Designing
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Chemistry
Designing long-lived peptides for more potent drugs
Diagram of helical wheel. (A) K47; (B) K311. Helical wheel generated using HeliQuest (https://heliquest.ipmc.cnrs.fr/). (C) Sequences of K47 and K311 aligned with heptad abcdefg and hendecad abcdefghijk registers. Credit: Biomacromolecules (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.4c00661 Peptides may appear and disappear too quickly. These series of amino acids, the building blocks of life, are of intense interest to researchers because of their potential…
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Science
Nuclear rockets may reach Mars in half the time, but designing the reactors to power them is not easy
Nuclear-powered rockets may one day enable faster space travel. Credit: NASA NASA plans to send a crewed mission to Mars over the next decade, but the 140 million mile (225 million kilometer) journey there could take months or years round trip. This relatively long flight time is a result of the use of conventional chemical rocket fuel. The agency is…
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Nanotechnology
Designing better water filters: Fabric-like filters that remove microscopic plastics and lead from drinking water
Diagram showing the electrospinning process carried out in this study. PVA, polyvinyl alcohol. Source: Journal of Applied Polymer Science (2024). DOI: 10.1002/app.55428 While water filters currently on the market can remove some contaminants, they are not designed to capture microplastics. In fact, some water filters can even introduce tiny plastic particles into your drinking water during the filtration process. Even…
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