Iron, as a topic, encompasses its roles and behavior across diverse scientific domains, including its coordination chemistry, redox properties, and biological functions. Central to many metalloproteins, iron cycles between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ states, enabling electron transfer, oxygen transport, and catalysis in systems such as hemoglobin, cytochromes, and iron–sulfur clusters. In materials science, iron’s allotropic transformations, magnetic ordering, and alloy formation underlie the properties of steels and other ferrous materials. In geoscience, iron participates in redox-sensitive mineral formation and biogeochemical cycling, influencing atmospheric composition, nutrient availability, and environmental redox gradients across terrestrial and marine systems.
A team of Yale researchers has figured out what gives a magnetic material its mysterious properties, a discovery that could help boost computing memory and the field of "spintronics." Their work is published in Physical Review ...
Condensed Matter
14 hours ago
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Energy production in our cells, oxygen traveling in our blood and immune cells fighting infection all depend on iron, an essential mineral that enters the food chain when plants absorb it from soil. But iron is often scarce—likely ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 14, 2026
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Iron is one of the most abundant metals on Earth's surface, yet how such massive iron ore deposits formed throughout geological history has long remained a mystery. The prevailing theory has been that ancient photosynthetic ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 7, 2026
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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common culprit in hospital-acquired bacterial infections and is growing more resistant to antibiotics. New findings from Aaron Smith, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UMBC, and collaborators ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 7, 2026
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Cysteine is one of the main building blocks that cells use to make proteins. But this amino acid is a double-edged sword—too much cysteine is toxic to the cell. Cells therefore keep free cysteine levels to a minimum, converting ...
Evolution
Sep 18, 2026
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Iron rusts on its own, slowly, over months or years. Now, researchers at Tohoku University have found a way to compress the process of metal reacting with water to form oxide, taking mere hours and using nothing more than ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 17, 2026
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For decades, scientists have studied iron preserved in ancient rocks to reconstruct how Earth's oceans and atmosphere became rich in oxygen. A new study suggests iron has recorded other major transformations too.
Earth Sciences
Sep 3, 2026
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Earth's inner core, composed primarily of iron with a small percentage of light elements, may enter a superionic state at extreme pressure and temperature, according to experimental results from researchers at Science Tokyo. ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2026
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Iron is essential. Our cells need it to produce energy, carry oxygen throughout the body and power countless chemical reactions that sustain life. But this metal has a dark side. When too much of it is left free inside cells, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 14, 2026
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While Earth's core consists mostly of iron, its density implies that lighter elements are also mixed in. Because hydrogen is abundant in the universe and can mix with iron under certain conditions, scientists suspect it makes ...
