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How Fungal Enzymes Break Down Plant Cell Walls

The Science

Inside cows, goats, and other ruminants, fungal enzymes break down plant matter and extract nutrients. These enzymes essentially overcome a major bottleneck in biofuel production: breaking down lignocellulose—the primary building block of plant cell walls. The parts, assembly, and diverse roles of fungal enzymecomplexes, called cellulosomes, have not been clearly defined. Until now.…

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Crystals Grow by Twisting, Aligning and Snapping Together

Crystals Grow by Twisting, Aligning and Snapping Together

The Science

Tiny particles suspended in a liquid often combine to form larger crystals. However, the forces governing this behavior remain unclear. For the first time, scientists measured and modeled the force, called the van der Waals force, that causes two nanosize crystals to twist, align, slam into each other, and snap together.

The Impact

From rocks to shells to bones, crystalgrowth occurs…

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Bacterial Cell Wall Changes Produce More Fatty Molecules

Bacterial Cell Wall Changes Produce More Fatty Molecules

The Science

Bacteria and other microbes can pump out building blocks for biofuels. Unfortunately, getting microbes to produce enough building blocks, lipids, presents a significant challenge. Microbes often fall short of what they could theoretically produce. This study examined high-lipid mutant variants of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The scientists showed that altering the bacterial cellenvelope…

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Speeding Up Catalysts for Energy Storage

Speeding Up Catalysts for Energy Storage

The Science

Energy from solar panels generally can’t be stored for rainy days because there is no efficient way to store the electricity. In contrast, photosynthetic bacteria store energy in chemical bonds. If energy from solar panels could be similarly stored in stable chemical bonds, such as those in hydrogen gas, it could be later used to power fuel cellsor internal combustion engines.…

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For First Time, Researchers Measure Forces That Align Crystals and Help Them Snap Together

For First Time, Researchers Measure Forces That Align Crystals and Help Them Snap Together

Like two magnets being pulled toward each other, tiny crystals twist, align and slam into each other, but due to an altogether different force. For the first time, researchers have measured the force that draws them together and visualized how they swivel and align.

Called van der Waals forces, the attraction provides insights into how crystals self-assemble, an activity that occurs in a wide…

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Hydraulic Fluids Hospitable for Microbes

Hydraulic Fluids Hospitable for Microbes

The Science

Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is the industry standard for removing hydrocarbons from shale formations, which provide one-third of natural gas energy resources worldwide. The biogeochemical changes that this process induces in the deep subsurface are poorly understood. In a study, researchers, for the first time, reconstructed the genetic material, or genomes, from microbes in…

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Bacteria’s Secret Weapon

The Science

To make biofuels, tiny microbes can be used to break down plant cells. As part of that digestive process, specialized enzymes break down cellulose—a major molecule that makes plant cell walls rigid. Scientists showed that an enzyme, from the bacterial glycoside hydrolase family 12, plays an unexpectedly important role in breaking down a hard-to-degrade crystalline form of cellulose.…

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Light Strikes Gold

The Science

Using light to sculpt tiny crystals able to do big jobs has garnered attention in the scientific community since scientists used such a process to create silver prisms in 2001. However, scientistshave been unable to apply the process to gold—until now. A recent study describes a strategy that enables synthesis of desirable gold crystals using a chemical called polyvinylpyrrolidone…

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