Chemistry

  1. Life

    How a mushroom gets its glow

    For the first time, biologists have pinpointed the compound that lights up in fungal bioluminescence.

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  2. Life

    How a mushroom gets its glow

    For the first time, biologists have pinpointed the compound that lights up in fungal bioluminescence.

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  3. Climate

    Plot twist in methane mystery blames chemistry, not emissions, for recent rise

    The recent rise in atmospheric methane concentrations may have been caused by changes in atmospheric chemistry, not increased emissions from human activities, two new studies suggest.

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  4. Chemistry

    New tech harvests drinking water from (relatively) dry air using only sunlight

    A prototype device harvests moisture from dry air and separates it into drinkable water using only sunlight.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Competing ideas abound for how Earth got its moon

    The moon may have formed from one giant impact or from about 20 small ones.

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  6. Life

    Life on Earth may have begun as dividing droplets

    Chemical droplets could split and reproduce in the presence of an energy source, new computer simulations suggest.

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  7. Chemistry

    New, greener catalysts are built for speed

    Researchers are designing catalysts to move chemical reactions without using precious metals, or at least using less of them.

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  8. Life

    New imaging technique catches DNA ‘blinking’ on

    Dye-free imaging technique zooms in below 10-nanometer threshold, allowing new cellular views.

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  9. Chemistry

    Helium’s inertness defied by high-pressure compound

    At pressures over a million atmospheres, helium reacts with sodium.

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  10. Oceans

    Fleeting dead zones can muck with seafloor life for decades

    Low-oxygen conditions can fundamentally disrupt seafloor ecosystems and increase carbon burial, new research shows.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Readers respond to antibiotics, carbon bonds and more

    Allergic overreactions, the possibility of silicon-based life and more in reader feedback.

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  12. Earth

    Oxygen flooded Earth’s atmosphere earlier than thought

    The Great Oxidation Event that enabled the eventual evolution of complex life began 100 million years earlier than once thought, new dating of South African rock suggests.

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