Cold-adaptation strategies have been studied in multiple psychrophilic organisms, especially for psychrophilic enzymes. Decreased enzyme activity caused by low temperatures as well as a higher viscosity of the aqueous environment require certain adaptations to the metabolic machinery of the cell. In addition to this, low temperature has deleterious effects on the lipid bilayer of bacterial memb...

At low micromolar concentrations, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) alter the function of many membrane proteins. PUFAs exert their effects on unrelated proteins at similar concentrations, suggesting a common mode of action. Because lipid bilayers serve as the common "solvent" for membrane proteins, the common mechanism could be that PUFAs adsorb to the bilayer/solution interface to promote a...

General anesthetics have revolutionized medicine by facilitating invasive procedures, and have thus become essential drugs. However, detailed understanding of their molecular mechanisms remains elusive. A mechanism proposed over a century ago involving unspecified interactions with the lipid bilayer known as the unitary lipid-based hypothesis of anesthetic action, has been challenged by evidenc...

Graphene aerogels (GAs) are functionalized with Fe-Co-P alloy using an electro-deposition method. The Fe-Co-P alloy coated on the graphene nanosheets is found to possess an amorphous structure and a nanoporous architecture of GAs. The electro-mechanical properties of GAs are significantly affected by the Fe-Co-P nanoparticles embedded inside GAs. The electro-mechanical responses of GA/Fe-Co-P n...

Electroporation is characterized by formation of structural changes within the cell membrane, which are caused by the presence of electrical field. It is believed that "pores" are mostly formed in lipid bilayer structure; if so, planar lipid bilayer represents a suitable model for experimental and theoretical studies of cell membrane electroporation. The breakdown voltage of the lipid bilayer i...

A new model is proposed to explain coiling of myelins composed of fluid bilayers. This model allows the constituent bilayer cylinders of a myelin to be non-coaxial and the bilayer lateral tension to vary from bilayer to bilayer. The calculations show that a myelin would bend or coil to lower its free energy when the bilayer lateral tension is sufficiently large. From a mechanical point of view,...

A. F. Young, C. R. Dean, 3 I. Meric, S. Sorgenfrei, H. Ren, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, J. Hone, K. L. Shepard, and P. Kim Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA Advanced Materials Labo...

Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China Advanced Light Source Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA Earth Sciences Division, Lawr...

Crystalline GaN films can be grown even on amorphous substrates with the use of graphene buffer layers by pulsed sputtering deposition (PSD). The graphene buffer layers allowed us to grow highly c-axisoriented GaN films at low substrate temperatures. Full-color GaN-based LEDs can be fabricated on the GaN/graphene structures and they are operated successfully. This indicates that the present tec...