News tagged with chemical science

Organic carbon from Mars, but not biological

(Phys.org) -- Molecules containing large chains of carbon and hydrogen--the building blocks of all life on Earth--have been the targets of missions to Mars from Viking to the present day. While these molecules ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Emerging theoretical framework may guide researchers through the complex world of multiblock polymers

(Phys.org) -- Thanks to advances in polymer chemistry and a wide variety of monomer constituents to choose from, the world of multiblock polymers is wide open. These polymers can result in an astonishing array ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Physicists control quantum tunneling with light for the first time

Scientists at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge have used light to help push electrons through a classically impenetrable barrier. While quantum tunnelling is at the heart of the peculiar wave nature of particles, this ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Apr 05, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Benefits of single atoms acting as catalysts in hydrogen-related reactions

A team of researchers at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering have discovered that individual atoms can catalyze industrially important chemical reactions such as the hydrogenation ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Amoeba offers key clue to photosynthetic evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- The major difference between plant and animal cells is the photosynthetic process, which converts light energy into chemical energy. When light isn't available, energy is generated by breaking ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Breakthrough in designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts for fuel cells

University of California, Berkeley, chemists are reimagining catalysts in ways that could have a profound impact on the chemical industry as well as on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Cockroach 'let's hook up' chemical signal could benefit endangered woodpecker

A North Carolina State University discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal -- a "Let's hook up" sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Lightning sprites are out-of-this-world

Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by lightning storms, and a valuable window ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists identify new class of antimalarial compounds

An international team led by scientists from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) and The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a family of chemical compounds that could lead ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Israeli wins chemistry Nobel for quasicrystals (Update 3)

Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for a discovery that faced skepticism and mockery, even prompting his expulsion from his U.S. research team, before it ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Building better catalysts: Chemists find new way to design important molecules

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Utah chemists developed a method to design and test new catalysts, which are substances that speed chemical reactions and are crucial for producing energy, chemicals and industrial products. ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Inexpensive catalyst that makes hydrogen gas 10 times faster than natural enzyme

Looking to nature for their muse, researchers have used a common protein to guide the design of a material that can make energy-storing hydrogen gas. The synthetic material works 10 times faster than the original ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Aug 11, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Improving batteries' energy storage

MIT researchers have found a way to improve the energy density of a type of battery known as lithium-air (or lithium-oxygen) batteries, producing a device that could potentially pack several times more energy ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chemists devise better way to prepare workhorse molecules

In chemistry, so-called aromatic molecules compose a large and versatile family of chemical compounds that are the stuff of pharmaceuticals, electronic materials and consumer products ranging from sunscreen to plastic soda ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New driving force for chemical reactions discovered

New research just published in the journal Science by a team of chemists at the University of Georgia and colleagues in Germany shows for the first time that a mechanism called tunneling control may drive chemical reacti ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 1 | with audio podcast