How molecular 'handedness' emerged in early biology

Molecules often have a structural asymmetry called chirality, which means they can appear in alternative, mirror-image versions akin to the left and right versions of human hands. One of the great mysteries about the origins ...

Applying green chemistry principles to iron catalysis

At the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock, Dr. Johannes Fessler has developed new methods for the synthesis of drug precursors using catalysts made of iron, manganese and cobalt. Each of these three chemical elements ...

New findings explain how soil traps plant-based carbon

When carbon molecules from plants enter the soil, they hit a definitive fork in the road. Either the carbon gets trapped in the soil for days or even years, where it is effectively sequestered from immediately entering the ...

Early life was radically different than today

All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged from a simpler, less efficient, more delicate one. But what was that system, and why ...

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