Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Antibiotics may become harder to resist
Drug designers have developed new tactics to make it harder for bacteria to survive exposure to antibiotics.
- Chemistry
Steering reactions with light
A light-based scheme for guiding the motion of chemical wave fronts may suggest ways to control analogous waves present in epileptic seizures and heart arrhythmias.
- Chemistry
Carbon nanotubes burn when flashed
Carbon nanotubes can ignite when exposed to an ordinary camera flash.
- Chemistry
Minimotor: Single molecule does some work
A single molecule has performed mechanical work—pulling and releasing a cantilever tip—when exposed to light.
- Chemistry
Fluorine atoms used to cut nanotubes
Researchers have found that they can cut carbon nanotubes into short, potentially useful pieces using a technique for adding groups of atoms to nanotubes.
- Chemistry
Unlikely ion made in lab
Chemists have created a molecule—the pentamethylcyclopentadienyl cation—that many researchers thought was too unstable to exist long enough to be identified or studied.
- Chemistry
The True Sweet Science
New techniques and tools are helping scientists elucidate the roles that complex sugars play in the human body and in drug manufacturing.
- Chemistry
Noble gases and uranium get cozy
Chemists have created the first compounds containing both uranium and noble gases.
- Chemistry
Wheat protein smooths ice cream
Proteins extracted from winter wheat keep ice cream smooth by preventing ice crystals from growing.
- Chemistry
A new molecule and a new signature
In two independent discoveries, chemists have prepared a new form of nitrogen and captured the infrared spectrum of an unusual molecule made up of hydrogen and oxygen.
- Chemistry
Viral parts: Chemists convert virus into nanoscale tool
Researchers are decorating viruses with a variety of molecules, making the microbes into potential building blocks in electronic circuits and new materials, as well as tools in biomedical therapies.
- Chemistry
Making silicon naturally: Chemists glimpse organic substance in plankton
For the first time, researchers have found a compound composed of both carbon and silicon within a living organism.
