Scientists have developed a way to use sound waves to create microscopic layers of protection, demonstrating the method's delicate handling on the leaves of the common houseplant Epipremnum aureum by blocking damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays without impeding photosynthesis.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: RMIT University, Molecules, RMIT, Chemistry, Ultra-violet, Ultraviolet

Ancient Egyptians were not only masters of architecture – they also were the original wizards of synthetic chemistry. Around 5,000 years ago, they crafted the world’s first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue, which exhibits a range of hues from deep blue to gray or green.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Color, History, Chemistry, Washington State University

Plumbed drinking water in developed countries is pretty clean, but invisible contaminants can still lurk. One mysterious “phantom chemical” has haunted drinking water for decades, and now researchers have identified it – and found it’s completely new to science.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Water, Drinking, Drink, Decontamination, University of Arkansas, Chemicals, Chemistry

Scientists have discovered the largest known protein in biology. Given the fun name of PKZILLA-1, the protein was found in algae cells and helps them make toxins that are responsible for mass killings of fish.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Protein, World's Largest, UC San Diego, Algae, toxic, Chemistry

Scientists in Japan have developed a new method for breaking down toxic “forever chemicals” quickly and at room temperature. The technique broke down 100% of certain types of these pollutants overnight, recovering some useful components for reuse.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Pollution, Chemicals, Chemistry, Health, toxic, Japan, Nanocrystals

Scientists have discovered the potential existence of a bizarre new molecule related to water. Dubbed “aquodiium,” this ion could form under extreme conditions and may explain some of the weirdness of our solar system’s ice giant planets.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Ions, Water, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Neptune, Planet, Russia, China, Atoms, Molecules

The popular pain-killing drug paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, has always been made from chemicals derived from environmentally damaging coal tar or crude oil. Now researchers have devised a greener way of producing the drug using wood from the poplar tree.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Drugs, Manufacturing, University of Wisconsin

Venus may be a hellscape by our standards, but there’s a chance that some forms of life could evolve there. A new MIT study has now found that the building blocks of life are surprisingly stable in highly concentrated sulfuric acid – which Venus’ clouds happen to be made of.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Life, Extraterrestrial, Venus, MIT, Amino Acids, Chemicals, Chemistry, Sulfur, Evolution

It’s a fundamental principle of physics that particles with opposite charges attract each other, while those with the same charge repel. But now, scientists at the University of Oxford have found that under certain circumstances, particles can attract those of the same charge.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Particle physics, Electric, Oxford University, University of Oxford

Whether it was in your shoelaces or earbud cables, we’ve all accidentally tied knots that we can’t untangle – but we don’t expect to win any world records with them. Now scientists have done exactly that, accidentally tying the world’s smallest and tightest knot in a tiny structure made of just 54 atoms.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: World's Smallest, Mathematics, Chemistry, molecular biology, Atoms, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The most promising places to look for life beyond Earth might not be Mars but icy moons orbiting gas giants. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has just climbed the list, as NASA data reveals it’s home to a molecule thought to be key to the origin of life, and suggests there’s more chemical energy for life to chow down on than we thought.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Life, Enceladus, NASA, Cassini, Hydrogen, Molecules, Chemistry

A team of scientists from China's Northeast Normal University has developed an electrochemical method for extracting uranium from ordinary seawater that has the potential to supply humanity with an effectively unlimited energy source.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Nuclear, Chemistry

Phosphorus – a key ingredient for life as we know it – was thought to be relatively rare in space. But now, astronomers have detected a surprising amount of the stuff on the fringes of the galaxy, suggesting life may be more common in the cosmos.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Life, Extraterrestrial, Universe, Galaxy, Chemistry, Astronomy, University of Arizona

Quantum computers can handle calculations that are well out of the reach of traditional computers, and now scientists in Australia have used the tech to observe something usually too fast for the eye to see. The team managed to slow down a molecular interaction by 100 billion times to see what’s really going on in a common chemical reaction.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Quantum, Molecules, Chemistry, University of Sydney

Scientists at the University of Chicago have detected the first evidence of a phenomenon called “quantum superchemistry.” Long predicted but never confirmed, this effect could speed up chemical reactions, give scientists more control over them, and inform quantum computing.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Quantum, Quantum Physics, Quantum Computing, Quantum Mechanics, Atoms, Molecules, Bose-Einstein condensate, University of Chicago, Chemistry

A bright red waterfall isn’t something you’d expect to see on the icy landscape of Antarctica, but that’s exactly what’s pouring out from the foot of Taylor Glacier. A team of scientists now claims to have solved the long-standing mystery behind the crimson waters of Antarctica’s Blood Falls.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Antarctic, Water, Salt-water, Mars, Rover, Microscopes, glacier, Johns Hopkins University

One of the most profound mysteries facing science is how exactly life arose from non-living matter. Now, scientists have pinpointed a particular peptide that potentially kickstarted life – and it could all be nickelback’s fault.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Life, Chemistry, molecular biology, Rutgers University, City College of New York, peptide, Molecules

Exactly how life arose out of non-living matter is a major mystery, and a new study has found that natural selection may have played a role before life itself even existed on Earth. By recreating the primordial soup, scientists identified how a cocktail of specific amino acids informed the genetic code of every single lifeform on the planet.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: molecular biology, Life, Evolution, Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Amino Acids

Mosquito repellent is an everyday weapon to keep those biting bugs at bay, but it can be frustratingly fickle. Now researchers in Italy have developed new formulations that they say can last as long as eight hours, are odorless and boast other advantages.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Mosquito, Insect, Chemicals, Chemistry, Italy

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their work in pioneering a form of chemistry that enabled molecular building blocks to snap together like Lego. Called “click chemistry,” the technology has laid the groundwork for key advances in medical science, and has the potential to extend far beyond.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Nobel prizes, Chemistry

In what's described as a key advancement for the development of systems to help propel humans into deep space, scientists have demonstrated a method of extracting oxygen from water in microgravity using magnets. The technology shapes as a cost-effective and viable way to keep astronauts breathing during their journeys, and marks an important breakthrough for the production of oxygen from water in the absence of buoyant forces.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Oxygen, Chemistry, University of Warwick, International Space Station

Exactly how non-living molecules sparked into life is one of the most puzzling mysteries of science. Now scientists at Scripps Research have discovered a new set of chemical reactions that can produce the building blocks of life out of materials thought to be common in the primordial soup of early Earth.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Life, Molecules, Amino Acids, Chemistry, Evolution, Scripps Research Institute

In what's being hailed as an important first for chemistry, an international team of scientists has developed a new technology that can selectively rearrange atomic bonds within a single molecule. The breakthrough allows for an unprecedented level of control over chemical bonds within these structures, and could open up some exciting possibilities in what's known as molecular machinery.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, IBM, Atoms, Molecules

Scientists have developed an efficient new way to convert methane into methanol at room temperature. The technique could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a cleaner way to make key products.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Methane, Methanol, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Manchester, metal-organic frameworks

Researchers have created a form of platinum that can remain liquid at room temperature, by mixing tiny amounts of the precious metal with gallium. This new liquid platinum performs catalytic reactions more efficiently than a solid platinum catalyst, using far less of the metal.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Platinum, Metals, liquid metal

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Benjamin List and David MacMillan, for their work in developing a new class of catalyst in 2000. The technique is based on small organic molecules and has been instrumental in pharmaceutical research since.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Nobel prizes, Chemicals, Organic, Molecules, New Atlas Audio

Scientists have found a way to convert methane into methanol at room temperature. Using a common crystal as a catalyst, the technique could eventually reduce methane escaping into the atmosphere by turning it into a useful liquid fuel instead.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Methane, Methanol, Stanford University, New Atlas Audio

As if Matt Damon’s character in The Martian didn’t have enough to worry about already, his Red Planet potatoes could be contaminated with perchlorates. But new research led by the University of California Riverside has identified a relatively simple catalyst that can remove these chemicals, helping reduce water and soil pollution here on Earth too.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Pollution, Water, Mars, UC Riverside, University of California Riverside, Chemistry, Chemicals, New Atlas Audio

A study from scientists at UC San Francisco is demonstrating a new screening method developed to better identify human-made chemicals in people. The proof-of-concept research discovered more than 100 chemicals, including 55 that have never been reported found in humans before.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemicals, Health, Chemistry, UCSF, Environmental Protection Agency

Engineers at Rice University have developed a new reactor that can convert carbon monoxide (CO) into acetic acid. Using tiny copper cubes as a catalyst, the device is relatively simple and can operate for long periods at a time, allowing the unwanted waste gas to be turned into an industrially useful product.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Carbon, Carbon Monoxide, Reactors, Rice University, New Atlas Audio

It goes without saying that as a chemist stirs a solution in their lab, they need to check how its characteristics change. A new "Smart Stirrer" has been designed with that in mind, as it automatically detects and reports transformations.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: University of Warwick, American Chemical Society, Chemistry, Magnetic, New Atlas Audio

Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury is home to a surprising amount of ice. Now, researchers at Georgia Tech have put forward an explanation for how at least some of it got there – and it turns out, the heat plays an important role.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Astronomy, Mercury, Water, Ice, Chemistry, Planet, Georgia Tech, New Atlas Audio

Adding chlorine is one of the most common methods of disinfecting drinking water, but just how safe is it? Researchers from Johns Hopkins have now found evidence that reactions between chlorine and natural compounds in water may produce previously-unknown toxic byproducts.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Johns Hopkins University, Water, Treatment, Bacteria, Chemistry, Molecules, Chemicals, New Atlas Audio

Atoms are known for forming bonds and breaking apart, a process that’s crucial to basically everything in the universe. But because it happens on such a tiny scale, it’s difficult to study and record. Now, researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Ulm have managed to capture atoms forming and breaking bonds on video for the first time.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Atoms, University of Nottingham, Chemistry, Molecules, Physics

Nothing ruins a weekend session like realizing your beer is stale, but it’s an all-too-common problem. Now, researchers from Jiangnan University have found a way to keep beer fresher for longer, by genetically engineering lager yeast to produce certain compounds that prevent staleness.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Beer, Brewing, Beverages, American Chemical Society, China, Chemistry, New Atlas Audio

When you get right down to the atomic scale, things happen much faster than we’re used to. That makes it hard to actually see what happens during chemical reactions, so researchers at Harvard have found a way to slow things down. By cooling molecules to a fraction above absolute zero, the team was able to perform the coldest chemical reaction ever recorded, capturing a never-before-seen action as two molecules swapped atoms.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Harvard, Atoms, Molecules, ultracold

For the first time, atmospheric chemistry and 3D climate modeling have been combined in a way that could help identify planets beyond our solar system which could host life. According to Northwestern University, the research could help astronomers to make progress in the search for extraterrestrial life.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Astrophysics, Chemistry, Climate, Exoplanet, New Atlas Audio

It’s still a mystery how life got started on Earth – but maybe it didn’t start on Earth after all. A new Japanese study simulated the gigantic clouds of dust and gas that float around between the stars, and showed that some of the building blocks of DNA can be produced under interstellar conditions.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Chemistry, Hokkaido University, Kyushu University, interstellar space, DNA, Molecules, Life, New Atlas Audio

Exactly how life sprung out of non-living matter is one of biology's biggest mysteries. But with continued research into our own origin story, it's starting to seem like life on early Earth was just itching to be born. In new research from Georgia Tech and the Scripps Research Institute, scientists cooked up a "primordial soup" and found that some of the crucial building blocks of life spontaneously stacked themselves in a surprisingly efficient way.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Evolution, Life, Amino Acids, Georgia Tech, Protein, Scripps Research Institute, Chemistry, New Atlas Audio

The missing link of evolution is often thought of as a step between apes and humans, but the biggest gap lies between non-living matter and the earliest living cells. A new study has found a mechanism that may have helped droplets transition into early cells, taking place in ponds, puddles and waterways that dried out and refilled repeatedly over time.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Evolution, Life, Cells, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Chemistry, molecular biology, New Atlas Audio

For many people, adding anything to a single malt whisky is close to sacrilege, but it's generally acknowledged that adding a drop or two of water to lesser blends enhances the flavor. The question is, why? At Sweden's Linnaeus University, researchers Björn Karlsson and Ran Friedman have come up with an answer from a molecular perspective.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Whisky, Chemistry

Researchers at Harvard University say they've managed to create a potentially revolutionary material that has only been imagined in theory for the past several decades: solid metallic hydrogen.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Harvard, superconductor, Diamonds, Physics, Chemistry

Growing kids tend to repeat all sorts of colorful language heard while at school, yet there's one particular C-word that causes some parents to feel a special type of dread. Chemistry. A new teaching tool raising funds on Indiegogo adds an innovative twist to the traditional chemistry model kit in a way that should make the subject more accessible and enjoyable for parents and students alike. Happy Atoms combines augmented reality with a physical product to educate students about the wonderful world of molecules.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Education, Augmented Reality, Learning, Indiegogo, Chemistry

We all know that naming a new baby is never easy; everyone has their opinion and arguments often arise when deciding on a suitable moniker. In a similar way, the naming of new elements on the periodic table is subject to a lot of discussion and comment involving a vast range of constraints, and a committee solely dedicated to the process. Despite the difficulty and length of the process, four new elements now have proper names that honor the places and people essential to their discovery.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Physics, RIKEN, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, new element, Chemistry

Chemistry textbooks are in need of a rewrite with the addition of four new elements to the Periodic Table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has confirmed the existence of four new elements with the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118, which were discovered by laboratories in Japan, the United States, and Russia. This bumper group of new elements completes the 7th row of the Periodic Table and clears the way for the discoverers to start thinking up names for them.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Physics, RIKEN, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, new element, Chemistry

All living organisms – human, animal, or otherwise – continuously move molecules around their cells. It's a crucial mechanism of life, vital for feeding cells the proteins they need to function. And now scientists at Northwestern University have created a machine that mimics this pumping mechanism. Their molecular pump is the world's first such machine developed entirely through chemical engineering in the laboratory, and it could one day power artificial muscles and other molecular machines.

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Category: Chemistry, Science

Tags: Molecular machines, Northwestern University, Artificial Muscles, Chemistry