Chemistry
- Environment
To limit pollution, new recipe makes plastic a treat for microbes
Microplastics made from fossil fuels take centuries to disappear. But the plant- and algae-based plastic can break down in weeks to months.
- Chemistry
Air pollution can make it harder for pollinators to find flowers
Pollutants that build up in night air can break down the scents that attract pollinating hawkmoths to primrose blooms, disrupting their pollination.
- Chemistry
Turning jeans blue with sunlight might help the environment
When dipped in indican and exposed to sunlight, yarn turns a deep blue. This process is more eco-friendly than the current denim dyeing method.
- Animals
At last: How poison dart frogs ship defense toxins to their skin
A liver protein appears to help the amphibians collect and move toxins from their food to their skin. Those toxins can defend the frogs from predators.
- Materials Science
Let’s learn about graphene
Scientists have been trying to understand and harness this material’s superpowers since its discovery in 2004.
- Climate
Chemists make device to destroy planet-warming methane pollution
It can slash diffuse sources of this extremely potent greenhouse gas, such as from livestock barns and other sites.
- Archaeology
Analyze This: Stonehenge’s ‘Altar Stone’ has mysterious origins
After a century of searching for the source of the Altar Stone, scientists have yet to figure out where ancient people got the rock.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Calorie
These little units help us measure energy transfer in chemistry, nutrition and beyond.
- Chemistry
Pollution power? A new device turns carbon dioxide into fuel
Scientists made a device that converts the greenhouse gas into formate. This salt can then run a fuel cell to make electricity.
- Environment
New ultrathin materials can pull climate-warming CO2 from the air
To slow global warming, we’ll need help from CO2-trapping materials. Enter MXenes. They’re strong and reactive — and they love to eat up CO2.
- Tech
Particles from tree waste could prevent fogged lenses, windshields
A new coating made from a renewable resource — water-loving nanoparticles made from wood — could keep glass surfaces fog-free.
- Plants
Young corn leaves can ‘smell’ danger
As they mature, these leaves lose their ability to detect threatening scents.
