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In a recent publication (Cameron and coworkers, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2019), the Olson Lab demonstrates for the first time that psychedelic microdosing—the practice of administering subhallucinogenic doses on a chronic, intermittent schedule—may reduce depression and ease anxiety.  This work suggests that the hallucinogenic properties of psychedelic compounds like DMT might not be necessary for their therapeutic effects.

The zeolite RHO structure is unusually flexible in response to guest molecule occupancy. Gas absorption calorimetry determined the energetics of H₂O and CO₂ interaction with the framework as a function of loading from near zero coverage to saturation for several cation exchanged zeolite RHO materials. Framework flexibility and an associated “gate opening” phase transition from the dehydrated acentric form to the hydrated centric form during water absorption are clearly detected and quantified. The interactions with CO₂ are weaker than with H₂O.

The Kauzlarich lab (Perez and coworkers, Inorganic Chemistry) has recently reported the synthesis, low-temperature thermoelectric properties, structures, and composition of the type-I Clathrates K₈E₈Ge₃₈ (E = Al, Ga, In) using KH, E, and Ge. K₈E₈Ge₃₈ shows significant thermoelectric (zT) improvement over the Si analog (K₈AI₈Si₃₈) due to a reduced electrical resistivity. This work points towards more sustainable cost-effective materials for optimal thermoelectric performance.

In a recent publication in Cell Chemical Biology (Monteleone and coworkers, A Bump-Hole Approach for Directed RNA Editing, 2018) the Beal and Fisher labs describe a site directed-RNA editing system with reduced off-target activity.  A variety of systems have been developed to direct reactions that change nucleic acid sequences, either in DNA (genome editing) or in RNA (transcriptome editing) and these systems are trans

Deep understanding of the factors controlling reactivity and selectivity for chemical reactions empowers chemists to control product distributions and design reactions with desired outcomes. The work described here provides a recipe for designing reactions with post-transition-state bifurcations (PTSBs)—reactions in which a single transition state leads directly to two (or more) products.

A recent collaboration among the groups of Ken Goodson and Eric Pop at Stanford University and of Davide Donadio at UC Davis developed a device, which thermal conductance can be modulated reversibly by a factor 10x in few minutes by electrochemical intercalation. This nanoscale switch is made of several layers of MoS2, and its thermal conductance has been measured at in operando conditions.