UV-irradiated amorphous ice behaves like liquid at low temperatures
Ice analogs mimicking interstellar ice behave like liquids at temperatures between -210°C and -120°C according to Hokkaido University researchers. This liquid-like ice may enhance the formation of...
View ArticleAstronomers discover traces of methyl chloride around infant stars and nearby...
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected the faint molecular fingerprint of methyl chloride - a chemical commonly produced by industrial and biological...
View ArticlePesky pollutants that persist, courtesy of nature
In the late 1970s, the United States banned the production of an assortment of synthetic pesticides, insulators, coolants and flame retardants due to their toxicity and the fact that they stick around...
View ArticleNASA satellite tracks ozone pollution by monitoring its key ingredients
Ozone pollution near Earth's surface is one of the main ingredients of summertime smog. It is also not directly measurable from space due to the abundance of ozone higher in the atmosphere, which...
View ArticleBiologists taught infusoria to fight poisons
A team of scientists from Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences has found a new substance with antioxidant properties able to protect living organisms from toxic...
View ArticleResearchers develop low energy, cost-effective wastewater purification system
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has come up with a novel approach to treat industrial wastewater using electricity as a reagent for purification. The method can...
View ArticleUnderappreciated microbes now get credit for holding down two jobs in soil
In soil, bacteria and other microbes are well known for their ability to decompose organic materials, releasing carbon to the atmosphere. Less understood is how microbes add persistent carbon compounds...
View ArticleReductions in individual plant growth sometimes boost community resilience
In sports, sometimes a player has to take one for the team. The same appears to be true in the plant world, where reduced individual growth can benefit the broader community.
View ArticleA novel way to synthesize antioxidant substances
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University together with their colleagues from USA and Japan have proposed a novel way to address the most important and fundamental challenge of organic chemistry,...
View ArticleElectronic nose developed to sniff out colon diseases
A team of researchers from the Gandia campus of Valencia's Polytechnic University and the La Fe Health Investigation Institute have developed a prototype of an electronic nose that can distinguish...
View ArticleSynchrotron study reveals oxygen's influence on the chemistry of atmospheric...
Chemical reactions that produce pollutants in the atmosphere, and the chemistry of fuel combustion inside a vehicle engine, have some striking similarities. For each set of reactions, oxygen's role is...
View ArticleRover could discover life on Mars – here's what it would take to prove it
Finding past or present microbial life on Mars would without doubt be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And in just two years' time, there's a big opportunity to do so, with two...
View ArticleNew smart sensor could revolutionise crime and terrorism prevention
Crime, terrorism prevention, environmental monitoring, reusable electronics, medical diagnostics and food safety, are just a few of the far-reaching areas where a new chemical sensor could...
View ArticleIngredients for life revealed in meteorites that fell to Earth
Two wayward space rocks, which separately crashed to Earth in 1998 after circulating in our solar system's asteroid belt for billions of years, share something else in common: the ingredients for life....
View ArticleEmissions of volatile organic compounds higher than previously assumed
In the scientific journal PNAS, researchers from Innsbruck, Austria, present the world's first chemical fingerprint of urban emission sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Accordingly, the...
View ArticleIs the origin of life just cosmic dust in the wind?
"The cosmos is within us. We're made of star stuff." Thanks to a new study, this famous phrase by iconic astronomer Carl Sagan, now has some more support.
View ArticleHow smelly is your rubbish?
According to some estimates, every year, over 8 billion tonnes of urban waste are generated worldwide, and there is every reason to believe that this figure will increase in coming years due to...
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