Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology researchers have cracked the chemical mechanism that will enable development of a new and more efficient photo-chemical process to produce hydrogen fuel from water, according to...
Evaporation can explain why water levels drop in a full swimming pool, but it also plays an important role in industrial processes ranging from cooling electronics to power generation. Much of the global electricity supply is generated by steam...
Scientists have created the first completely artificial protein switch that can work inside living cells to modify—or even commandeer—the cell's complex internal circuitry. The switch is dubbed LOCKR, short for Latching, Orthogonal Cage/Key pRotein. Companion papers published July 24 in the...
Using an atomic-force microscope fitted with an electrode tip 1,000 times smaller than a human hair, University of Oregon researchers have identified in real time how nanoscale catalysts collect charges that are excited by light in semiconductors. As reported in...
Scientists have discovered a new material that could hold the key to unlocking the potential of hydrogen powered vehicles. As the world looks towards a gradual move away from fossil fuel powered cars and trucks, greener alternative technologies are being...
Contrary to what you may have been taught, water doesn't always freeze to ice at 32 degrees F (zero degrees C). Knowing, or controlling, at what temperature water will freeze (starting with a process called nucleation) is critically important...
A team of materials scientists from Penn State, Cornell and Argonne National Laboratory have, for the first time, visualized the 3-D atomic and electron density structure of the most complex perovskite crystal structure system decoded to date. Perovskites are minerals...
A team of scientists including researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have identified the causes of degradation in a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, as well as possible remedies....
The spark that created life

The spark that created life

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Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is immensely powerful—both in nature and within laboratories. Using 'laboratory evolution', we can take an enzyme which combines random mutations and functional selection, and improve its function by more than 1000 times. You can...
Traditional leather and its alternatives are typically obtained from animals and synthetic polymers. Leather can be considered a co-product of meat production with both livestock farming and the leather production process increasingly considered to be ethically questionable and environmentally...
Ever wondered how the fate of champagne bubbles from their birth to their death with a pop enhances our perception of aromas? These concerns, which are relevant to champagne producers, are the focus of a special issue of EPJ...