Can you imagine a life-saving molecule whose “twin” is a deadly poison? As surprising as it may seem, this chemical reality is known as “chirality”. Like a right hand and a left hand, two molecules can have the same composition, but a different shape and arrangement in space. And this difference can change everything. Understanding and controlling this phenomenon is crucial to drug design. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the University of Pisa, has developed a new family of remarkably stable chiral molecules. This work opens up new prospects for the design of geometry-controlled drugs. It is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

A new paper in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry finds that efforts to eradicate invasive molluscs in Idaho’s Snake River may kill off valuable freshwater species.

In new research, University of California, Irvine astronomers describe how more than 200 known exoplanets are likely much larger than previously thought. It’s a finding that could change which distant worlds researchers consider potential harbors for extraterrestrial life.

Macquarie University researchers have demonstrated a technique to dramatically narrow the linewidth of a laser beam by a factor of over ten thousand – a discovery that could revolutionise quantum computing, atomic clocks and gravitational wave detection.