Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth. While about 80% of earth is nitrogen, it is mostly contained in the atmosphere as gas, and hence, inaccessible to plants. To boost plant growth, especially in agricultural settings, therefore, chemical...
Pressure treating—which involves putting lumber inside a pressurized watertight tank and forcing chemicals into the boards—has been used for more than a century to help stave off the fungus that causes wood rot in wet environments.
Now researchers at the...
New research shows that miniscule amounts of impurities in vacuum are being incorporated into OLEDs during fabrication and leading to large variations in lifetime. By reducing the time OLEDs spend in the deposition chamber during fabrication, impurities can be...
Light microscopes have revolutionized our understanding of the microcosmos, but their resolution is limited to about 100 nanometers. To see how molecules bond, break, or change their structure, we need at least 1000 times better resolution.
Laser induced electron diffraction (LIED) is...
Stanford University chemist Paul Wender and his colleagues are working to improve treatments for cancer, HIV and Alzheimer's—and they are betting that a drab, weedy marine invertebrate is the means to achieving that end. They have focused on this...
EVANSTON, Ill.— With their ability to treat a wide a variety of diseases, spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) are poised to revolutionize medicine. But before these digitally designed nanostructures can reach their full potential, researchers need to optimize their various components.
A Northwestern...
Scientists from Japan and the USA have confirmed the presence in meteorites of a key organic molecule which may have been used to build other organic molecules, including some used by life. The discovery validates theories of the formation...
Stanford scientists have invented a device that produces clean-burning hydrogen from water 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike conventional water splitters, the Stanford device uses a single low-cost catalyst to generate hydrogen bubbles on one electrode...
As the world's most popular shoe, flip-flops account for a troubling percentage of plastic waste that ends up in landfills, on seashores and in our oceans. Scientists at the University of California San Diego have spent years working to...
If you've ever pressed a picture-hanging strip onto the wall only to realize it's slightly off-center, you know the disappointment behind adhesion as we typically experience it: it may be strong, but it's mostly irreversible. While you can un-stick...
Helium, the second lightest element in the universe, has a variety of uses, from keeping balloons afloat to cooling superconducting magnets.
It is also a noble gas—so labeled because it was long believed to be "too aloof" to react with...
