Chemistry

Chemistry Takes A Big Step On The Road To Viable Solar Power

Scientists have created a one-step process for producing highly efficient materials that let the maximum amount of sunlight reach a solar cell- by finding a simple way to etch nanoscale spikes into silicon that allows more than 99 percent of sunlight to r ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 19 2014 - 12:41pm

Erythritol Sweetener: No Calories, No Tooth Decay, Now Made From Straw

Erythritol is the sweetener most people in the western world have never heard about. It can only be produced with the help of special kinds of yeast in highly concentrated molasses but it has a number of advantages: it does not make you fat, it does not c ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2014 - 12:47pm

Dirty Velcro Inside The Nuclear Pore

Biological membranes are like a guarded border. They separate the cell from the environment and at the same time control the import and export of molecules. The nuclear membrane can be crossed via many tiny pores. Scientists have discovered that proteins ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 9:15am

Fracking Flowback Could Pollute Groundwater With Heavy Metals

If there is a spill, the chemical makeup of wastewater generated by fracking could cause the release of tiny particles in soils that might bind heavy metals and pollutants, Cornell University researchers have found. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 2:26pm

Soon, Tofu Will Contain The Same Chemicals As Solar Panels

Recently, Subway declared they would stop using a chemical because a food activist convinced people it was in yoga mats, and was therefore dangerous. What's really dangerous are the toxic chemicals in solar panels. Soon, they could have the same ingr ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2014 - 12:02pm

Volcano Plots, Goldilocks Effects And Using Palladium-Gold Nanoparticles To Clean Polluted Water

A new study has found that palladium-gold nanoparticles are excellent catalysts for cleaning polluted water- and can even convert biodiesel waste into valuable chemicals. In dozens of studies, Rice University chemical engineer Michael Wong and colleagues ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 27 2014 - 5:00pm

21st Century Billboards: Chemists Develop Magnetically Responsive Liquid Crystals

Chemists have constructed liquid crystals with optical properties that can be instantly and reversibly controlled by an external magnetic field and that paves the way for display applications using instantaneous and contactless nature of magnetic manipula ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 27 2014 - 1:30pm

Solar Panels Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Alternative Fuel Formic Acid

Research into mitigating potential global warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide usually involves three areas: Developing alternative energy sources, capturing and storing greenhouse gases, and repurposing excess greenhouse gases. Carbon storag ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2014 - 7:01pm

Nanofluids And A Microchannel Heat Sink: A New Way To Keep Electronics From Overheating

Computer technology has transformed the way we live but that is all old news 35 years into the computer revolution. Today, consumers expect ever more from their devices- smaller size and faster speeds- and that means designers have to worry about heat. Wr ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 2 2014 - 5:50pm

The Spirit Of Ancient Amber Revealed

The warm beauty of amber has been captivating and inspiring people since ancient times. Even today, some secrets remain locked inside the fossilized tree resin. Some of the oldest recovered samples predate the rise of dinosaurs — and could outlast even th ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 11:52am