A professor in Virginia Tech's College of Science wants to power planes and cars using energy stored in their exterior shells. He may have discovered a path toward that vision using porous carbon fibers made from what's known as...
Cornell University scientists Rachel Hestrin and Johannes Lehmann, along with collaborators from Canada and Australia, have shown that charcoal can mop up large quantities of nitrogen from the air pollutant ammonia, resulting in a potential slow-release fertilizer with more...
Efficient and inexpensive catalysts will be required for production of hydrogen from sunlight. Molybdenum sulfides are considered good candidates. A team at HZB has now explained what processes take place in molybdenum sulfides during catalysis and why amorphous molybdenum...
Researchers in Strasbourg, France, have found that mixing two small biomolecules, glyoxylate and pyruvate, in iron-salt-rich water produces a reaction network resembling life's core biochemistry. This discovery provides insight into how chemistry on the early Earth primed the evolution...
Dysregulated energy balance can result in obesity. Credit: Image courtesy of Hiroshima University NPGL, a recently discovered protein involved in brain signalling, has been found to increase fat storage by the body -- even when on a low-calorie diet In addition, NPGL...
As recreational marijuana legalization becomes more widespread throughout the U.S., so has concern about what that means for enforcing DUI laws. Unlike a breathalyzer used to detect alcohol, police do not have a device that can be used in...
A cutting-edge material, inspired by nature, that can regulate its own temperature and could equally be used to treat burns and help space capsules withstand atmospheric forces is under development at the University of Nottingham. The research paper, Temperature—dependent polymer...
Since element 99 -- einsteinium -- was discovered in 1952 at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) from the debris of the first hydrogen bomb, scientists have performed very few experiments with it because it...
Today, sugar has a villainous reputation. And while too much of the sweet stuff should be avoided, all living things need sugar to survive. "The biological universe is coated with sugars," said Samuel M. Levi and Qiuhan Li, graduate...
BPA is found in water sources around the world. Credit: © winston / Fotolia Carnegie Mellon University chemist Terrence J. Collins has developed an approach that quickly and cheaply removes more than 99 percent of bisphenol A (BPA) from water. BPA,...
Polyurethanes, a type of plastic, are nearly everywhere—in shoes, clothes, refrigerators and construction materials. But these highly versatile materials can have a major downside. Derived from crude oil, toxic to synthesize, and slow to break down, conventional polyurethanes are...