Chemistry

Why polluted coal is poisoning people in the Chinese countryside

In rural areas of Southwestern China, villagers’ habits of picking up loose coal for use in their homes has lead to an epidemic that may have poisoned millions. The coal is exposed through erosion, and then picked up by locals and used for cooking and heating. Unfortunately the coal is unusually high in fluoride, which…

io9 Tim Barribeau Oct 21

A rare, light-absorbing property of pumpkin seed oil

The oil in pumpkin seeds has a very rare quality. In a thin layer, it’s green. In deep pools, it is red. Pumpkin seed oil is one of the most dichromatic substances in the world. Pumpkin seed oil has a nutty taste, a thick body, and a host of people claiming that it healthies up…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 21

New technology allows us to draw, erase, and redraw wires on circuitboards

Proving that our childhood years spent with crayola firmly in hand haven’t gone to waste, new research from University of Wisconsin-Madison uses a scanning probe microscope to draw and erase conducting nanowires. The researchers put three-atom-thick layers of lanthanum-aluminum-oxide on top of strontium-titanium-oxide, which then forms an “electron gas” between the layers. The tip of…

io9 Tim Barribeau Oct 20

Scientists invent chemical sensor that can detect shoe bombs

Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is an explosive that’s been used in past shoe-bombing attempts. TATP is a difficult chemical to detect, but researchers have developed a colorimetric sensor array that can expose minute amounts of TATP vapor in the air. The array, which was developed by Kenneth Suslick and Hengwei Lin of the University of Illinois,…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Oct 20

An experiment with surface tension

Here’s an easy experiment with pepper and soap that allows you to see surface tension – and its destruction. Photo by John Bush, Tristan Gilet/MIT. Shake some pepper, carefully, into a cup of water. If you let it fall lightly on top of the water, many of the flakes will stay afloat. They’ll wander around,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 20

The science of autumnal beauty

This gorgeous photograph of a tree-lined avenue in Nottinghamshire, England, demonstrates a basic principle of chemistry. Photo by Carl Mick. Leaf cells contain a combination of chemicals which produce different colors: Chlorophyll, which creates the familiar green in leaves; carotenoids, which create yellow, orange and brown (you see them a lot in corn and carrots);…

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 8

Chemists fold DNA into Möbius strips

Möbius strips are special loops that only have one continuous side. Now we’ve built the smallest Möbius strips ever – out of DNA. Here you can see the nanometer-sized DNA loops, folded like origami. The ability to create complex structures on the tiniest of scales is one of the great challenges of nanotechnology. In particular,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Oct 4

Why old cannonballs brought up from the sea can still explode

A warning to salvagers. Underwater conditions ‘arm’ iron cannonballs and cookware. Bringing them to the surface can cause them to explode. When poking through underwater wrecks, the traditional threats to salvage crews and historians have been entrapment in the wreckage, kraken, and vengeful ghosts. It turns out that those who make it out alive are…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 30

How salmonella ‘terraforms’ your intestines

The bowels are a difficult place to live. It’s damp and crowded and the landlord keeps trying to kick you out. Find out how salmonella uses the body’s immune response to transform the inside of your body into someplace liveable. The major problem with living in someone’s intestinal tract is it’s unlikely that you’re next…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 21

Self-renewing solar cells grow like plants

Scientists at MIT mimic plant processes to build solar cells that renew themselves like living beings. Living things don’t have that many advantages over machines. We’re not as quick, or as precise, and we don’t have as good a memory. Moreover, while they are made of tough stuff, we are mostly composed of things that…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 21

Wisdom teeth could provide your own private bonanza of stem cells

Wisdom teeth, the vestigial molars that ancient humans used to grind plants but nowadays serve no purpose, might have their uses after all. The teeth possess a gold mine of cells that can be reprogrammed into pristine, treatment-ready stem cells. Most people’s wisdom teeth, or third molars, grow in sometime between the ages of 17…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 10

Genetically-engineered yeast brings us closer to a biofuel future

Biofuels like ethanol could help us reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, but growing crops for ethanol involves using up huge swaths of valuable farmland. Now we might have a solution – thanks to some re-engineered yeast. Ethanol and other biofuels face a number of hurdles in becoming a viable alternative energy source, and one…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 10

Scientists unveil more proof that water still flows on Mars

We now know two things about the Martian atmosphere’s carbon dioxide: volcanic eruptions created the gas quite recently, and it probably reacted with liquid water. Taken together, these discoveries confirm water is still a major player in Martian geology. NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander has provided the most precise readings yet on the carbon dioxide gas…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 9

We owe the existence of life on Earth to metals like copper and iron

The origin of life on Earth poses a basic paradox: basic biochemicals like nucleotides and catalysts like proteins need each other to exist, but one must have come first. We may now have an answer, thanks to the transition metals. In order to build complex catalysts like proteins or ribozymes, you first need biochemicals, which…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 6

You can safely stick your hand in liquid nitrogen…but you probably shouldn’t

Liquid nitrogen is famously one of the world’s coldest substances, freezing and shattering anything it comes into contact with. But if you know what you’re doing, you can safely stick your hand in it – as one brave blogger demonstrated. Of course, before we get to the awesome footage of Popular Science blogger Theodore Grey…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 30

Educational Chemistry Crayons: “Hey Mom, Pass the Barium Nitrate Flame”

At least that’s what the creator of this product hopes your child will say when they get these crayons, which are labeled with the actual chemical used to give each colored wax stick its hue. If the information sticks, your kid should have an edge up in high school chemistry… and possibly a little confusion…

Tech News Christina Bonnington Aug 28

What do we mean by “how much oil is left” in the Gulf?

Flip on the news and you’ll see pundits a-go-go discussing the amount of oil left in the Gulf of Mexico. But how does one actually determine this amount? Diandra Leslie-Pelecky explores the fluidity of the figures and potential clean-up solutions. If Shakespeare were alive today, he might suggest that PR/branding/marketing people should go before lawyers.…

io9 Diandra Leslie-Pelecky - Cocktail Party Physics Aug 28

“Dry water” could be the next storage medium for dangerous chemicals

Despite the oxymoronic name, ‘dry water’ is very real. This bone-dry water-silica compound could provide a way to transport dangerous liquids and gases safely – inside trillions of water-drop sized packages. ‘Dry water’ is comprised of 95% water, with a thin layer of silica coating each droplet, essentially turning it into a dry powder. When…

io9 Tim Barribeau Aug 25

The Sun is changing the rate of radioactive decay, and breaking the rules of chemistry

The Sun is changing the supposedly constant rates of decay of radioactive elements, and we have absolutely no idea why. But an entirely unknown particle could be behind it. Plus, this discovery could help us predict deadly solar flares. It’s one of the most basic concepts in all of chemistry: Radioactive elements decay at a…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 23

Another once-promising Alzheimer’s treatment goes down the tubes

It’s bad enough news that Eli Lilly & Co. pulled the plug on an experimental Alzheimer’s Disease drug, semagacestat, after dreadful clinical trials. But Lilly’s failure makes it more likely Alzheimer’s treatment research has been going down a blind alley. It’s been over a hundred years since Alois Alzheimer first discovered excess proteins in the…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 18

Why polluted coal is poisoning people in the Chinese countryside

A rare, light-absorbing property of pumpkin seed oil

New technology allows us to draw, erase, and redraw wires on circuitboards

Scientists invent chemical sensor that can detect shoe bombs

An experiment with surface tension

The science of autumnal beauty

Chemists fold DNA into Möbius strips

Why old cannonballs brought up from the sea can still explode

How salmonella ‘terraforms’ your intestines

Self-renewing solar cells grow like plants

Wisdom teeth could provide your own private bonanza of stem cells

Genetically-engineered yeast brings us closer to a biofuel future

Scientists unveil more proof that water still flows on Mars

We owe the existence of life on Earth to metals like copper and iron

You can safely stick your hand in liquid nitrogen…but you probably shouldn’t

Educational Chemistry Crayons: “Hey Mom, Pass the Barium Nitrate Flame”

What do we mean by “how much oil is left” in the Gulf?

“Dry water” could be the next storage medium for dangerous chemicals

The Sun is changing the rate of radioactive decay, and breaking the rules of chemistry

Another once-promising Alzheimer’s treatment goes down the tubes

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