{"id":2521,"date":"2008-12-22T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2008\/12\/nchem-research-highlights-biosensing-dyes-strong-biomimics-and-levitating-beads.html"},"modified":"2011-12-20T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T11:08:41","slug":"nchem_research_highlights_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2008\/12\/nchem_research_highlights_2.html","title":{"rendered":"NChem Research Highlights: Biosensing dyes, strong biomimics and levitating beads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.youtube.com\/watch?v=niIJ9Yb-xwQ\">So here it is<\/a>&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nchem\/index.html\">Research Highlights<\/a>, everybody&#8217;s having fun. But before we all disappear for Christmas, here are the final <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2008\/12\/top_10_research_highlights_of.html\">RHs of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I covered a pretty smart idea for a class of biosensors. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nchem\/reshigh\/2008\/1208\/full\/nchem.104.html\">Reducing cynanine dyes <\/a>means they don&#8217;t fluoresce, until they come into contact with the nasty reactive oxygen species that mess around with cells. Even cleverer, the reduced forms can slip in and out cells willy-nilly, whereas the fluorescing ones are trapped inside the cells, showing you where the problem is.<\/p>\n<p>You might well have seen this one elsewhere, but now you can read Tim&#8217;s take on the biomimetic material that&#8217;s thin and strong &#8211; it&#8217;s all about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nchem\/reshigh\/2008\/1208\/full\/nchem.105.html\">ice templating<\/a>, you know.<\/p>\n<p>Last, but by no means whatsoever least, it&#8217;s a nifty idea for what could become &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nchem\/reshigh\/2008\/1208\/full\/nchem.106.html\"><span class=\"caps\">TLC<\/span> for solid-supported synthesis<\/a>&#8217;. And it involves magnetically levitating beads!<\/p>\n<p>And finally&#8230;unlike the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/news\/thegreatbeyond\/2008\/12\/head_banging_frankincense_and.html\"><span class=\"caps\">BMJ<\/span><\/a> we haven&#8217;t got a load of spurious research to make it into the news-light festive season newspapers &#8211; watch out for next year though &#8211; and we&#8217;re a week before the <span class=\"caps\">RSC<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org\/AboutUs\/News\/PressReleases\/2007\/HangoverAvoidance.asp\">releases<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org\/AboutUs\/News\/PressReleases\/2005\/HangoverAvoidance.asp\">same story<\/a> about hangover cures for the 3rd or 4th year running, so I&#8217;ll leave you with some mathematical clues to help you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg20026873.800-the-scientific-guide-to-gift-wrapping.html\">wrap presents better<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>See you all in the New Year &#8211; thanks for all the comments in 2008!<\/p>\n<p>Neil<\/p>\n<p>Neil Withers (Associate Editor, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nchem\">Nature Chemistry<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So here it is\u2026Research Highlights, everybody\u2019s having fun. But before we all disappear for Christmas, here are the final RHs of the year.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2008\/12\/nchem_research_highlights_2.html#wpn-more-2521\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2008\/12\/nchem_research_highlights_2.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nchem-research-highlights","category-neil-withers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}