Science

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Targeting tumors using silver nanoparticles: A new platform developed at UCSB increases the efficiency of drug delivery and allows excess particles to be washed away

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have designed a nanoparticle that has a couple of unique — and important — properties. Spherical in shape and silver in composition, it is encased in a shell coated with a peptide that enables it to target tumor cells. What's more, the shell is etchable so those nanoparticles that don't hit their target can be broken down and eliminated.

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Prostate cancer cells were targeted by two separate silver nanoparticles (red and green), while the cell nucleus was labeled in blueusing Hoescht dye.

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EU, Israel sign Horizon 2020 association agreement

European Commission’s President José Manuel Barroso and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu witnessed the signature of Israel's association to Horizon 2020, the new EU research and innovation programme. Horizon 2020 offers a huge opportunity to enhance the traditionally active cooperation between Israeli and EU researchers and innovators. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel will have the same access to the programme as EU Member States and other Associated Countries. In return, it will contribute to the Horizon 2020 budget.

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Evolution of a Bimetallic Nanocatalyst

Atomic-scale snapshots of a bimetallic nanoparticle catalyst in action have provided insights that could help improve the industrial process by which fuels and chemicals are synthesized from natural gas, coal or plant biomass. A multi-national lab collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has taken the most detailed look ever at the evolution of platinum/cobalt bimetallic nanoparticles during reactions in oxygen and hydrogen gases.

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TEM image of platinum/cobalt bimetallic nanoparticle catalyst in action shows that during the oxidation reaction, cobalt atoms migrate to the surface of the particle, forming a cobalt oxide epitaxial film, like water on oil.

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Asteroid Discovered by NASA to Pass Earth Safely

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This diagram shows the orbit of asteroid 2014 HQ124, and its location relative to Earth on June 8.

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Opening a wide window on the nano-world of surface catalysis

Surface catalysts are notoriously difficult to study mechanistically, but scientists at the University of South Carolina and Rice University have shown how to get real-time reaction information from Ag nanocatalysts that have long frustrated attempts to describe their kinetic behavior in detail.

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A surface catalyst with a built-in sensor: that's what chemist Hui Wang and co-workers built by bridging a size gap on the nano-scale. Their silver nanoparticles combine plasmon resonance with catalytic activity, making SERS and other analytical data available in real time on a surface catalyst.

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"Neapolitan" Exoplanets Come in Three Flavors

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Harsh Space Weather May Doom Potential Life on Red-Dwarf Planets

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Because You Can't Eat Just One: Star Will Swallow Two Planets

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'Quadrapeutics' works in preclinical study of hard-to-treat tumors: Animal tests show Rice-developed technology effective against aggressive cancer

The first preclinical study of a new Rice University-developed anti-cancer technology found that a novel combination of existing clinical treatments can instantaneously detect and kill only cancer cells -- often by blowing them apart -- without harming surrounding normal organs. The research, which is available online this week Nature Medicine, reports that Rice's "quadrapeutics" technology was 17 times more efficient than conventional chemoradiation therapy against aggressive, drug-resistant head and neck tumors.

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The first preclinical study of the anti-cancer technology "quadrapeutics" found it to be 17 times more efficient than conventional chemoradiation therapy against aggressive, drug-resistant head and neck tumors.

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Unexpected water explains surface chemistry of nanocrystals: Berkeley Lab scientists answer questions of how charged ligands balance on surface of colloidal nanoparticles

Danylo Zherebetskyy and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found unexpected traces of water in semiconducting nanocrystals.

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This image shows the calculated atomic structure of a 5nm diameter nanocrystal passivated with oleate and hydroxyl ligands.

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