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Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
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Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
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Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.
John Gurak
The national conversation about sustainability usually includes topics like renewable energy, recycling, and carbon emissions. But when biochemistry senior John Gurak talks about sustainability, his focus is something else entirely: flavin catalysis.
Flavin catalysis is an environmentally friendly way of producing heterocyclic compounds, or heterocycles. While heterocycles are used in many fields, including pharmaceutical development and light-emitting diode manufacturing, the traditional chemical processes that produce them demand a lot of energy and have significant environmental impact. Flavin catalysis offers a metal-free alternative, as it operates at room temperature and uses air as fuel.
Gurak is currently working with Frank Foss, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, on adapting riboflavin as a catalyst in the production of heterocycles. Their work falls into the area of “green chemistry,” an emerging field that seeks to reduce or eliminate the use and production of hazardous substances in chemistry.
“Green chemistry is a step toward a sustainable future,” Gurak says. “By implementing it whenever possible, we can effect a significant decrease in the amount of environmental pollution.”
For his research, Gurak was one of 33 scholars nationwide to be awarded a Greater Research Opportunities Fellowship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Center for Environmental Research. He also interned at an EPA lab over the summer.
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By studying the genomes of such diverse creatures as pigeons, pythons, and beetles, UT Arlington biologists are uncovering insights about what makes us human.
