Chemistry

Origin Of Life: Chemistry Of Seabed Hot Vents Provide A Clue

Hot vents on the seabed could have spontaneously produced the organic molecules necessary for life, according to a model which shows how the surfaces of mineral particles inside hydrothermal vents have similar chemical properties to enzymes, the biologica ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2015 - 12:32pm

Just In Case You Thought Your Wine Was Vegan

By Sara Rennekamp, Inside Science- Is your wine vegan? It seems like an odd question: wine is made of grapes, grapes fall solidly under the "not an animal product" label, therefore it would seem that wine is a vegan-friendly beverage. However, m ...

Article - Inside Science - Apr 30 2015 - 1:12pm

Why Does Human Skin Have Such Remarkable Toughness?

Lisa Marie Potter, Inside Science-- Skin has to be flexible enough to jump, crawl, and kick with us. It also has to be resilient enough to withstand our falls, scrapes, and cuts. Scientists have marveled at skin's strength for years without knowing w ...

Article - Lisa Marie Potter - May 25 2015 - 10:51am

Common Black Fungus That Eats Oatmeal Used To Create Jet Fuel Compounds

A common black fungus, Aspergillus carbonarius ITEM 5010, found in decaying leaves, soil and rotting fruit has been used to to create hydrocarbons, the chief component of petroleum, similar to those in aviation fuels. The fungus produced the most hydrocar ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2015 - 8:48am

Fat Bloom Process On Chocolate Gets The Synchrotron Treatment

We have all seen "fat bloom", that unwelcome white layer that occasionally forms on chocolate. It is harmless but Europe once banned ugly fruit so cosmetics are clearly important to them and for that reason Nestlé and the Hamburg University of T ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2015 - 12:00pm

Sugar Science: Half Of Structural Data On Carbohydrates May Be Flawed

Carbohydrates, commonly known as sugars, are complex biological molecules linked to many fundamental cellular processes in living organisms, so accurate scientific information is important, but new research by scientists at the University of York Structura ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2015 - 10:16am

Coffee Ground Antioxidant Effects 500X Greater Than Vitamin C

The epidermis of the coffee bean, known as coffee silverskin, is usually removed after the beans have been dried, and of course used coffee grounds are normally discarded unless people use them in their garden or as an abrasive cleaning product. It might b ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2015 - 10:38am

Metal Composite So Light It Floats On Water

A new metal matrix composite that is so light that it can float on water, so a boat made of it would not sink despite damage to its structure- and this syntactic foam has good heat resistance too. Syntactic foams have been around for many years but this i ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2015 - 4:58pm

Your Probiotic Probably Has Gluten

Sometimes one food fallacy can conflict with another, and so you must choose- if you like paying over 240 percent more for a gluten-free label and 200 percent more for a probiotics label, you may have to pick between them.  ...

Article - News Staff - May 15 2015 - 9:08am

Turning Yeast Into Morphine At Home Could Be A Brewing Controversy

People with home-brewed beer rigs and backyard distilleries already know how to employ yeast to convert sugar into alcohol.- they soon might be able to turn sugar-fed yeast into a microbial factory for producing morphine and potentially other drugs, inclu ...

Article - News Staff - May 18 2015 - 11:08am