Neutron experiments settle 40-year debate on enzyme for drug design
In just two neutron experiments, scientists discovered remarkable details about the function of an enzyme that can aid drug design for aggressive cancers.
In just two neutron experiments, scientists discovered remarkable details about the function of an enzyme that can aid drug design for aggressive cancers.
Biochemistry
Sep 24, 2024
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The lightest of all elements, hydrogen, is in great demand due to its promising role as a sustainable resource in the energy transition. A team from Leipzig University and TU Dresden, as part of the Hydrogen Isotopes 1,2,3H ...
Analytical Chemistry
Sep 19, 2024
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49
Although Mars is currently a cold, dry planet, geological evidence suggests that liquid water existed there around 3 to 4 billion years ago. Where there is water, there is usually life. In their quest to answer the burning ...
Astrobiology
Sep 19, 2024
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Data collected by the SAMURAI spectrometer at RIKEN's RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in Japan recently led to the detection of a rare fluorine (F) isotope, known as 30F. This has opened interesting possibilities for the study of ...
A fossilized Neanderthal discovered in a cave system in the Rhône Valley, France, represents an ancient and previously undescribed lineage that diverged from other currently known Neanderthals around 100,000 years ago and ...
Archaeology
Sep 11, 2024
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591
A group of scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have conducted neutron scattering research to reveal key information about fungus cell membranes that could aid in developing new antifungal ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 9, 2024
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66
Until recently, little was known about Bishop Teodomiro, who, after St James the Apostle, is one of the most important figures associated with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
Archaeology
Aug 16, 2024
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107
Prehistoric communities from Iceland to the Eurasian Steppe sacrificed horses as part of their funeral rites. These Baltic tribes, known as the Balts, sacrificed horses longer than anywhere else in Europe, up until the 14th ...
Archaeology
Aug 14, 2024
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76
An international team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of Copenhagen and University of Toronto, analyzed beluga whale bones retrieved from archaeological sites in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, ...
Ecology
Aug 14, 2024
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149
In space, there are clouds that contain gas and dust ejected from stars. Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago from such a molecular cloud. Most of these dust grains were destroyed during solar system formation. ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 8, 2024
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Isotopes (Greek isos = "equal", tópos = "site, place") are any of the different types of atoms (nuclides) of the same chemical element, each having a different atomic mass (mass number). Isotopes of an element have nuclei with the same number of protons (the same atomic number) but different numbers of neutrons. Therefore, isotopes of the same element have different mass numbers (number of nucleons).
A nuclide is any particular atomic nucleus with a specific atomic number Z and mass number A; it is equivalently an atomic nucleus with a specific number of protons and neutrons. Collectively, all the isotopes of all the elements form the set of nuclides. The distinction between the terms isotope and nuclide has somewhat blurred, and they are often used interchangeably. If they are to be distinguished in use, isotope is better used in its original sense, when referring to several different nuclides of the same chemical element. Nuclide is a later and more generic term, and is used when referencing to only one type of nucleus, and may also be used to refer to several types of nuclei of different elements. For example, it is better to say that an element such as fluorine consists of one stable nuclide rather than that it has one stable isotope, because the latter word is usually reserved to refer to more than one nuclide. On the other hand, carbon can be correctly said to have two stable isotopes, and fluorine to have several radioactive isotopes.
Isotopes and nuclides are specified by the name of the particular element, implicitly giving the atomic number, followed by a hyphen and the mass number (e.g. helium-3, carbon-12, carbon-13, iodine-131 and uranium-238). In symbolic form, the number of nucleons is denoted as a superscripted prefix to the chemical symbol (e.g. 3He, 12C, 13C, 131I and 238U).
About 339 nuclides occur naturally on Earth, of which 256 (about 75%) are stable (or, to be careful, have never been observed to decay; this note is necessary because many "stable" isotopes are predicted to be radioactive with very long half-lives). Counting the radioactive nuclides not found in nature that have been created artificially, more than 3100 nuclides are currently known.
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