The body is under constant attack from oxidative stress. Oxygen in the body splits into single atoms with unpaired electrons. Electrons like to be in pairs, so these atoms, called free radicals ...

But when one goes missing, these rogue molecules—free radicals—start hunting for an electron from healthy cells. They steal it, turning those cells unstable too, triggering a chain reaction ...

Free radicals are everywhere, but are these molecules truly harmful, or is their impact overhyped? Let’s break it down.

it turns the stable molecule into a free radical. This can set in motion a chain reaction of free radical formation. Moses Gomberg studied analytical chemistry at the University of Michigan and ...

This brings us back to antioxidants. "Antioxidants are clever little molecules that come along and stop that free radical chain reaction," Dr Beckett said. "So normally if a free radical steals an ...

This, in turn, destabilizes the cell component molecules which then seek and steal an electron from another molecule, therefore triggering a large chain of free radical reactions. Every cell that ...

These radicals facilitated a self-sustaining chain reaction that promotes dehalogenation—the replacement of a halogen atom with a hydrogen atom—of organic halides. "The use of commodity ...

but turns the other molecule into a new free radical. The process continues in a chain reaction, damaging each molecule as it goes on. These reactions can alter the structure and function of ...

Regardless of the stereochemistry of the starting sugar, the radical reaction selectively makes products with an α configuration. By using a water-friendly boron-based reductant, the researchers ...