Tetravinylallene, a small but powerful molecule, synthesized for first time

Many natural compounds used in medicine have complex molecular architectures that are difficult to recreate in the lab. Help could come from a small hydrocarbon molecule, called tetravinylallene, which has been synthesized for the first time by scientists. Tetravinylallene can be used to construct complex molecular frameworks more quickly and with less environmental impact than by using established methods.

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New design of bioactive peptide nanofibers keeping both temperature reversibility and stiffness control

Scientists have developed a new method of molecular design to control both temperature reversibility and stiffness of nanofibers that are gel-forming peptides. The peptide nanofiber hydrogel can be used as biomedical materials. This method will allow the peptide nanofibers more biomedical applicable.

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Engineered protein crystals make cells magnetic

If scientists could give living cells magnetic properties, they could perhaps manipulate cellular activities with external magnetic fields. But previous attempts to magnetize cells by producing iron-containing proteins inside them have resulted in only weak magnetic forces. Now, researchers have engineered genetically encoded protein crystals that can generate magnetic forces many times stronger than those already reported.

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Bird droppings defy expectations

Prevailing wisdom ranks uric acid as the primary ingredient in bird excrement which is comprised mostly of urine. (Birds release both solid and liquid waste at the same time. The white substance is the urine). But according to new research, uric acid can't be the answer. That's because there is no uric acid in excreted bird urine.

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Hook-on drugs: New delivery strategy for K-Ras disruption

Scientists have succeeded in designing a compound to hook onto the pocket of the enzyme FTase and GGTase I, thereby inhibiting K-Ras. Scientists have worked to concoct an effective drug to target K-Ras proteins which cause cancer when they mutate. It is difficult to infiltrate K-Ras due to a lack of interactive pockets, so a strategy was devised to attack the necessary enzyme in the lipid modification of K-Ras.

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