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Scientists have perfected the web

11.08.2009

Employees of the Institute for Physics of Microstructures in Halle (Germany) managed to strengthen one of the most durable natural materials - the web.

This protein thread can withstand a greater load than a steel wire of the same diameter. By introducing zinc, aluminum or titanium ions into the web, physicists have achieved an increase in its strength by another 3-4 times.

According to the authors of the study, the metals form strong cross-links between the protein strands in the web. Since chemists are now trying to synthesize man-made fibers with cobweb properties, the new invention could be tested on these fibers.

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Bacteria to turn sugars into synthetic oil 25.11.2021

American biochemists have created a strain of E. coli that can produce biofuels using various sugars as raw materials.

"We have created a two-step biochemical process whereby glucose can be directly converted into unsaturated hydrocarbons using living and non-living catalysts. Biofuel production in this way will bring humanity closer to the creation of a full-fledged green energy," said Wang Zhen, associate professor at the University at Buffalo and one of the authors of the study. .

Over the past decades, scientists have come up with several methods for converting plant biomass into fuel. As a rule, it is produced in several stages with the participation of fungi and different types of bacteria. These fuels can be used, but they are quite expensive to produce, and they are inferior to gasoline in terms of energy intensity.

Wang Zhen and her colleagues proposed to solve this problem with the help of bacteria that can directly convert vegetable raw materials and the sugars contained in it into a mixture of unsaturated hydrocarbons, which are similar in composition and properties to gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products.

To do this, scientists have built into the genome of the common E. coli four genes with "instructions" for the production of enzymes that gradually convert glucose and other sugars into fatty acids. Specialists selected these proteins in such a way that they did not interfere with the work of all other cellular systems associated with the synthesis of fats, so they did not threaten the life of microbes.

All these enzymes were borrowed from the genomes of other bacteria, in particular, the pathogenic microbe Treponema denticola, associated with the development of periodontitis. Biochemists adapted these proteins to work with each other, and then tested whether the E. coli they created could turn sugar into an analogue of gasoline and other petroleum products.

Experiments have shown that one more component is needed for its production - a catalyst based on niobium oxide. It converts fatty acids into unsaturated hydrocarbons. In combination with microbes, this catalyst can convert about 8% of the initial mass of glucose into a biological analogue of oil.

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