The Alchemist Newsletter: October 13, 2010

Red sludge

The site of millions of gallons of red sludge spilled across West Hungary and pouring into waterways and leading to the deaths of at least five people, brings into sharp relief the environmental impact of the aluminum industry. Bauxite refining generates twice the mass of waste products as it does aluminum end product and the plant in Ajka, Hungary, is just one of dozens of plants across the globe that between them produce 70 million tons of red sludge.

Ajka alumina plant accident

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All that glisters is gold…

Nanoparticles of gold can catalyze oxidation reactions, but how they do this is something of a mystery. Now, researchers at the Nanoscience Centre (NSC) of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have puzzled out the reactions using their computational prowess. It appears that nanoclusters of gold use ambient oxygen to oxidize themselves first, even at room temperature, and then transfer their raised oxidation state to the substrate compound. Intensive experimental work since the early 1980s has indicated that gold nanoparticles exhibit unexpected catalytic activity towards many industrially important chemical reactions. Moreover, the fact that they operate at room temperature gives them an energy-saving advantage over other approaches that is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for the "greening" of chemistry.

Oxidation mechanisms at gold nanoclusters unraveled

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Tricking microbes

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria can be tricked it into incorporating foreign small molecules into their cell wall, according to researchers at Yale University. By being able to manipulate the cell wall, in this way, the researchers explain that they can, in theory, perturb the bacteria's ability to interact with human tissues and host cells. The discovery could lead the way to a new approach to combating the bacteria responsible for many of the most infectious diseases, including pneumonia and "strep" throat infections. It might even open up new avenues to fighting microbes that have evolved resistance to antibiotics.

Scientists Trick Bacteria Into Embedding Small Molecules in Cell Wall

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Imprinting nanotechnology

Eu-Hyeok Yang of the Stevens Institute of Technology, is set to receive funding from the National Science Foundation to acquire a Nanoimprint Lithography System for nanoscience research and education based on low-dimensional materials. The equipment, a Nanonex 1000 Nanoimprint Lithography System is a whole-wafer, high-resolution (10nm) nanoimprinter for thermoplastic resins. "The NIL system is the latest piece of equipment in completing the fabrication process flow for micro/nano devices at Stevens," Yang explains. "The MDL's capabilities for research and education increase significantly with this system."

Nanoimprint Lithography NSF Grant Awarded to Micro Device Lab at Stevens

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