Chemistry
- Environment
New ultrathin materials can pull climate-warming CO2 from the air
To slow global warming, we’ll need help from CO2-trapping materials. Enter MXenes. They’re strong and reactive — and they love to eat up CO2.
- Tech
Particles from tree waste could prevent fogged lenses, windshields
A new coating made from a renewable resource — water-loving nanoparticles made from wood — could keep glass surfaces fog-free.
- Plants
Young corn leaves can ‘smell’ danger
As they mature, these leaves lose their ability to detect threatening scents.
- Climate
Hydrogen energy could help our climate — depending on its source
Hydrogen energy doesn’t emit greenhouse gases when it’s used. But how it’s produced will affect how useful it can be in slowing climate change.
- Tech
Explainer: The hydrogen rainbow
Hydrogen works the same, regardless of its source. But how clean or “green” it is very much hinges on its color-coded name — which points to how it was made.
- Tech
Engineers cook up a new way to tackle CO2: Make baking soda
Engineers have found a material that can collect carbon dioxide from the air. When later mixed with water, it forms baking soda that can be shed in the sea.
- Chemistry
Scientists turn plastic wastes into soap
Chemists developed a way to turn plastic waste into surfactants. Those chemicals could one day become key recruits in a greener war on grime.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Lignin
This rigid polymer transports water and gives trees their strength.
- Environment
Ultrasound waves can help remove polluting microplastics in water
The innovative process concentrates microplastics within a flowing liquid. A two-step process then removes the potentially toxic bits.
- Chemistry
Experiment: Kimchi chemistry
In this cooking and food science project, we make kimchi from scratch and investigate changes in pH and glucose as it ferments.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Supercool
When a liquid is supercooled, it has been chilled below its freezing point without freezing.
- Chemistry
Creation of quantum dots wins 2023 chemistry Nobel
The award honors three scientists who discovered and built quantum dots, which are now used in everything from TVs to medical tools.
