Making gold green: New non-toxic method for mining gold

Northwestern University scientists have struck gold in the laboratory. They have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally benign method that uses simple cornstarch—instead of cyanide—to isolate gold from raw materials ...

Edible carbon dioxide sponge

(PhysOrg.com) -- A year ago Northwestern University chemists published their recipe for a new class of nanostructures made of sugar, salt and alcohol. Now, the same team has discovered the edible compounds can efficiently ...

Muddled mix the corniest way to plug leaky oil well

Call it better drilling through chemistry. The uncontrollable flood of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster clearly illustrated that knowing how to stop the flow of oil when something ...

Cell membranes behave like cornstarch and water

(PhysOrg.com) -- Surprising discovery by physicists at the University of Oregon overturns a long-held belief, and raises fresh new scientific questions about the biology that regulates lipid and protein mobility.