Chemistry
- 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.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Rare earth element
Rare earth elements aren’t all that rare — but skyrocketing demand for these metals makes them precious.
- Animals
A new technique creates glowing whole-body maps of mice
Removing cholesterol from mouse bodies lets fluorescent proteins seep into every tissue. That has helped researchers map entire body parts.
- Agriculture
Cow dung spews a climate-warming gas. Adding algae could limit that
But how useful this is depends on whether cows eat the red algae, a type of seaweed — or it gets added to their wastes after they’re pooped out.
- Tech
High-tech solar ‘leaves’ create green fuels from the sun
Chemists make a liquid alternative to fossil fuels from carbon dioxide, water and the sun. Their trick? They use a new type of artificial leaf.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Valence electrons
These far-out electrons do the hard work when it comes to chemical reactions.
- Plants
A single particle of light can kick off photosynthesis
In a new experiment with bacteria, a lone photon sparked the process of turning light to chemical energy.
