Gold nanoparticles passivated with a long chain alkanethiol decorated with a phenoxyguanidine moiety were prepared and investigated as catalysts in the cleavage of the RNA model compound HPNP and diribonucleoside monophosphates. The catalytic efficiency and the high effective molarity value of the Au monolayer protected colloids points to a high level of cooperation between the catalytic groups. © 2014 the Partner Organisations

Cardiac tissue and the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction provide two notable examples of excitable media that support scroll waves, in which a filament core is the source of spiral waves of excitation.Here we consider a novel topological configuration in which a closed filament loop, known as a scroll ring, is threaded by a pair of counter-rotating filaments that are perpendicular to the plane of the ring and end on the boundary of a thin medium. We simulate the dynamics of this threaded ring (thring) in the photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky excitable medium, using the modified Oregonator reaction-diffusion equations. These computations reveal that the threading topology induces an exotic motion in which the thring swims in the plane of the ring. We propose a light templating protocol to create a thring in the photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky medium and provide experimental confirmation that this protocol indeed yields a thring.