All Stories by Aimee Cunningham
- Earth
Toxic Leftovers: Microbes convert flame retardant
Bacteria can break down a common flame retardant into more-toxic forms.
- Chemistry
Carbon Goes Glam: Treated carbon dots fluoresce
Chemists have fashioned tiny dots of carbon that glow in response to light.
- Chemistry
Gritty Clues
Archaeologists are tying chemical signatures found in the soil to past human activity.
- Ecosystems
Top-Down Lowdown: Predators shape coastal ecosystem
The health of southern California kelp forests may depend more on the ecosystem's predator population than the forest's access to nutrients.
- Chemistry
Leaking lead
A disinfectant used by some U.S. water utilities dissolves lead in laboratory experiments.
- Tech
Directing tubular traffic
Researchers have shown that they can steer individual protein tubes along tiny channels of a glass chip.
- Materials Science
Feeling cagey
Researchers have discovered that gold can take the shape of nanoscale, hollow cages.
- Earth
Tainted by Cleanser: Antimicrobial agent persists in sludge
About 76 percent of a commonly used antimicrobial agent exits sewage-treatment plants as a component of the sludge that's often used as a farm fertilizer.
- Earth
Particular Problems
Toxicologists and chemists are forging a new field called nanotoxicology as they grapple with assessing the safety of engineered nanoparticles.
- Tech
Long-lasting liposomes
A coat of nanoparticles can prevent a popular lab-made capsule from fusing with its neighbors and losing its structure.
- Materials Science
Microbe holds fast
A common aquatic microbe makes a sticky substance that produces the strongest biological adhesion ever discovered.
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Picking Pathways: Small molecule boosts morphine effect
Some small molecules affect specific pathways in one of the body's most common cell-regulating systems.
