Cellphones, computers and other omnipresent portable electronic devices owe their existence to the continuous miniaturization of electronic circuits, which begun with the invention of the transistor, in 1947. Responsible for turning on and off or amplifying an electrical current, the transistors replaced the big and fragile vacuum tubes that made the first digital computers occupy whole rooms of even whole buildings.

The ingestion of lipids, oils and fats, provides essential ingredients to our metabolism. The worries about several cardiovascular diseases caused by the excessive consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol from animal origin, though, have prompted the development of alternative sources of lipids.

Graphene – a thin membrane formed by one or two atom-thick layers of carbon – is considered one of the future building blocks of nanotechnology. Gaining tremendous attention in the last years, graphene and graphene-based material combinations such as graphene/boron nitride find potential applications in optical and opto-electronic devices.

In traditional and indigenous communities, plants are used for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases and are discovered throughout the years by trial and error, or, more precisely, by live and death.

The active substances in those plants have drawn the interest of the medical and scientific communities, especially for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases, including snakebites for which the mortality rate is higher than that of dengue fever, cholera or Chagas disease.

Polymer-mesoporous hybrid materials are an exciting class of materials for a wide range of applications, from controlled release to heterogeneous catalysis or solar cells. The charge and isoelectric point of a membrane play a key role in its mesopore accessibility, and through the control of these features, mesoporous materials are able to regulate transport of charged species. Generating hybrid mesoporous materials by surface-initiated polymerization, thus designing specifically transporting membranes, is a fascinating path toward mimicking controlled transport in nature.

Citrus canker is a disease that has severe economic impact on the citrus industry worldwide. There are three types of canker, called A, B, and C. The three types have different phenotypes and affect different citrus species. The causative agent for type A is Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri, whose genome sequence was made available in 2002 [1]. Bacterial cells are continuously interacting with other bacterial and eukaryotic cells in a battle for survival. These interactions have driven the evolution of several mechanisms by which they quickly deploy proteinaceous and nucleic acid effectors that manipulate the behaviour of the target organism, often resulting in growth inhibition or death.

It is known that proteins are far from equilibrium during folding reactions, and they undergo a wide range of conformational states to reach the global folding minimum. Various physical and chemical strategies, such as the use of high temperature, high pressure, protonation, altered ionic strength, and harsh de- naturants, are commonly used to disturb folding species to promote the formation of rarely observed folding intermediates.

Nanotechnology presents a very fast growth owing to a vast number of applications. In medicine, for example, it is possible to envisage a strong improvement in the efficiency of the magnetic resonance imaging or in the development of non-conventional diagnostics or therapies. The pace of development of the area is strongly dependent on the improvement of synthesis routes, which would allow producing, in a controlled way, new materials capable to act in the intracellular environment.

Infections and several diseases caused by resistant micro-organisms in which the conventional treatment often fails result in prolonged illness and greater risks of death. The inappropriate and irrational use of antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs can lead to resistant microorganisms and provide them with favorable conditions to emerge, spread, and persist. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a high percentage of hospital-acquired infections are caused by highly resistant bacteria and 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis emerge annually, causing at least 150 000 deaths.