Chemistry
- Environment
Explainer: How and why fires burn
A fire’s colorful flame results from a chemical reaction known as combustion.
- Animals
We are stardust
Everything making up Earth and what’s now living upon it — from trees and people to our pets and their fleas — owes their origins to the elements forged by ancient stars.
- Animals
The bad-breath defense
The nicotine in tobacco that poisons some creatures can also act as a chemical defense — at least for some caterpillars. The bad breath it gives these insects repels natural predators, such as spiders.
- Chemistry
Salt bends the rules of chemistry
When squished between two diamonds and zapped by a laser, salt’s atoms can link up in unexpected ways.
- Animals
Mimicking mussels’ muscle
People who seek to get a grip on something — especially in wet environments — might want to take a lesson from some common shellfish. Among those who might benefit most: surgeons.
- Plants
Gold can grow on trees
Australian researchers found leafy nano-evidence pointing to rich deposits of the precious metal deep below ground.
- Physics
X-ray ‘eyes’
Movie directors often make “short” subjects, flicks running sometimes just a few minutes or so. But scientists have begun making much quicker “shorts,” essentially nanofilms. Their goal: catching science in action.
- Chemistry
Self-forming envelope holds fluids
These plastic-laced water molecules can create their own protective shell. That can make capsules for holding drugs or for hosting chemical reactions.
- Chemistry
Grape scents repel mosquitoes
Safer than DEET, the new compounds could lead to insect repellents that would be affordable even in poor regions where mosquitoes carry malaria.
- Chemistry
Cyberspace chemistry earns a Nobel
The achievements behind the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry relied on a lot of complex physics. But the computer techniques pioneered by these three men are now saving chemists a lot of work.
- Chemistry
Vitamin can keep electronics ‘healthy’
Vitamin E is among cheap materials that can avoid the zap of static electricity — a discharge that risks destroying sensitive electronic circuitry.
- Chemistry
Cool Jobs: Repellent chemistry
Chemistry is just one way to repel water in nature. Structure, or the shape of things, is another. To excel at water repellency, the lotus leaf relies on both.
