The ABO system may date back 20 million years or more, a genetic analysis suggests. (p. 10)

The gas doesn’t dissolve well in minerals deep inside Earth, a discovery that may explain why it’s also scarce in the atmosphere. (p. 9)

Metal nanoparticles trigger cell's own death machinery. (p. 8)

Molecular structure explains how ‘arsenic life’ bacteria instead survive by fishing out phosphate from their surroundings. (p. 14)

With the latest observation of a superheavy atom, a chemical catfight looms over who will get to name it.

When a group of women in Lisbon, Portugal, entered a cooking contest in 2006, they decided to put their own spin on a Portuguese fish soup. The team created green fettuccine from gelatin flavored with coriander and garlic, meant to mimic an algae bed. Egg yolk–sized spheres, made of algae extract and filled with fish soup, nestled on top. The contestants had been asked to apply ideas from molecular gastronomy, a field exploring the science of cooking. In 2007, the Lisbon team founded a molecular gastronomy company called Cooking.Lab. The group educates chefs and the public about the field,... (p. 32)