Chemistry
- Earth
Scientists find an easier way to trap carbon dioxide in rock
Scientists have found a much faster and easier way to trap CO2 in minerals. If they can scale it up, it might one day help to slow climate change.
- Earth
Explainer: CO2 and other greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide is just one of several chemicals that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Nitrous oxide, methane and CFCs are other big contributors.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Peptide
Peptides are short chains made of smaller molecules called amino acids. These chains can form proteins, and they can also do work on their own.
- Earth
Rare blue diamonds form deep, deep, deep inside Earth
The recipe for rare blue diamonds may include boron, seawater and massive rock collisions.
- Animals
Here’s how a clam can hide within a rock
Old boring clam research has been upended after 82 years.
- Chemistry
‘Thirdhand’ smoke can hitchhike to non-smoking sites
Harmful “thirdhand” smoke — the type that attaches to surfaces — can hitch a ride on airborne particles or clothes and travel into non-smoking buildings.
- Environment
Analyze This: Beauty products are big sources of urban air pollution
In cities, a larger share of urban air pollution comes from the use of bath products, cleansers and more than does the burning of fossil fuels.
- Microbes
Nom, nom! These bacteria eat antibiotics for lunch
Some soil microbes don’t just break down antibiotics, they can eat them too. Scientists have found one way they do it.
- Plants
Ouch! Lemons and other plants can cause a special sunburn
These are among a host of plants (many found in the refrigerator vegetable drawer) that produce chemicals that will kill skin cells when activated by sunlight. The result can be a serious, localized sunburn — sometimes with blistering.
- Tech
Electronic noses might replace search-and-rescue dogs
A new type of sensor can sniff out scents that people emit. That might one day help rescuers find people buried under collapsed buildings.
- Chemistry
Diamonds and more suggest unusual origins for asteroids
Inside a meteorite, scientists found sulfur and iron wrapped in tiny diamonds. Those gems hint the rock formed inside a long-lost planet.
- Materials Science
This plastic can be recycled over and over and over
A new kind of plastic is fully recyclable: Unlike current plastics, it breaks down into the exact same molecules from which it was made.
