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Boron

  • The molecular structure of an engineered enzyme that allows bacteria to build compounds containing boron-carbon bonds, which no known life form was able to do previously
    Biology
    Engineered bacteria learn to bond boron and carbon for the first time
    A Caltech team has bred bacteria that can make boron-carbon bonds, which were previously only possible in the lab. That ability opens up the range of chemical compounds that bacteria could create, paving the way for easier and more environmentally-friendly production of drugs and other chemicals.
  • The first experimental evidence has shown that clusters of 40 boron atoms form a molecular cage similar to the carbon buckyball (Image: Wang lab / Brown University)
    Science
    Borospherene bounces into buckyball family
    Buckyballs (or Buckminsterfullerene), the soccer ball-like structures of 60 carbon atoms, have a new playmate. Previously only theorized, researchers from Brown University in the US and Shanxi and Tsinghua Universities in China have been the first to experimentally observe a boron "buckyball."