The behavior of catalysts that promote chemical reactions is not always straightforward. Using a combination of experiments and computer simulations, scientists now understand how oxygen affects the way the catalyst copper oxide reacts with hydrogen versus carbon monoxide gases and how to control and enhance related chemical reactions.

So-called "XYZ states" defy the standard picture of particle behavior and have given rise to several attempts to understand their nature. But researchers with the Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics (Theory Center) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility say there is a simpler way to explain the abundance of exotic charmonium particles using lattice quantum chromodynamics.

Education is only becoming a bigger issue for both political parties. Questions and discussions surrounding the role of parents and their children's education as well as funding and the use of school vouchers remain top of mind as we prepare for a new administration. President-elect Donald Trump could make significant changes to the U.S. Department of Education, as questions loom about the future of the department under Trump. Josh Cowen is a professor of education policy in Michigan State University's College of Education. He has worked across the country on policy issues related to school choice, teacher quality and education reform. Cowen is the author of the new book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers (Harvard Education Press). Here, he answers questions on what changes could come to education and what vouchers could mean for the U.S.

A research team has identified 2,586 orphan genes (OGs) in Rosa chinensis, offering new insights into the role of these unique genes in flower development, stress response, and environmental adaptation.

Global public debt may soon collectively catch up to the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP), likely matching it by 2030. New research from a Notre Dame economist suggests that this could happen even sooner, thanks to countries' hidden debts. This misreported debt can lead to higher interest rates for borrowers and lower recovery rates for lenders, suggesting indirect adverse effects on global financial stability and consumer welfare.

[Domestic] :
Memorial events are taking place across the country to honor the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the tragedy.  Earlier in the day, a memorial event at the National Assembly brought together survivors, members of the bereaved families, the National Assembly ...

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[Politics] :
President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged efforts to overcome polarization in South Korean society, as he passes the halfway point of his five-year presidency. According to presidential spokesperson Jeong Hye-jeon on Monday, Yoon, during a meeting with his aides, called for forward-looking efforts to resolve ...

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[Politics] :
If the opposition unilaterally passes a bill mandating a special counsel investigation targeting first lady Kim Keon-hee, ruling People Power Party floor leader Choo Kyung-ho has said he will strongly recommend a presidential veto.  At a party Supreme Council meeting Monday, Choo said the ruling party ...

[more...]

[Inter-Korea] :
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Tuesday morning, just hours before the start of the U.S. presidential election.   South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said it detected the launches around 7:30 a.m. from the Sariwon area in North Hwanghae ...

[more...]

[Inter-Korea] :
The South Korean military says it believes more than ten-thousand North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia in support of the military offensive in Ukraine. At a press briefing Tuesday, defense ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said intelligence authorities in South Korea and the U.S. believe a ...

[more...]

[Sports] :
Culture minister Yu In-chon has reiterated that he will not approve the fourth term of Korea Football Association(KFA) President Chung Mong-gyu.  Yu revealed the stance on Monday during the parliamentary culture committee’s inspection of government agencies when asked whether he will grant approval ...

[more...]

[Science] :
Rain is in the forecast nationwide on Tuesday, with downpours expected along the southern coastal areas of South Jeolla Province, in the southeastern Gyeongsang region and on the southernmost island of Jeju. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, over 100 millimeters could fall on the ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
National security adviser Shin Won-sik said South Korea is no longer the sole beneficiary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, pledging to defend the country’s core interests as a partner state that contributes to regional and global security and prosperity. In a keynote speech at the 2024 Global Dialogue ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
Korean Sports and Olympic Committee(KSOC) President Lee Kee-heung will be able to run for a third term.  The committee’s Commission for Fair Play in Sport held a full session in Seoul on Tuesday and approved Lee’s request to run for another term.  As a result, Lee will take part in the elections ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
A local court has decided not to permit a live broadcast on Friday, when it is set to deliver a critical verdict in a case against main opposition Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung.    The Seoul Central District Court announced the decision Wednesday, saying it first carried out a comprehensive ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
Police say former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter has admitted that she operated an illegal lodging business in Jeju City.  Jeju’s provincial police department said Wednesday that it will hand over Moon Da-hye’s case to the prosecution sometime this week and recommend charges under the Public ...

[more...]

Looking for a career change, or just trying to make some extra cash on the side? You may be able to leverage talents that you already have and put them into your own hustle, or maybe you're simply on the hunt for the easiest business to start.

Heavy machinery and power tools are effective aids for improving efficiency, but they can also lead to serious accidents and fatal work injuries. It's no stretch of the imagination, then, to see how jobs that rely on these resources often land on the list of most dangerous jobs in America.

[International] :
The U.S. State Department has confirmed that North Korean troops deployed to Russia’s Kursk region are engaging in combat against Ukraine. In a press briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said he can confirm that over ten-thousand North Korean soldiers have been sent to eastern ...

[more...]

The most dangerous cities in the world are a major concern for residents, visitors, law enforcement and policymakers. While crime exists everywhere, some cities statistically experience consistently high crime levels. We turned to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, to find the hard numbers on the murder rate per capita in cities worldwide.

Learn about coolant leak causes and solutions. Expert insights for identifying, diagnosing, and fixing coolant leaks.

Left-side or left-hand traffic may seem backwards for most U.S. drivers, but it's nothing new; in the 17th and 18th centuries, it helped control the flow of horse-drawn carriages on London Bridge. These laws set the trend for many of the world's countries that drive on the left side of the road.

Halloween is around the corner, and it’s time to brainstorm the best group costume ideas for you and your friends. Whether you’re going to a Halloween party, trick-or-treating or entering a costume contest, the key to success is creativity, coordination and a dash of humor.

We've all been there: Spooky season has arrived, and you don't have any costume ideas for Halloween. Whether you're a casual fan of the holiday who is looking for a good Halloween costume, or a long time devotee of All Hallow's Eve who wants to top last year's effort, we've got you covered with some great Halloween costume ideas.

The labels on your clothes have all types of laundry symbols on them. Here's what all those symbols mean.

Toothpaste is for cleaning your pearly whites, right? True, but there are other cool uses for it that you may not know about. Here are nine of them.

The music video for girl group TWICE's 2015 song "Like Ooh-Ahh" has surpassed 500 million views on YouTube. The group's management JYP Entertainment said the video broke the 500 million mark...

[more...]

The ability to unlock your iPhone means that you can use it with different carriers. To unlock your iPhone, use these steps.

Discover if Cancer and Pisces compatibility creates a strong, harmonious bond. Dive into emotional insights and learn what makes these water signs connect so deeply.

[Economy] :
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said Thursday that he expects Donald Trump’s reelection to have a “considerable” impact on the South Korean economy.  The minister made the remarks Wednesday in Seoul during a meeting of ministers concerned with the economy, the morning after Donald Trump won the U.S. ...

[more...]

BGS receives award at the World Landslide Forum 2023  British Geological Survey

Deep-sea mining evidence review published  British Geological Survey

Forty years and counting: new topsoil data provides most extensive snapshot of environmental pollution effects  British Geological Survey

In-situ diffraction measurements reveal that magnesium chloride forms a unique high-pressure phase, a heptahydrate, above 2 GPa. The hydrogen-bonding structure appears to contain orientational disorder.

A unique phase transition, twinning and ferroelastic domain structure in [NH3(CH2)2NH3]2[ZnBr4]Br2 is found. The new additional domain structure is observed at the phase transition on heating, which is preserved after cooling to room temperature.

Low-concentration poly(ethylene oxide) exhibit the polymorph-dependent effects on both the surface and bulk crystal growth of carbamazepine polymorphs. These polymorph-dependent effects of PEO were mainly attributed to the polymer enrichment at the interface and different crystal surface-polymer interactions.

Single-crystal growth, differential thermal analysis (DTA), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray structural studies and polarized microscopy observations of bis(ethylenediammonium) tetrabromozincate(II) bromide [NH3(CH2)2NH3]2[ZnBr4]Br2 are presented. A reversible phase transition is described. At room temperature, the complex crystallizes in the monoclinic system. In some cases, the single crystals are twinned into two or more large domains of ferroelastic type with domain walls in the (100) crystallographic plane. DTA and DTG measurements show chemical stability of the crystal up to ∼538 K. In the DSC studies, a reversible isostructural phase transition was revealed at ∼526/522 K on heating/cooling run, respectively. Optical observation on the heating run reveals that at the phase transition the plane of twinning (domain wall) does not disappear and additionally the appearance of a new domain structure of ferroelastic type with domain walls in the planes (101), (101), (100) and (001) is observed. The domain structure pattern is preserved after cooling to the room-temperature phase and the symmetry of this phase is unchanged.

The odd hydration number has so far been missing in the water-rich magnesium chloride hydrate series (MgCl2·nH2O). In this study, magnesium chloride heptahydrate, MgCl2·7H2O (or MgCl2·7D2O), which forms at high pressures above 2 GPa and high temperatures above 300 K, has been identified. Its structure has been determined by a combination of in-situ single-crystal X-ray diffraction at 2.5 GPa and 298 K and powder neutron diffraction at 3.1 GPa and 300 K. The single-crystal specimen was grown by mixing alcohols to prevent nucleation of undesired crystalline phases. The results show orientational disorder of water molecules, which was also examined using density functional theory calculations. The disorder involves the reconnection of hydrogen bonds, which differs from those in water ice phases and known disordered salt hydrates. Shrinkage by compression occurs mainly in one direction. In the plane perpendicular to this most compressible direction, oxygen and chlorine atoms are in a hexagonal-like arrangement.

Following the work of Day & Hawthorne [Acta Cryst. (2022), A78, 212–233] and Day et al. [Acta Cryst. (2024), A80, 258–281], the program GraphT–T has been developed to embed graphical representations of observed and hypothetical chains of (SiO4)4− tetrahedra into 2D and 3D Euclidean space. During embedding, the distance between linked vertices (T–T distances) and the distance between unlinked vertices (T⋯T separations) in the resultant unit-distance graph are restrained to the average observed distance between linked Si tetrahedra (3.06±0.15 Å) and the minimum separation between unlinked vertices is restrained to be equal to or greater than the minimum distance between unlinked Si tetrahedra (3.713 Å) in silicate minerals. The notional interactions between vertices are described by a 3D spring-force algorithm in which the attractive forces between linked vertices behave according to Hooke's law and the repulsive forces between unlinked vertices behave according to Coulomb's law. Embedding parameters (i.e. spring coefficient, k, and Coulomb's constant, K) are iteratively refined during embedding to determine if it is possible to embed a given graph to produce a unit-distance graph with T–T distances and T⋯T separations that are compatible with the observed T–T distances and T⋯T separations in crystal structures. The resultant unit-distance graphs are denoted as compatible and may form crystal structures if and only if all distances between linked vertices (T–T distances) agree with the average observed distance between linked Si tetrahedra (3.06±0.15 Å) and the minimum separation between unlinked vertices is equal to or greater than the minimum distance between unlinked Si tetrahedra (3.713 Å) in silicate minerals. If the unit-distance graph does not satisfy these conditions, it is considered incompatible and the corresponding chain of tetrahedra is unlikely to form crystal structures. Using GraphT–T, Day et al. [Acta Cryst. (2024), A80, 258–281] have shown that several topological properties of chain graphs influence the flexibility (and rigidity) of the corresponding chains of Si tetrahedra and may explain why particular compatible chain arrangements (and the minerals in which they occur) are more common than others and/or why incompatible chain arrangements do not occur in crystals despite being topologically possible.

Pseudoalteromonas fuliginea sp. PS47 is a recently identified marine bacterium that has extensive enzymatic machinery to metabolize polysaccharides, including a locus that targets pectin-like substrates. This locus contains a gene (locus tag EU509_03255) that encodes a pectin-degrading lyase, called PfPL1, that belongs to polysaccharide lyase family 1 (PL1). The 2.2 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of PfPL1 reveals the compact parallel β-helix fold of the PL1 family. The back side of the core parallel β-helix opposite to the active site is a meandering set of five α-helices joined by lengthy loops. A comparison of the active site with those of other PL1 enzymes suggests a catalytic mechanism that is independent of metal ions, such as Ca2+, but that substrate recognition may require metal ions. Overall, this work provides the first structural insight into a pectinase of marine origin and the first structure of a PL1 enzyme in subfamily 2.

Brucella ovis is an etiologic agent of ovine epididymitis and brucellosis that causes global devastation in sheep, rams, goats, small ruminants and deer. There are no cost-effective methods for the worldwide eradication of ovine brucellosis. B. ovis and other protein targets from various Brucella species are currently in the pipeline for high-throughput structural analysis at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), with the aim of identifying new therapeutic targets. Furthermore, the wealth of structures generated are effective tools for teaching scientific communication, structural science and biochemistry. One of these structures, B. ovis leucine-, isoleucine-, valine-, threonine- and alanine-binding protein (BoLBP), is a putative periplasmic amino acid-binding protein. BoLBP shares less than 29% sequence identity with any other structure in the Protein Data Bank. The production, crystallization and high-resolution structures of BoLBP are reported. BoLBP is a prototypical bacterial periplasmic amino acid-binding protein with the characteristic Venus flytrap topology of two globular domains encapsulating a large central cavity containing the peptide-binding region. The central cavity contains small molecules usurped from the crystallization milieu. The reported structures reveal the conformational flexibility of the central cavity in the absence of bound peptides. The structural similarity to other LBPs can be exploited to accelerate drug repurposing.

Animations, videos and 3D models have been designed to visualize the effects of symmetry operators on selected cases of crystal structures, pointing out the relationship with the diagrams published in International Tables for Crystallography, Vol. A.

We present a demonstration of high-pressure grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering for soft matter thin films. The results suggest changes in water reorganization at different pressures.

Rotations of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering samples during acquisition are shown to give a drastic improvement in the reliability of the characterization of anisotropic precipitates in metallic alloys.

This study proposes an operation optimization framework for impurity-free recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries. Using a hybrid population balance equation integrated with a data-driven condition classifier, the study firstly identifies the optimal batch and semi-batch operation conditions that significantly reduce the operation time with 100% purity of product; detailed guidelines are given for industrial applications.

The L-edge EXAFS of the entire set of lanthanide oxides were collected and modeled, taking into consideration the aggregation of inequivalent absorbing sites, geometric parameterization of the crystal lattice and multielectron excitation removal.

A chiral nickel(II) Schiff base complex derived from 2-hy­droxy­benzo­phenone and (1S,2S)-1,2-di­phenyl­ethyl­enedi­amine shows a λ conformation of the central di­amine chelate ring. The substituents on the C&z-dbnd;N carbon atoms significantly affect the circular dichroism spectra.

The mol­ecular and crystal structure of N-(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)picolinamide were studied and Hirshfeld surfaces and fingerprint plots were generated to investigate various inter­molecular inter­actions.