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Dual Trojan Horse strategy to combat superbugs

In the relentless battle against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, science continues to unveil ingenious strategies to address their vulnerability. Like other bacteria, superbugs have a unique weakness—their dependence on ...

Cleaning water with 'smart rust' and magnets

Pouring flecks of rust into water usually makes it dirtier. But researchers have developed special iron oxide nanoparticles they call "smart rust" that actually makes it cleaner. Smart rust can attract many substances, including ...

Anaerobic microbial iron corrosion due to conductive pili

Iron is well-known for rusting, but this doesn't just happen on contact with oxygen and water. Some bacteria are also able to decompose iron anaerobically in a process referred to as electrobiocorrosion.

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Iron

Iron (pronounced /ˈаɪ.ərn/) is a chemical element with the symbol Fe (Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element. Iron and iron alloys (steels) are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use. Fresh iron surfaces are lustrous and silvery-grey in colour, but oxidise in air to form a red or brown coating of ferrous oxide or rust. Pure single crystals of iron are soft (softer than aluminium), and the addition of minute amounts of impurities, such as carbon, significantly strengthens them. Alloying iron with appropriate small amounts (up to a few per cent) of other metals and carbon produces steel, which can be 1,000 times harder than pure iron.

Iron-56 is the heaviest stable isotope produced by the alpha process in stellar nucleosynthesis; heavier elements than iron and nickel require a supernova for their formation. Iron is the most abundant element in the core of red giants, and is the most abundant metal in iron meteorites and in the dense metal cores of planets such as Earth.

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