Chimia最新文献

Water in confined geometries is highly relevant to biology, geology, and other fields where the function and properties of materials are significantly influenced by the presence and behavior of water in these environments. The structure and dynamics of confined water are strongly dependent on the confining geometry and its interaction with the interfaces. This review provides a brief overview of water under nano-sized hard and soft confinement, as well as water in living cells and in the hydration shells around biomolecules. Confined water exhibits distinct characteristics compared to bulk water, particularly in terms of nucleation, crystallization, molecular dynamics, and hydrogen bond network. In nano-sized confinements, water can remain in liquid state at extremely low temperatures (from -45 °C to -120 °C, at atmospheric pressure), offering insights into the fundamental physics of water and potentially enhancing our understanding of life in subzero temperature environments.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria represent a global public health threat, and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), derived from naturally occurring linear or cyclic peptides, can provide the solution. However, most AMPs are sensitive to proteases and have poor pharmacokinetics. The EU-funded ERC Advanced Grant SPACE4AMPS aims to identify new AMPs by applying the concepts of chemical space and ligand-based virtual screening, which are well known for small molecule drug discovery, to the world of peptides. We create virtual libraries of peptides and related molecules and use these approaches to select a few tens of compounds for synthesis and detailed. evaluation of antibacterial, toxicity and stability effects. Recent results and prospects of this ongoing project are presented in this review.

Over the past years, the development of experimental techniques for the coherent manipulation and control of isolated quantum systems has made impressive progress. Such 'quantum-logic' methods are also highly attractive in a chemical context in view of unravelling and controlling the quantum dynamics of molecular collisions and chemical reactions. Quantum technologies have the potential to transform the way chemical dynamics are investigated - by providing highly sensitive methods for state readout and spectroscopy, by opening up new pathways for the quantum-state preparation of molecules and by enabling an improved control of their microscopic behavior on the single-particle level. However, for complex quantum systems like molecules, these techniques are still in their infancy and their considerable potential remains to be unlocked. The aim of the present research program supported by an Advanced Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation is to merge the fields of quantum science and chemical dynamics by advancing quantum technologies to polyatomic molecular ions and by applying them to the study of ion-molecule collisions and chemical reactions. In this article, we review the salient experimental methods as well as prospects and challenges in the development of molecular quantum technologies and their applications to chemistry.

Chemistry has a habit of surprising us. As we dig deeper, sometimes what we find will change the course of our research.

This account briefly summarizes objectives and progress made so far with the Swiss-ERC AdG entitled Translational Dynamic Covalent Exchange Cascades (TIMEUP).

The formation of collagen, the most abundant protein in mammals, is vital for the integrity of skin, tendons, and tissue in essentially any organ. Excessive collagen formation is, however, characteristic of fibrotic and malignant diseases, which include major global health issues. The diagnosis of abnormal collagen production and deposition is, therefore, critical for disease prognosis and helps guide treatment decisions. Here, we summarize our research on the development of tailored tools for monitoring and targeting excessive collagen crosslinking. We anticipate these tools will provide a deep understanding at the molecular level of collagen formation in normal and disease conditions with applications in imaging and disease treatment.

Ensuring scientific integrity is of utmost importance in the research community, as it forms the foundation of reliable and credible scientific knowledge. Compliance with scientific integrity involves adhering to ethical principles, research standards, and legal regulations that promote transparency, honesty, and accountability. Fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism are common forms of research misconduct that undermine the credibility and trustworthiness of scientific findings. Institutions must establish clear policies and procedures to address and prevent such misconduct, including mechanisms for reporting, investigation, and appropriate disciplinary actions. This article examines the legal and operational aspects related to compliance with scientific integrity, highlighting key considerations and best practices in this critical domain.

Chemists are a vital part of the research and innovation (R&I) landscape. With their expertise, they shape progress and, thus, society. In order to live up to this responsibility, it is suggested to prepare young chemists for their future role as innovators with proper training. Here, it is important to go beyond the good scientific practice dimension of research integrity and add discourse performance and value assessments to the class outline of a "responsible chemistry" course. This becomes especially relevant in view of changing demands on chemical research and innovation as envisioned by the European Green Deal through its Horizon Europe funding scheme. This paper outlines the necessity of preparing chemists for the requirements of a green transition R&I policy and shows what that would mean for "ethics in chemistry" education.

This essay critically analyzes the widespread phenomenon of claiming relevance when reporting original research. Specific examples from an area of method development in organofluorine chemistry demonstrate that the pursuit of worthiness of the corresponding research is mainly justified by putting forward a broad general industrial context that could potentially benefit in form of applications. However, it is deliberately ignored that such applications are in the vast majority of cases highly improbable or objectively unrealistic. Notwithstanding that scientists are nowadays often explicitly forced to orchestrate relevance, be it by researchfinancing institutions and/or journals' reviewers, it is argued that this is, from the point of view of research ethics at least, problematic.

Scientific integrity is the most important aspect that higher education institutions have to take care of, as it conveys credibility and acceptance of science to the public. Although science has a very powerful built-in self-regulation process for detecting and correcting scientific misconduct, there is a need for clear guidelines that have to be adapted on regular intervals to the rapidly changing world caused by scientific developments themselves. Outlined here are recent advances in how Switzerland increases awareness and transparency of scientific misconduct and how it handles cases of misconduct to improve the quality of science.