Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
See the ‘periodic table’ of molecular knots
A new table of knots points the way to twisting molecules in increasingly complex pretzels.
- Chemistry
Lithium-oxygen batteries are getting an energy boost
A new version of the lithium-oxygen battery could pack more energy and last longer than its predecessors.
- Science & Society
Cheese found in an Egyptian tomb is at least 3,200 years old
Solid cheese preserved in an ancient Egyptian tomb may be the world’s oldest.
- Materials Science
A filter that turns saltwater into freshwater just got an upgrade
Smoothing out a material used in desalination filters could help combat worldwide water shortages.
- Tech
A new kind of spray is loaded with microscopic electronic sensors
For the first time, researchers have built circuits on microscopic chips that can be mixed into an aerosol spray.
- Chemistry
How a particle accelerator helped recover tarnished 19th century images
Chemists used a synchrotron to peek beneath 150 years of grime on damaged daguerreotype images, revealing hidden portraits.
- Environment
Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around
Sunlight created oxygen-rich oil by-products that are still hanging around eight years after the Deepwater Horizon spill.
- Environment
This plastic can be recycled over and over and over again
A new kind of polymer is fully recyclable: It breaks down into the exact same molecules that it came from.
- Chemistry
Want to build a dragon? Science is here for you
Fire-breathing dragons can’t live anywhere outside of a book or TV. But nature provides some guidance as to how they might get their flames. If they existed, anyway.
- Chemistry
Using laser tweezers, chemists nudged two atoms to bond
This is the first time researchers have purposefully combined two specific atoms into a molecule.
- Materials Science
Toxic chemicals turn a new material from porous to protective
A new material switches from a comfortable, breathable form to a sealed-up, protective state when exposed to dangerous chemicals.
- Genetics
Birds get their internal compass from this newly ID’d eye protein
Birds can sense magnetic fields, thanks to internal compasses that likely rely on changes to proteins in the retina.
