Chemistry of Lipid Membranes from Models to Living Systems: A Perspective of Hydration, Surface Potential, Curvature, Confinement and Heterogeneity.

Lipid membranes provide diverse and essential functions in our cells relating to transport, energy harvesting and signaling. This variety of functions is controlled by the molecular architecture, such as the presence of hydrating water, specific chemical compounds and microscopic structures, such as the local membrane curvature, as well as macroscopic properties, such as the fluidity of the membrane. To understand the chemistry of membranes, ideally one needs access to multiple length scales simultaneously, using probes that are noninvasive, label-free and membrane-interface specific.

The Jones-Ray Effect Is Not Caused by Surface-Active Impurities.

Pure aqueous electrolyte solutions display a minimum in surface tension at concentrations of 2 ± 1 mM. This effect has been a source of controversy since it was first reported by Jones and Ray in the 1930s. The Jones-Ray effect has frequently been dismissed as an artifact linked to the presence of surface-active impurities.

Comment on "Water-water correlations in electrolyte solutions probed by hyper-Rayleigh scattering" [J. Chem. Phys. 147, 214505 (2017)].

The work by Shelton [J. Chem. Phys.