chemistry
Far from practicing witchcraft, the experimentation of medieval alchemists helped bring about the Scientific Revolution.
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Dead whales inspire a way to find extraterrestrial life on Mars.
Bend it. Stretch it. Use it to conduct electricity.
Caffeine does something, but it's not clear exactly what.
We cannot afford to dream about living on other worlds while we continue to destroy ours.
Bathybius haeckelii was briefly thought to be the link between inorganic matter and organic life.
There are at least 15 different types of solid water (ice). Now, scientists believe that there might be a second type of liquid water.
Organic molecules can be produced by living or non-living systems. But the recent findings are very intriguing.
One of the winners. Dr. K. Barry Sharpless, is now the fifth person in history to win two Nobels.
Based on product labeling claims, scientists hypothesized that green cleaners were less toxic. They were wrong.
It could one day fuel nuclear fusion reactors.
Venus Life Finder could launch as early as 2023.
The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.
Oxygen isn't strictly necessary for combustion, but it is ideal. Any advanced (alien) civilization probably uses oxygen to burn things.
The synthetic cartilage was made from cellulose fibers — the stuff found in wood — mixed with a goo called polyvinyl alcohol.
Scientists turn to nature to improve a ubiquitous building material.
When scientists tested this hydrogel on mice, they had cleaner teeth than most humans.
Rare and costly paints have shaped art history in unforeseen ways. Mummy brown caused one artist to bury his paint.
A two-dimensional material made entirely of carbon called graphene won the Nobel Prize in 2010. Graphyne might be even better.
More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
This is a great improvement over the typical brew time of 12 to 18 hours.
"This fourth wave will be worse than it’s ever been before."
The emergence of life in the universe is as certain as the emergence of matter, gravity, and the stars. Life is the universe developing a memory, and our chemical detection system could find it.
Sweet, bitter, salty, sour. These are the four basic tastes we were taught in grade school. But there is a fifth: umami. And it's everywhere.
Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
On Earth, carbon can form millions of compounds, while silicon is largely stuck inside rocks. But elsewhere, silicon could form the basis of life.
From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.
Before gunpowder was introduced to the West, medieval Arabs devised grenades using crockery.