Chemistry

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

Analyzing The Components Of Cosmetics Organically

There are about 10,000 compounds used to make cosmetics, and they are monitored by government agencies in a way that products go inside the body, such as 'alternative' medicine and supplements, are not. ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2015 - 10:43am

Common Method Of Lowering Lead Level In Water May Have Opposite Effect

New research has shown that pH lowering of municipal water supplies, a common strategy used to control the release of soluble lead from plumbing materials, can affect corrosion of cast iron water mains, resulting in increased levels of both particulate iro ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 8 2015 - 8:30am

What Do Damaged Walnuts Smell Like? Why They Cause An Insect Frenzy

In collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture, the University of the Basque Country Department of Analytical Chemistry has identified the volatile compounds in damaged walnuts that insects find attractive and which is threatening the h ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 11 2015 - 1:00pm