295 posts · 130,660 views
I received a PhD in analytical chemistry in Sep 2005, completed postdoctoral research in Jun 2007, and taught chemistry survey and organic chemistry from Sep 2009 - May 2010. I am currently a freelance technical science editor. Phased presents science journalism written for a lay audience. My goal is to discuss technical content (from the technical journals) without sacrificing readability. The topical focus is diverse, but tends to focus on chemistry, technology, and cell biology.
Phased
295 posts
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- June 2, 2010
- 05:55 PM
- 1,616 views
A Flexible Zinc-Carbon Battery: Towards Cheap Intelligent Clothing
by Michael Long in Phased
Pritesh Hiralal (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) and coworkers have worked towards incorporating cheap batteries directly into clothing. This news feature was written on June 2, 2010.... Read more »
Hiralal, P., Imaizumi, S., Unalan, H. E., Matsumoto, H., Minagawa, M., Rouvala, M., Tanioka, A., & Amaratunga, G. A. J. (2010) Nanomaterial-Enhanced All-Solid Flexible Zinc−Carbon Batteries. ACS Nano, 4(5), 2730-2734. DOI: 10.1021/nn901391q
- June 29, 2009
- 10:45 AM
- 802 views
Aqueous Phase Separation in Living Cells
by Michael Long in Phased
Carlos Filipe (McMaster University, Canada) and coworkers have induced protein microcompartmentation, via aqueous phase separation of elastin-like polypeptides, in genetically engineered cells, which may enable scientists to test theories of intracellular organization and assembly in living cells. This news feature was written on June 29, 2009.... Read more »
Ge, X., Conley, A. J., Brandle, J. E., Truant, R., & Filipe, C. D. M. (2009) In Vivo Formation of Protein Based Aqueous Microcompartments . Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(25), 9094-9099. DOI: 10.1021/ja902890r
- May 16, 2011
- 05:10 PM
- 799 views
Cheap and Easy Isolation of Single-Chirality Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
by Michael Long in Phased
Gel chromatography is used to purify a valuable nanotechnology material.... Read more »
Liu, H., Nishide, D., Tanaka, T., & Kataura, H. (2011) Large-scale single-chirality separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes by simple gel chromatography. Nature Communications, 309. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1313
- May 28, 2009
- 01:30 PM
- 798 views
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: Vying for the Future of Bio-Powered Transport
by Michael Long in Phased
Elliott Campbell (University of California, Merced)
and coworkers have found that electricity from biomass is
more ideal for use in battery-powered vehicles than internal
combustion engines, when evaluating the issue solely
from a land-use perspective.
This news feature was written on May 28, 2009.... Read more »
Campbell, J. E., Lobell, D. B., & Field, C. B. (2009) Greater Transportation Energy and GHG Offsets from Bioelectricity Than Ethanol. Science, 324(5930), 1055-1057. DOI: 10.1126/science.1168885
- May 14, 2009
- 07:30 PM
- 748 views
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: Converting Biomass into a Stable Fuel
by Michael Long in Phased
Yuan Kou (Peking University, China), Johannes Lercher
(Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany), and coworkers
have synthesized stable carbon-based fuels from
renewable resources.
This news feature was written on May 14, 2009.... Read more »
Zhao, C., Kou, Y., Lemonidou, A. A., Li, X., & Lercher, J. A. (2009) Highly Selective Catalytic Conversion of Phenolic Bio-Oil to Alkanes. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 48(22), 3987-3990. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200900404
- June 1, 2009
- 10:00 AM
- 740 views
Towards Hydrogen Storage in Hydrazine Borane
by Michael Long in Phased
Dieter Lentz (Freie Universitat Berlin) and coworkers
have made progress towards applying hydrazine borane as a
highly effective hydrogen storage medium.
This news feature was written on June 1, 2009.... Read more »
Hügle, T., Kühnel, M. F., & Lentz, D. (2009) Hydrazine Borane: A Promising Hydrogen Storage Material. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(21), 7444-7446. DOI: 10.1021/ja9013437
- July 18, 2009
- 02:45 PM
- 731 views
Towards Improving the Therapeutic Potential of RNA Interference
by Michael Long in Phased
Eben Alsberg (Case Western Reserve University, Ohio) and coworkers have applied biodegradable hydrogels for the sustained and local release of interfering RNA, a possible tool for gene silencing. This news feature was written on July 18, 2009.... Read more »
Krebs, M. D., Jeon, O., & Alsberg, E. (2009) Localized and Sustained Delivery of Silencing RNA from Macroscopic Biopolymer Hydrogels. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(26), 9204-9206. DOI: 10.1021/ja9037615
- July 6, 2009
- 10:45 AM
- 723 views
Rapidly Discovering New Drugs for Tuberculosis
by Michael Long in Phased
Lei Xie, Philip Bourne (University of California, San Diego), and coworkers have utilized specialized software to accelerate the search for safe and effective drugs against tuberculosis and other diseases, drugs which would likely be overlooked by conventional drug discovery approaches. This news feature was written on July 6, 2009.... Read more »
Kinnings, S. L., Liu, N., Buchmeier, N., Tonge, P. J., Xie, L., & Bourne, P. E. (2009) Drug Discovery Using Chemical Systems Biology: Repositioning the Safe Medicine Comtan to Treat Multi-Drug and Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. PLoS Computational Biology, 5(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000423
- June 29, 2011
- 03:53 PM
- 721 views
Towards Implanted Medical Devices Powered by Glucose
by Michael Long in Phased
A device based on glucose oxidase, catalase, laccase, and carbon nanotubes delivers the best performance ever seen for an enzymatic glucose biofuel cell.... Read more »
Zebda, A., Gondran, C., Le Goff, A., Holzinger, M., Cinquin, P., & Cosnier, S. (2011) Mediatorless high-power glucose biofuel cells based on compressed carbon nanotube-enzyme electrodes. Nature Communications, 370. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1365
- May 12, 2009
- 07:30 PM
- 716 views
ASTRONOMY: Towards Detecting Photosynthesis on Other Worlds
by Michael Long in Phased
William Sparks (Space Telescope
Science Institute, Maryland) and coworkers have probed the
feasibility of detecting photosynthesis through
astronomical observations, aiding the long-term search for
extraterrestrial life.
This news feature was written on May 12, 2009.... Read more »
Sparks, W. B., Hough, J., Germer, T. A., Chen, F., DasSarma, S., DasSarma, P., Robb, F. T., Manset, N., Kolokolova, L., Reid, N.... (2009) Detection of circular polarization in light scattered from photosynthetic microbes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(19), 7816-7821. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0810215106
- May 27, 2011
- 08:45 PM
- 710 views
Filtering Out Propaganda from the Medical Literature
by Michael Long in Phased
A checklist can help scientists who evaluate technical medical manuscripts to recognize medical propaganda, thereby helping to prevent unwarranted hype from becoming mainstream knowledge.... Read more »
Gambrill, E., & Reiman, A. (2011) A Propaganda Index for Reviewing Problem Framing in Articles and Manuscripts: An Exploratory Study. PLoS ONE, 6(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019516
- September 3, 2009
- 04:05 PM
- 689 views
Towards Cheap, Efficient Solar Cells
by Michael Long in Phased
Brian Krogel (University of Texas at Austin) and coworkers have worked towards developing efficient solar cells via cheap materials and protocols. This news feature was written on September 3, 2009.... Read more »
Steinhagen, C., Panthani, M. G, Akhavan, V., Goodfellow, B., Koo, B., & Korgel, B. A. (2009) Synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 Nanocrystals for Use in Low-Cost Photovoltaics . Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(35), 12554-12555. DOI: 10.1021/ja905922j
- May 8, 2009
- 07:00 PM
- 678 views
NEUROSCIENCE: Selectively Imaging Alzheimer's-Related Protein Aggregates
by Michael Long in Phased
Itaru Hamachi (Kyoto University, Japan) and coworkers
have imaged neurofibrillary tangles, in preference to senile plaques,
in brain tissue samples, with a cheap synthetic fluorescent molecule.
This news feature was written on May 8, 2009.... Read more »
Ojida, A., Sakamoto, T., Inoue, M.-a., Fujishima, S.-h., Lippens, G., & Hamachi, I. (2009) Fluorescent BODIPY-Based Zn(II) Complex as a Molecular Probe for Selective Detection of Neurofibrillary Tangles in the Brains of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(18), 6543-6548. DOI: 10.1021/ja9008369
- June 3, 2011
- 03:15 PM
- 675 views
Towards Preventing Detrimental Physiological Changes in Space
by Michael Long in Phased
Short-term spaceflight does not hinder RNA interference efficacy in roundworms, and may be a means of preventing protein muscle degradation in humans during long-term space missions.... Read more »
Timothy Etheridge, Kanako Nemoto, Toko Hashizume, Chihiro Mori, Tomoko Sugimoto, Hiromi Suzuki, Keiji Fukui, Takashi Yamazaki, Akira Higashibata, Nathaniel J. Szewczyk.... (2011) The Effectiveness of RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans Is Maintained during Spaceflight. PLoS ONE, 6(6). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0020459
- May 21, 2011
- 06:10 PM
- 670 views
Limitations of Rosetta for Biomacromolecular Structural Modeling
by Michael Long in Phased
Rosetta needs to be optimized for atomic-scale resolution if it is to reach its maximum potential for predicting the three-dimensional shape of proteins and nucleic acids.... Read more »
Das, R. (2011) Four Small Puzzles That Rosetta Doesn't Solve. PLoS ONE, 6(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020044
- March 11, 2011
- 06:30 PM
- 669 views
Are Species Abundance Distributions Biologically Meaningful?
by Michael Long in Phased
A common ecological assumption is fundamentally challenged.... Read more »
Warren II, R. J., Skelly, D. K., Schmitz, O. J., & Bradford, M. A. (2011) Universal Ecological Patterns in College Basketball Communities. PLoS ONE, 6(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017342
- April 26, 2011
- 04:30 PM
- 649 views
Producing and Extracting Biofuel Precursors from Cyanobacteria
by Michael Long in Phased
Cyanobacteria were genetically engineered to overproduce fatty acids, which were readily extracted.... Read more »
Liu, X., Sheng, J., & Curtiss III, R. (2011) Fatty acid production in genetically modified cyanobacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1103014108
Liu, X., Fallon, S., Sheng, J., & Curtiss, R. (2011) CO2-limitation-inducible Green Recovery of fatty acids from cyanobacterial biomass. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1103016108
- July 25, 2009
- 02:00 PM
- 648 views
Nontoxic Inhibition and Disruption of Bacterial Biofilms
by Michael Long in Phased
Christian Melander (North Carolina State University, Raleigh) and coworkers have synthesized a drug molecule of highly promising anti-biofilm activity against a medically-relevant class of bacteria. This news feature was written on July 25, 2009.... Read more »
Rogers, S. A., Huigens III, R. W., & Melander, C. (2009) A 2-Aminobenzimidazole That Inhibits and Disperses Gram-Positive Biofilms through a Zinc-Dependent Mechanism. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(29), 9868-9869. DOI: 10.1021/ja9024676
- June 18, 2009
- 02:00 PM
- 645 views
Inducing and Monitoring Amyloid Aggregation in Living Cells
by Michael Long in Phased
Elizabeth Jares-Erijman (Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Argentina) and coworkers have developed a non-perturbing protocol
for inducing and monitoring the formation of amyloid aggregates,
implicated in a number of neurodegenerative conditions,
in living cells.
This news feature was written on June 18, 2009.... Read more »
Roberti, M. J., Morgan, M., Menéndez, G., Pietrasanta, L. I., Jovin, T. M., & Jares-Erijman, E. A. (2009) Quantum Dots As Ultrasensitive Nanoactuators and Sensors of Amyloid Aggregation in Live Cells. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(23), 8102-8107. DOI: 10.1021/ja900225w
- June 22, 2009
- 02:00 PM
- 641 views
A Near-Infrared Nanoparticle Probe for Biothiol Molecules
by Michael Long in Phased
Xiu-Ping Yan (Nankai University, China) and coworkers
have developed an assay for biothiol molecules, important in
disease diagnostics, optimized for use in biological fluids.
This news feature was written on June 22, 2009.... Read more »
Zhang, Y., Li, Y., & Yan, X.-P. (2009) Photoactivated CdTe/CdSe Quantum Dots as a Near Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Detecting Biothiols in Biological Fluids. Analytical Chemistry, 81(12), 5001-5007. DOI: 10.1021/ac900394e
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