(Phys.org) —A trio of researchers at California Institute of Technology has developed an iron-based catalyst that allows for reducing dinitrogen (a normal nitrogen molecule with two atoms) to ammonia in a solution. In their ...
Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are essential in modern agriculture and crucial to meeting the ever-growing global food demand. Nitrogen fertilizer, in the form of ammonia, is produced now in the same way that it has ...
Materials Science
Aug 16, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Metal ions play critical roles throughout biochemistry, often facilitating the cleavage of the bond between the two atoms in an oxygen molecule in metalloenzymes. They are the key to oxidizing organic molecules ...
Materials Science
Aug 12, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Scientists working with data from NASA's Cassini mission have confirmed the presence of a population of complex hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, that later evolve into the ...
Space Exploration
Jun 6, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Carbon dioxide is the most common source of carbon in nature and an inexpensive building block that is useful for the chemical industry. However, because of its high stability, it is not easy to induce CO2 to ...
Materials Science
May 8, 2013
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(Phys.org)—It's not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper by scientists on NASA's Cassini mission finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate the surface of existing lakes and seas ...
Space Exploration
Jan 8, 2013
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(Phys.org)—The increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly sunlight, is highly desirable, as is industrial production that is as CO2-neutral as possible. Both of these wishes could be fulfilled if CO2 could ...
Materials Science
Nov 19, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Usually, electrons try to avoid each other due to their electrostatic repulsion. On occasion, however, they can form a pair which has long been known in superconductivity called a "Cooper pair," named after the ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 9, 2012
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(Phys.org)—A group of chemists from China, Japan and Korea have succeeded in creating nanotubes that can be made to expand and contract in response to warm or cold water. Led by Myongsoo Lee of Seoul University, the team, ...
A multi-university team has employed a high-powered laser to dramatically improve one of the tools scientists use to study the world at the atomic level. The team was able to use their amped-up electron paramagnetic resonance ...
General Physics
Sep 19, 2012
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