Chemistry

Precisely defined polymer chains now a reality

Paves way for unfathomable materials<p>Manufactured polymers are ubiquitous in our 21st Century lives. The large molecules - long chains of smaller …

Short Chemistry Topics

Blogging time is tight today, but there are several interesting stories and follow-ups that I wanted to mention. For starters, I wrote here about a …

Hope to discover sure signs of life on Mars? New research says look for the element vanadium

The search for biology on neighbor planet Mars won't play out like a Hollywood movie starring little green men. Rather, many scientists agree if …

Practice Using the Periodic Table to Find Element Facts

National Science Foundation gives $1.2 million to bolster high school chemistry in Baltimore

The National Science Foundation is providing $1.2 million to help bolster the chemistry curriculum in Baltimore and transform how it is taught in the …

What Are Physical Changes in Chemstry?

Physical Change Definition<p>A physical change is a type of change in which the form of matter is altered but one substance is not transformed into …

Engineers 3-D print high-strength aluminum, solve ages-old welding problem using nanoparticles

Because melting and solidification in additive manufacturing is analogous to welding, HRL's nanoparticle functionalization can also be used to make …

(Almost) Everything You Know About Metabolism Is Wrong

Most of us have a deeply flawed understanding of metabolism. If you need proof of that, Google “how metabolism works” and watch as page after page of …

New microscope technology gives researchers a detailed look at structure and composition of materials

The high sensitivity of the new camera means that it can probe a material more gently, exposing it to a lower dose of electrons, than other …

Will federal safety panel ban toxic flame retardants in household products?

Manufacturers long ago stopped adding a cancer-causing flame retardant to children's pajamas, but federal officials failed to ban the chemical during the late 1970s and as recently as five years ago it was the most widely used fire-resistant compound in household furniture.<p>Scientists and health …

Halogen bonding-mediated metal-free controlled cationic polymerization

Chemists at the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) report a metal-free method to control cationic polymerization that provides a new framework …

Ageing star blows off smoky bubble

Astronomers have used ALMA to capture a strikingly beautiful view of a delicate bubble of expelled material around the exotic red star U Antliae. …

Europe urged to reconsider pullout from 'Armageddon' asteroid mission

But the methods must be tested and refined with real-life practice runs to prepare for "if we actually have to deflect an asteroid some day."<p>"We have …

Pulling, not pushing, silk could revolutionize how greener materials are manufactured

New insights into how animals spin silk could lead to new, greener ways of producing synthetic fibres, according to academics at the University of …

Physicists Just Cracked The Problem of Stabilising a Totally New Kind of Particle

We've never seen this before.<p>Scientists have discovered the existence of a type of particle that's never previously been observed, which demonstrates …

Researchers produce first 2-D field-effect transistor made of a single material

Modern life would be almost unthinkable without transistors. They are the ubiquitous building blocks of all electronic devices, and each computer …

New technique promises tunable laser devices

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are used to make tiny micro-lasers, sensors, switches, routers and other devices. These tiny structures rely …

Hope Diamond - the science of diamonds

From an interview with Jeffrey Post, Curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection of the Smithsonian Institution:<p>"People are so excited about …

Tie Your Crystals Into Knots

Chemists love crystals. We don’t do as much recrystallization as we used to, since there are higher-throughput (and less labor-intensive) ways of …

An Atmosphere of Heavy Metals

<i>Researchers have found strong evidence of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of a hot giant planet, adding new insights to the complex motions of these</i> …

Copper catalyst yields high efficiency CO2-to-fuels conversion: Critical role of nanoparticle transformation discovered

Critical role of nanoparticle transformation discovered<p>Scientists have developed a new electrocatalyst that can directly convert carbon dioxide into …

What Molarity Means (With Examples)

In chemistry, molarity is a concentration unit, defined to be the number of moles of solute divided by the number of liters of solution.<p>Units of …

Researchers Discovery Could Mean Improved Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities

A group of researchers from Indiana University has found a way that could revolutionize the long-term storage possibilities for nuclear waste. In the …

New Research Takes Us Another Step Closer to a Hydrogen-Fuelled Future

We need this.<p>Hydrogen has huge potential as a clean energy source, but so far we haven't been able to make fuel cells cheaply or efficiently enough. …

This pretty blue fog only happens in warm champagne

And illustrates some fundamentals of physics.<p>Not many people are into room-temperature champagne. Most of us like our bubbly chilled, but if we weren’t so invested in refrigeration, we might have seen the blue fog sooner. Oops.<p>Thankfully, there’s an entire field of research in France devoted to …

Link About It: The Lightest Form Of Water Yet Discovered: Gel-like Ice

It may come as a surprise to most that there's not just one type of ice. In fact, there are 17—varying substantially in structure and weight—and an 18th "in development." Only two types appear naturally on Earth, the common hexagonal version and upper-atmosphere cubic ice, but scientists have been …

A new efficient and portable electrocaloric cooling device

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the University of California and SRI International has developed a new type of cooling device that is both …

New insights into nanocrystal growth in liquid

One of the first things the team found was that the attraction between two pieces of mica rose and fell as the faces twisted relative to each other, …

Ice mined on Mars could provide water for humans exploring space

As humans spread out across the Earth, the locations of new colonies were driven by the accessibility of resources: not only food and water, but also …

Study paves the way for creating on and off buttons for chemical reactions

UCLA physicists have pioneered a method for creating a unique new molecule that could eventually have applications in medicine, food science and …