Olivine crystals containing melt inclusions (the dark spots on the interiors) sampled from the Mariana arc. These crystals were not part of this study, but illustrate what melt inclusions look like.
Credit: Photo is courtesy of Alison Shaw
Even though carbon...
Since the 1970s, chemicals called brominated flame retardants (BFRs) have been added to a host of consumer and household products, ranging from electronics and mattresses to upholstery and carpets. While they were intended to improve fire safety, one form—polybrominated...
Yogesh Vohra, Ph.D., uses microwave-plasma chemical vapor deposition to create thin crystal films of never-before-seen materials. This effort seeks materials that approach a diamond in hardness and are able to survive extreme pressure, temperature and corrosive environments. The search...
Metals such as iron and calcium play a crucial role inside the human body, so it's no surprise that bioengineers would like to integrate them into the soft, stretchy materials used to repair skin, blood vessels, lungs and other...
Rutgers researchers have discovered the origins of the protein structures responsible for metabolism: simple molecules that powered early life on Earth and serve as chemical signals that NASA could use to search for life on other planets.
Their study, which...
eHow water solvates and transports protons is a fundamental question facing chemists and biologists alike and is vital to our understanding of processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
A team of researchers at the University of Chicago used broadband...
A new study finds a natural impediment to the long-term sequestration of carbon dioxide.
Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT
Carbon sequestration promises to address greenhouse-gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it deep below the Earth's surface, where it...
Stills from a simulation of the properties of one-dimensional boron shows the material that starts as a ribbon transforms into a single-atom chain, until it reaches the breaking point. Rice University scientists discovered the still-theoretical material would have unique...
In 2013, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for their contributions to uncovering the mechanisms governing vesicle transport in cells. Their explanations provided both a conceptual and a mechanistic understanding of basic processes...
A team of scientists has made the strongest silver ever—42 percent stronger than the previous world record. But that's not the important point.
"We've discovered a new mechanism at work at the nanoscale that allows us to make metals that...
The pull-up, an exercise dreaded by most, answers a basic question: are your muscles strong enough to lift your own body weight?
Some Illinois researchers working on artificial muscles are seeing results even the fittest individuals would envy, designing muscles...
