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Single molecule images obtained by high resolution atomic force microscopy. The selective and reversible structure of the molecule in the middle can be converted to the structure on the right or on the left, with a voltage pulse applied from the tip of the scanning probe microscope. Credit: Leo Gross/IBM A team of researchers from IBM Research Europe, the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and the University of Regensburg have changed the bonds between atoms in a molecule for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Science , the group explained their method and its possible uses. Igor Alabugin and Chaowei Hu, have published Perspectives in the same issue of the journal outlining the work carried out by the team. Current methods for making complex molecules or molecular devices, as Alagugin and Chaowei note, are generally quite challenging—they liken it to throwing a box of Legos in the washing machine hoping for some usefu

Graphical representation of phase transitions. Credit: Koen Pieterse In Science TU/e researchers have published their study of new phase transitions of solutions and gels in water, which seem to contradict the basic principles of chemistry, and which they discovered by accident. In chemistry, hydrogels turn into liquids by diluting them with water. For the reverse transition, you increase the hydrogel concentration. However, TU/e ​​researchers led by Bert Meijer accidentally discovered that their liquid solution turned into a hydrogel when diluted. This phenomenon has never been studied or described before and can have consequences in many fields in chemistry and biology. This study focuses on the formation of certain hydrogels. This means that it starts with an aqueous solution of, in this case, two substances (a surfactant and a monomer). Research shows that gels form at a certain ratio of these two substances in water. This gel