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Tasks to be completed and brought into your first Biology lesson (tasks start on page 6). All tasks are aimed to help you make the leap from GCSE to A level

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Autism has been in the news this week. This scientific article explains what we do and don't know

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Trump links autism and Tylenol: is there any truth to it?

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During an announcment Monday, the US president repeatedly advised people, “Don’t take Tylenol,” but scientists say that strong evidence between the medication and autism is lacking.

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A new treatment using gene therapy. An interesting read!

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A global clinical trial for a new Huntington's disease treatment has posted positive results today, announced by trial sponsor uniQure and UCL scientists.
More about Huntington's disease About the treatment
The neurosurgeries for the UK arm of the trial were conducted in Cardiff at the University Hospital Wales, by a team led by Professor Liam Gray at the Advanced NeuroTherapies Centre with Cardiff University, and funded by Health and Care Research Wales.

Links

Image

Professors Ed Wild and Sarah Tabrizi in a UCL lab.

Media contact

Chris Lane

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9222 / +44 (0)7717 728 648

Email: chris.lane [at] ucl.ac.uk

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Gene therapy appears to slow Huntington's disease progression

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A global clinical trial for a new Huntington's disease treatment has posted positive results today, announced by trial sponsor uniQure and UCL scientists.

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A really interesting read about animal evolution

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Why cells started sticking together could help explain how animals first evolved

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A recent study by Ruibao Li and Jennah Dharamshi published in Nature may help us understand the beginnings of animal evolution billions of years ago. These findings are the result of a collaboration among researchers at Indiana University Bloomington, the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain and Uppsala University in Sweden, and were led by J. P. Gerdt and Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo.

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A great series looking at how out planet has and is changing, and what we can do to help

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Our Changing Planet - Restoring Our Reefs

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As part of a seven-year series on the planet’s most threatened ecosystems, this third episode takes an in-depth look at efforts to save coral reefs.

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Physics is awesome...

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A good read, stupid questions with Scientific answers!

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How many legs does it take to escape a predator? - Science Journal for Kids and Teens

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Researchers wanted to learn whether using two legs instead of four helps jumping rodents escape their predators.

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The Deadliest Being on Planet Earth – The Bacteriophage

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A range of resources to get you thinking about advanced Chemistry

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This could be the cure to multiple genetic diseases!

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Babies from three people’s DNA prevents heriditary disease

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The method was pioneered by UK scientists to overcome devastating, often fatal inherited diseases.

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Ever wondered how rainbows form?

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A news article based on a human skull found which may rewrite the evolutionary history of humans

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There are two ways to pinpoint the species of an early human and work out when it walked the Earth - analysing the shape of the skull and its genetic data. In the case of Yunxian 2 both methods were used, and each came to the same conclusion.

But other researchers, such as Dr Aylwyn Scally, an evolutionary geneticist at Cambridge University, say there are considerable uncertainties in both methods.

"One has to be particularly tentative about the the timing estimates, because those are very difficult to do, regardless of what evidence you're looking at, be that genetic or fossil evidence," he said.

"Even with the largest amount of genetic data, it is very difficult to place a time when these populations may have coexisted to within 100,000 years, or or even more."

He added that while Profs Ni and Stringer's conclusions were plausible, they were far from certain, and that more evidence was needed to be sure.

"That picture is still quite unclear to us, so if the conclusions of this research are supported by other analyses, ideally from some genetic data, then I think we would start to be increasingly confident about it," he told BBC News.

The earliest known evidence for early Homo sapiens in Africa is 300,000 years ago, so it is tempting to conclude that our species might have evolved first in Asia.

But there is not enough evidence to be sure at this stage, according to Prof Stringer, because there are human fossils in Africa and Europe that are also a million years old that need to be incorporated into the analysis.

"There is some genetic evidence that points to the even earlier emergence of our species which may have recombined with our lineage, but this is not yet proven," he told BBC News.

The earlier timeline means that the three species of humans co-existed on the planet for around 800,000 years, much longer than previously thought, perhaps interacting and interbreeding in that time.

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Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, say scientists

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New analysis suggests our species began to emerge at least half a million years earlier than we thought

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Chemists that may rewrite textbooks and change drug development

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Chemists that may rewrite textbooks and change drug development

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LOS ANGELES - In a discovery that's sending ripples through the chemistry world, UCLA scientists have proven that a fundamental rule of organic chemistry - one that has held back researchers for 100 years - isn't as unbreakable as everyone thought. The breakthrough could open new paths for drug development and pharmaceutical research.

The rule in question, known as Bredt's rule, has been chemistry gospel since 1924. It's like telling architects they can never build a certain type of bridge because the laws of physics won't allow it. But now, UCLA researchers have not only built that "impossible" bridge - they've shown others how to do it too.

"People aren't exploring anti-Bredt olefins because they think they can't," says Neil Garg, UCLA's Kenneth N. Trueblood Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who led the research, in a media release. "We shouldn't have rules like this - or if we have them, they should only exist with the constant reminder that they're guidelines, not rules. It destroys creativity when we have rules that supposedly can't be overcome."

To understand why this matters, imagine organic molecules as tiny 3D structures, like molecular Lego builds. These structures often contain what chemists call "double bonds" between carbon atoms. According to the traditional rules, these double bonds must lie flat - like a tabletop - and can't exist in certain twisted positions within the molecule. Bredt's rule specifically said you couldn't put these double bonds at certain junction points in more complex molecular structures.

However, Garg's team found a way around this limitation. Using a clever chemical strategy, they created these supposedly impossible structures by treating specific molecules (called silyl pseudohalides) with fluoride. Because these "forbidden" structures are highly unstable - think of a house of cards in a windstorm - the team also developed a way to "trap" them, making them useful for further chemical reactions. The implications could be significant for drug development.

"There's a big push in the pharmaceutical industry to develop chemical reactions that give three-dimensional structures like ours because they can be used to discover new medicines," Garg explains.

The research, published in the prestigious journal , was a team effort involving UCLA graduate students and postdoctoral scholars Luca McDermott, Zachary Walters, Sarah French, Allison Clark, Jiaming Ding, and Andrew Kelleghan, along with computational chemistry expert Ken Houk.

This discovery serves as a powerful reminder that in science, even our most trusted rules sometimes need revisiting. After all, as the UCLA team has shown, sometimes breaking the rules can lead to breakthrough discoveries.

Paper Summary

Methodology

In this study, the researchers aimed to synthesize and trap anti-Bredt olefins (ABOs), a highly reactive and traditionally unstable type of molecule. They used a novel approach involving specially designed precursors treated with fluoride sources, which enabled the in-situ formation of ABOs.

They conducted these reactions in the presence of various trapping agents to stabilize and capture the ABOs for analysis. Additionally, they applied computational models to predict and confirm the structures and reactivities of ABOs, using density functional theory (DFT) to understand the unique geometric distortions these molecules undergo.

Key Results

The study successfully generated ABOs and showed they could be trapped and stabilized using specific chemicals. The results indicated that ABOs are more reactive due to the unusual shapes of their bonds. The team created several different ABOs, each with unique structures, and was able to confirm that these molecules could lead to the creation of complex new compounds. This achievement challenges the long-standing belief that ABOs could not be easily made or used in chemical reactions.

Study Limitations

First, the synthesis of ABOs requires precise conditions, including specific temperature and chemical combinations, which might limit its practical applications. Additionally, the computational models, while robust, may still have limitations in predicting all possible behaviors of ABOs. Lastly, the stability of ABOs remains a challenge, as they are still prone to decomposition outside of controlled environments.

Discussion & Takeaways

This research provides new insights into how ABOs, previously considered inaccessible, can be created and used in chemical synthesis. The success of this approach not only challenges Bredt's rule - a long-held guideline in organic chemistry - but also opens doors for creating complex compounds that may have applications in pharmaceuticals and materials science. This study highlights the potential of leveraging distorted geometries in organic compounds to unlock new reactivity and applications.

Funding & Disclosures

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Chemists break 100-year-old rule that may rewrite textbooks and change drug development

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Scientists have proven that a fundamental rule of organic chemistry isn't as unbreakable as everyone thought. Here's what it could mean for future medicines.

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Recent key advances in chemistry could tackle emissions from the world’s most polluting industries

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Recent key advances in chemistry could tackle emissions from the world’s most polluting industries

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Advances in chemistry unlock new pathways for industrial carbon capture, new research finds

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Recent key advances in chemistry could tackle emissions from the world’s most polluting industries.

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A Japanese research team successfully harnessed E. coli to produce PDCA, a strong, biodegradable plastic alternative. Their method avoids toxic byproducts and achieves record production levels, overcoming key roadblocks with creative fixes.

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A Japanese research team successfully harnessed E. coli to produce PDCA, a strong, biodegradable plastic alternative. Their method avoids toxic byproducts and achieves record production levels, overcoming key roadblocks with creative fixes.

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Scientists create biodegradable plastic stronger than PET

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A Japanese research team successfully harnessed E. coli to produce PDCA, a strong, biodegradable plastic alternative. Their method avoids toxic byproducts and achieves record production levels, overcoming key roadblocks with creative fixes.

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A list of Chemistry related books for additional reading

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A list of Chemistry related books for additional reading

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This is an update on a previously written blog post about some wider reading for Chemistry. I have added on several new books written in the last few years. The newer books are highlighted in bold.…

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Listen to this podcast on how technology is changing our biology. Some very interesting ideas

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📱 How Technology Is Changing Our Biology with Dr. Marios Kyriazis

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Podcast Episode · The A Level Biologist Podcasts · 20 September 2023 · 51min

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Have a look at the top 10 medical breakthroughs over the last year! What will be next?

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The 10 Biggest Medical Achievements of This Year

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Information about the AQA A-Level Chemistry course set up and the transition tasks to complete during Summer

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AQA Transition to A-Level Chemistry tasks

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A video discussing chemical reactions that had a significant impact on history

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6 Chemical Reactions That Changed History

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Something to do...

Read through the booklet and complete the tasks

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Pick one of the books above, or another book of your choice. Read it, and write a short review.