Friedrich Simmel and Aurore Dupin, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), have for the first time created artificial cell assemblies that can communicate with each other. The cells, separated by fatty membranes, exchange small chemical signaling molecules...
Three Chinese fir trees on a nature reserve in Southeastern China are the last of their kind. As their existence is threatened by human disturbance and climate change, researchers are hurrying to learn everything they can about the tree—which...
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...
One of the frontiers of medical diagnostics is the race for more sensitive blood tests. The ability to detect extremely rare proteins could make a life-saving difference for many conditions, such as the early detection of certain cancers or...
Platinum, a noble metal, is oxidised more quickly than expected under conditions that are technologically relevant. This has emerged from a study jointly conducted by the DESY NanoLab and the University of Vienna. Devices that contain platinum, such as...
A new artificial photosynthesis approach uses sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into methane, which could help make natural-gas-powered devices carbon neutral.
Methane is the main component of natural gas. Photosynthesis is the process through which green plants use sunlight to make food...
Caltech scientists have created a strain of bacteria that can make small but energy-packed carbon rings that are useful starting materials for creating other chemicals and materials. These rings, which are otherwise particularly difficult to prepare, now can be...
Catalytic conversion of biomass-derived chemicals to renewable polymers occurs in laboratory stirred-tank reactors. Credit: University of Minnesota
A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has invented a new technology to produce automobile tires from trees and grasses...
Writing in the International Journal of Nanotechnology, Oxford University’s Laura Maestro and her colleagues in Italy, Mexico, Spain and the USA, explain how the physical and chemical properties of water have been studied for more than a century and...
Metallic hydrogen is one of the rarest materials on Earth, yet more than 80 percent of planets—including Jupiter, Saturn, and hundreds of extrasolar planets—are composed of this exotic form of matter.
Its abundance in our solar system—despite its rarity on...
In an effort to improve large touchscreens, LED light panels and window-mounted infrared solar cells, researchers at the University of Michigan have made plastic conductive while also making it more transparent.
They provide a recipe to help other researchers find...
