Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Polymer shifts shape with changing temperature
Common material’s ‘memory’ could be exploited for smart fabrics or other gadgets.
- Physics
Aluminum superatoms may split water
Metal clusters could create hydrogen for fuel, simulations suggest.
- Chemistry
Plasticizers kept from leaching out
‘Chemicals of concern’ may be made safer in new materials.
- Chemistry
Naming an atomic heavyweight
More than a decade after its debut in a German lab, element 112 is officially named copernicium.
- Chemistry
Tiny molecules walk the track
Researchers design synthetic “walking” molecules that may one day haul cargo in artificial micromachines.
- Materials Science
A charge for freezing water at different temperatures
Experiments use positive and negative forces to control ice formation at temperatures well below the normal freezing point.
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- Chemistry
New material sops up radioactive cesium
Isotope catcher could safely store waste from power plants.
- Materials Science
Breakup doesn’t keep hydrogel down
Scientists create a new material that is strong, soft and self-healing.
- Life
Snail in shining armor
A deep-sea gastropod’s natural shield may offer ideas for human protection.
- Earth
BPA is regulated . . . sort of
Food and Drug Administration officials “say they are powerless to regulate BPA” because of a quirk in their rules, according to a story that ran Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It comes from a reporter who has made an award-winning habit of documenting the politics that have helped make the hormone-mimicking bisphenol-A a chemical of choice for many manufacturers.
- Physics
Symmetry found hidden in supercold atoms
Scientists have detected an elusive, complex symmetry in the frequencies of resonating particles
