2007-12-31 - Polymer glasses are versatile plastics widely used in applications ranging from aircraft windshields to DVDs.

2007-12-31 - Professor Scott Silverman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois was recently selected as a 2007 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Silverman was recognized for fundamental studies into the chemistry of nucleic acids, including the development of novel, DNA-based catalysts and new probes of RNA struc-ture.

2007-12-31 - In a familiar high-school chemistry demonstration, an instructor first uses electricity to split liquid water into its constituent gases, hydrogen and oxygen.

2007-12-31 - A new catalyst-free, self-healing material system developed by researchers at the University of Illinois offers a far less expensive and far more practical way to repair composite materials used in structural applications ranging from airplane fuselages to wind-farm propeller blades.

2007-12-31 - Using an extremely sensitive measurement technique, researchers at the University of Illinois have found clear evidence that a lead-specific DNAzyme uses the “lock and key” reaction mechanism. In the presence of zinc or magnesium, however, the same DNAzyme uses the “induced fit” reaction mechanism, similar to that used by ribozymes.

2007-12-31 - Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple, disposable sensor for detecting hazardous uranium ions, with sensitivity that rivals the performance of much more sophisticated laboratory instruments.

2007-12-31 - The inventors of self-healing plastic have come up with another invention: a new way of doing chemistry.

2007-12-31 - The next generation of self-healing materials, invented by researchers at the University of Illinois, mimics human skin by healing itself time after time.

2007-12-31 - Dr. Jeffrey Moore and coworkers have developed a fundamentally different way of initiating or accelerating a reaction. In the March 22 issue of Nature (Volume 446 Number 7134 page 423) they report the use of force to deform reacting molecules along a specific direction of the reaction coordinate. You may watch on-line videos of the investigators describing their ground breaking work, download a...

2007-12-31 - Paul C. Lauterbur, University of Illinois professor of chemistry who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2003 for his pioneering work in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, died March 27, 2007 at his home in Urbana, Ill. Lauterbur was 77 years old.

2007-12-31 - Professor Paul J. Hergenrother of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois was recently chosen to receive the 2008 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry. This award is granted: "For outstanding research in biological chemistry of unusual merit and independence of thought and originality. This award recognizes Professor Hergenrother's application of chemical principles to the...

2007-12-31 - The National Institutes of Health has awarded $7 million to a team of researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin to discover, engineer and produce a promising – yet little explored – class of antibiotic agents.

2007-12-31 - Like navigating spacecraft through the solar system by means of gravity and small propulsive bursts, researchers can guide atoms, molecules and chemical reactions by utilizing the forces that bind nuclei and electrons into molecules (analogous to gravity) and by using light for propulsion.

2007-12-31 - Professor John Hartwig of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois was recently chosen to receive the 2008 Paul N. Rylander Award from the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society. Hartwig was recognized for developing a series of catalytic reactions for organic syn-thesis, including palladium-catalyzed aminations of haloarenes, palladium-catalyzed α-arylation of...

2007-12-31 - Professor John Hartwig of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois was recently awarded the 2007 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences - Chemistry.