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A research team at Mahidol University, Thailand, has discovered that tosyl groups, long regarded as routine synthetic handles, can actively guide the formation and behavior of pillararenes—a class of pillar-shaped macrocyclic molecules widely used in supramolecular chemistry. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reveal that these groups can act as a hidden "instruction code" that influences the organization of molecular components before bond formation and e

Biomaterials with extraordinary properties, such as spider silk, have so far been known primarily from animals. Researchers at the University of Salzburg in Austria have now deciphered a surprising counterpart from the world of single-celled organisms: The shells of tintinnids, microscopic planktonic organisms, consist of self-assembling structural proteins that form a particularly resilient material and are capable of absorbing UV light. This is the first description of a biomaterial produced b

What do wooden casks tell us about trade and everyday life between 1300 and 1800? Ph.D. candidate Jeroen Oosterbaan studied the life cycle of this shipping container and has shown how these everyday objects played a key role in the development of international trade networks.

Migratory birds such as the pied flycatcher typically have wintering locations in Africa close to others from the same breeding population. That means that birds breeding in the Netherlands run into each other again in Africa, while Spanish populations also end up close together. But how do they know where to go?