credit: NobelPrize.org, CC BY-SA Benjamin List and David MacMillan, respectively from Germany and the US, will share the 10 million Swedish kronor (£870,000) Nobel prize in chemistry 2021 for their development of "organocatalysis"—a precise tool for constructing molecules which has boosted pharmaceutical research and made chemistry greener and cheaper. Their research dates back to 2000, when the chemists independently developed the first steps of what today is called "asymmetric organocatalysis," which is the activation of chemical reactions by small organic molecules. Many technologies and areas of research rely on molecules that have to be created in chemical reactions. These can, unfortunately, be very slow, which is why chemists often use catalysts—materials that speed up chemical reactions. Before the work of List and MacMillan, there were only two types of catalysts ...