Chemistry
- Plants
Explainer: Some supplements may not have what it takes
Dietary supplements made from plants may not contain all of the chemicals that usually make a particular plant healthy for humans.
- Environment
Gulf oil spills could destroy shipwrecks faster
In the Gulf of Mexico, leftover crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill may be speeding the corrosion of old shipwrecks.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Precipitation
Chemicals can dissolve into a solution, but when they come out, they precipitate.
- Microbes
Powered by poop and pee?
Scientists are developing methods to not only remove human waste from wastewater, but also to harness the energy hidden within it.
- Chemistry
Olive oil untangles plastic
Vegetable oils can make plastic fibers stronger. And the process is safer and better for the environment than other detanglers.
- Chemistry
New bendy device could power wearable electronics
A new device with lithium and silicon electrodes uses chemistry to generate electricity as it bends back and forth.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Solution
In math, this is just the answer to your problem. In chemistry, this word means something else entirely.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Base
Bases are chemicals that contain negatively charged chemical groups made from oxygen and hydrogen. They lend coffee its bitter flavor and have pH rankings higher than 7.0.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Acid
When a chemical tastes sour, ranks below 7.0 on the pH scale and has many hydrogen ions in its solution, it gets a special name.
- Chemistry
News Brief: 2016 brings four new elements
U.S., Russian and Japanese scientists have just been credited with official discoveries of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118. Next up: Naming them.
- Earth
Mystery ‘earmuffs’ sit deep inside Earth
Two vast blobs in Earth’s lower mantle could result from a “trainwreck” of ancient colliding tectonic plates.
- Earth
Rocks hold clues to ancient die-offs
Rocks that formed during ancient mass-extinction show that the oceans back then had become very warm. That was the last time Earth spewed carbon dioxide into its atmosphere at a rate similar to what is happening today.
