Mare volcanics on the Moon are the key record of thermo-chemical evolution throughout most of lunar history1–3. Young mare basalts—mainly distributed in a region rich in potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus (KREEP) in Oceanus Procellarum, called the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT)4—were thought to be formed from KREEP-rich sources at depth5–7. However, this hypothesis has not been tested with young basalts from the PKT. Here we present a petrological and geochemical study of the basalt clasts from the PKT returned by the Chang’e-5 mission8. These two-billion-year-old basalts are the youngest lunar samples reported so far9. Bulk rock compositions have moderate titanium and high iron contents  with KREEP-like rare-earth-element and high thorium concentrations. However, strontium–neodymium isotopes indicate that these basalts were derived from a non-KREEP mantle source. To produce the high abundances of rare-earth elements and thorium, low-degree partial melting and extensive fractional crystallization are required. Our results indicate that the KREEP association may not be a prerequisite for young mare volcanism. Absolving the need to invoke heat-producing elements in their source implies a more sustained cooling history of the lunar interior to generate the Moon’s youngest melts.

A new method was developed to fabricate nanospheres and vesicles as drug carriers. The drug-loaded nanospheres and vesicles were prepared by self-assembly of alginate in aqueous media containing Ca 2+ and CO 3 2ions under very mild conditions. The preparation method did not involve any organic solvent and surfactant and could offer good control over the morphology and the size of self-assemblies. Through adjusting the preparation conditions, nanosized drug-delivery systems with different shapes, that is, nanospheres and vesicles, could be obtained. The morphologies of the drug-delivery systems were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), an anticancer drug, was encapsulated in the nanospheres and vesicles, and in vitro drug release behavior was investigated. The effect of drug-loading content on the release was studied. The release of 5-FU could be effectively sustained from both drug-loaded nanospheres and vesicles because the presence of CaCO 3 in the nanospheres/vesicles could reduce the permeability of the entrapped drug for the alginate-based self-assemblies.

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SmCo5 based magnets with smaller size and larger maximum energy product have been long desired in various fields such as renewable energy technology, electronic industry and aerospace science. However, conventional relatively rough synthetic strategies will lead to either diminished magnetic properties or irregular morphology, which hindered their wide applications. In this article, we present a facile chemical approach to prepare 200 nm single domain SmCo5@Co core/shell magnets with coercivity of 20.7 kOe and saturation magnetization of 82 emu/g. We found that the incorporation of GO sheets is responsible for the generation of the unique structure. The single domain SmCo5 core contributes to the large coercivity of the magnets and the exchange-coupled Co shell enhances the magnetization. This method can be further utilized in the synthesis other Sm-Co based exchange-coupled magnets.

The ~25 N-terminal “HAfp” residues of the HA2 subunit of the influenza virus hemagglutinin protein are critical for fusion between the viral and endosomal membranes at low pH. Earlier studies of HAfp in detergent support (1) N-helix/turn/C-helix structure at pH 5 with open interhelical geometry and N-helix/turn/C-coil structure at pH 7; or (2) N-helix/turn/C-helix at both pHs with closed interhelical geometry. These different structures led to very different models of HAfp membrane location and different models of catalysis of membrane fusion by HAfp. In this study, the interhelical geometry of membrane-associated HAfp is probed by solid-state NMR. The data are well-fitted to a population mixture of closed and semiclosed structures. The two structures have similar interhelical geometries and are planar with hydrophobic and hydrophilic faces. The different structures of HAfp in detergent vs membrane could be due to the differences in interaction with the curved micelle vs flat membrane with better geometric matching between the closed and semiclosed structures and the membrane. The higher fusogenicity of longer sequences and low pH is correlated with hydrophobic surface area and consequent increased membrane perturbation.

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The synthesis and structure of an 8-coordinate Fe(ii) compound [Fe(L1)](ClO) (1) with a [FeNO] core are reported. 1 exhibits uni-axial anisotropy for which a slow magnetic relaxation is observed under 1.4 kOe dc field. It is the first example of an 8-coordinate Fe(ii) complex exhibiting field-induced single-molecule magnet (SMM) behaviour.

Rotational-echo double-resonance (REDOR) solid-state NMR is applied to probe the membrane locations of specific residues of membrane proteins. Couplings are measured between protein 13CO nuclei and membrane lipid or cholesterol 2H and 31P nuclei. Specific 13CO labeling is used to enable unambiguous assignment and 2H labeling covers a small region of the lipid or cholesterol molecule. The 13CO-31P and 13CO-2H REDOR respectively probe proximity to the membrane headgroup region and proximity to specific insertion depths within the membrane hydrocarbon core. One strength of the REDOR approach is use of chemically-native proteins and membrane components. The conventional REDOR pulse sequence with 100 kHz 2H π pulses is robust with respect to the 2H quadrupolar anisotropy. The 2H T1’s are comparable to the longer dephasing times (τ’s) and this leads to exponential rather than sigmoidal REDOR buildups. The 13CO-2H buildups are well-fitted to A × (1 − e−γτ) where A and γ are fitting parameters that are correlated as the fraction of molecules (A) with effective 13CO-2H coupling d = 3γ/2. The REDOR approach is applied to probe the membrane locations of the “fusion peptide” regions of the HIV gp41 and influenza virus hemagglutinin proteins which both catalyze joining of the viral and host cell membranes during initial infection of the cell. The HIV fusion peptide forms an intermolecular antiparallel β sheet and the REDOR data support major deeply-inserted and minor shallowly-inserted molecular populations. A significant fraction of the influenza fusion peptide molecules form a tight hairpin with antiparallel N- and C- α helices and the REDOR data support a single peptide population with a deeply-inserted N-helix. The shared feature of deep insertion of the β and α fusion peptide structures may be relevant for fusion catalysis via the resultant local perturbation of the membrane bilayer. Future applications of the REDOR approach may include samples that contain cell membrane extracts and use of lower temperatures and dynamic nuclear polarization to reduce data acquisition times.