Chemistry
Sign up for our newsletter
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Trapping Compact Fluorescents’ Toxic Gas
New nanomaterials may offer a solution to mopping up a toxic pollutant associated with fluorescent lighting.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
Oops! A Fluorescent Light Breaks
Toxic mercury will be released whenever a fluorescent lamp breaks.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
Fluorescent bulbs offer mercury advantage
Featured blog: Switching to light bulbs that contain mercury might, surprisingly, reduce overall mercury releases to the environment. Plus, what to do when you break your fluorescent bulb.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Moms: One Solution to Tainted Milk
Tainted infant formulas point to a problem in the way society values moms.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
Obama’s brain trust
Featured blog: Sixty-one Nobel laureates sign a letter explaining why they support Barack Obama's run for the presidency.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
A better fate for plastic bottles
Using microbes to convert PET into a high-value plastic could encourage more recycling.
- Chemistry
Popular plastics chemical poses further threat
The chemical bisphenol A may raise the risk of heart attacks and type 2 diabetes by suppressing a protective hormone.
- Chemistry
Turning CO2 into chalk and sand
Removing carbon dioxide from smokestacks and storing it permanently is one of the possible solutions to global warming, but remains expensive to do. A new technique could make carbon sequestration economical on a large scale, while producing useful materials on the side.
- Chemistry
FBI reveals more details of anthrax investigation
A panel of scientists involved in the anthrax investigations released new details.
- Ecosystems
Coastal dead zones expanding
The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new tally reports more than 400 of the oxygen starved regions worldwide.
- Chemistry
Fingerprints go high-tech
A new chemical technique shows promise in identifying traces of explosives, illicit drugs and perhaps even signs of disease.
- Math
Welcome to the Quantum Internet
Quantum encryption is here, but the laws of physics can do much more than protect privacy.