Chemistry
- Chemistry
Chemists turned plastic waste into tiny bars of soap
Researchers developed a process to turn plastic waste into surfactants, the key ingredients in dozens of products, including soap.
- Chemistry
Magnetic ‘rusty’ nanoparticles pull estrogen out of water
Iron oxide particles adorned with “sticky” molecules trap estrogen in water, possibly limiting the hormone’s harmful effects on aquatic life.
- Chemistry
How Benjamin Franklin fought money counterfeiters
Researchers are confirming some of the techniques that Benjamin Franklin and his associates used to help early American paper currency succeed.
- Chemistry
Tear-resistant rubbery materials could pave the way for tougher tires
Adding easy-to-break molecular connectors surprisingly makes materials harder to tear and could one day reduce microplastic pollution from car tires.
- Life
1.6-billion-year-old steroid fossils hint at a lost world of microbial life
Molecular fossils suggest the existence of a lost world of primitive eukaryotes that dominated aquatic ecosystems from at least 1.6 billion to 0.8 billion years ago.
- Chemistry
One photon is all it takes to kick off photosynthesis
A single particle of light is the spark that begins the process of turning light to chemical energy in photosynthetic bacteria, a new study confirms.
- Chemistry
19th century painters may have primed their canvases with beer-brewing leftovers
Several paintings from the Danish Golden Age contain remnants of brewer’s yeast, barley and other grains commonly used to brew beer.
- Life
Microwaving an insecticide restores its mosquito-killing power
Heated deltamethrin kills mosquitoes resistant to its usual form. Scientists are working to add the improved insecticide into bed nets.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists may have found an antidote for death cap mushrooms
A dye countered the effects of a mushroom toxin in human cells and mice. If the antidote does the same in people, it has potential to save lives.
- Animals
The Sonoran Desert toad can alter your mind — it’s not the only animal
Their psychedelic and other potentially mind-bending compounds didn't evolve to give people a trip.
- Life
Ancient giant eruptions may have seeded nitrogen needed for life
A new study bolsters the idea that on the young Earth volcanic lightning may have provided some materials that made it possible for life to emerge.
- Genetics
What was Rosalind Franklin’s true role in the discovery of DNA’s double helix?
Two researchers say that Rosalind Franklin knowingly collaborated with James Watson and Francis Crick to discover the molecular structure of DNA.
