Chemistry

The Value Of Chemistry Results

Chemical research has traditionally been organized in either experiment-centric or molecule-centric models. This makes sense from the chemist's standpoint. When we think about doing chemistry, we conceptualize experiments as the fundamental unit of pr ...

Article - Jean-Claude Bradley - Jan 3 2008 - 5:09pm

The Mystery Of Glassy Water

Water has some amazing properties. It is the only natural substance found in all three states — solid, liquid and gas — within the range of natural Earth temperatures. Its solid form is less dense than its liquid form, which is why ice floats. It can absor ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2008 - 2:31pm

Not A Myth: Quinine Synthesis In The Lab Using Old Methods Confirmed

Drugs derived from cinchona bark, known as cinchona alkaloids, have been used in healing from ancient times. The most prominent representative of this group is quinine, a bitter substance contained in beverages such as tonic water and used in modern medici ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 3 2008 - 5:48pm

An Environmentally Friendly Approach To Ethylene

Ethylene, the world's most commonly produced organic compound, is used many types of industries. Farmers and horticulturalists use it as a plant hormone to promote flowering and ripening, especially in bananas while doctors and surgeons have long used ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 5 2008 - 12:36pm

Skittering Hot Oxygen Atoms Are A Mystery Of Basic Catalytic Chemistry

The two atoms of an oxygen molecule severed by a metal catalyst usually behave identically, but new research reveals that on a particular catalyst, one oxygen atom plants itself while the other moves away, probably with energy partially stolen from the sta ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 8 2008 - 5:16pm

Nanoparticle Coating Means "Self-Cleaning" Wool And Silk Fabric

Wool skirts and silk ties may avoid those pricey trips to the dry-cleaner in the future and clean themselves, researchers in Australia and China suggest. They are reporting development of a nanoparticle coating that could lead to “self-cleaning” wool and s ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2008 - 1:27pm

Prototype For Nano-Newton Force Measuring Device

When chemists want to measure the bonding forces in molecules or other most minuscule forces very accurately, they have to calibrate their measuring instruments (for example the cantilevers, i.e. the measuring tips, of scanning force microscopes). And if i ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 24 2008 - 9:31am

Extracting Gold From Materials Without Poisoning The Planet

Cyanide is poison. Detective writers like it. Gold miners like it. The environment; not so much. In the year 2000 cyanide got into the Tisa river and then into the Danube through a small Austrian gold-mining company's efforts using cyanide to extract ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2008 - 6:45pm

Full Metal Alchemist: Researchers Magnetize Gold And Silver Atoms

An international team has achieved, by means of a controlled chemical process, that atoms of gold, silver and copper- intrinsically non-magnetic (not attracted to a magnet)- become magnetic. According to the research, the magnetism appears reduce the dimen ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2008 - 10:30am

Scientists Close In On The 50 Year Mystery Of DEET

Fifty years have passed since the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army invented DEET to protect soldiers from disease-transmitting insects and in the process made civilian life outdoors nicer as well. Despite its effectiveness, and dec ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 14 2008 - 12:22am