Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Hormones give lantern sharks the glow
In a first, a study shows that bioluminescence can be controlled by slow-acting hormones, not rapid-fire nerve cells.
- Earth
Nanoparticles’ indirect threat to DNA
Tiny metal nanoparticles can damage DNA, essentially by triggering toxic gossip.
- Chemistry
Aerosols cloud the climate picture
A NASA model incorporates how atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases interact, yielding better estimates of the gases' warming and cooling effects.
- Chemistry
How leaves could monitor pollution
Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.
- Chemistry
Tongue’s sour-sensing cells taste carbonation
A protein splits carbon dioxide to give fizz its unique flavor.
- Life
Fly pheromones can say yes and no
A new study begins to decode pheromone messages and finds that the same chemicals that attract can also maintain the species barrier.
- Life
Paralyzed, then unparalyzed, by the light
Different types of light freeze and then reinvigorate roundworms fed a shape-changing molecule.
- Chemistry
Bad perfume: Cardboard’s intense scents
Wet cardboard and food should not share the same air space.
- Chemistry
New view reveals how DNA fits into cell
A new technique allows scientists to map the 3-D structure of the entire human genome.
- Chemistry
Nobel Prize in chemistry commends finding and use of green fluorescent protein
One researcher is awarded for discovering the protein that helps jellyfish glow and two for making the protein into a crucial tool for biologists.
- Chemistry
Concerned about BPA: Check your receipts
Some cash register receipts offer the potential for relatively large exposures to an estrogen mimic.
- Chemistry
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for ribosome research
Ada Yonath, Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan will share the prize for unmasking the structure of the ribosome.
