Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Life
New imaging technique catches DNA ‘blinking’ on
Dye-free imaging technique zooms in below 10-nanometer threshold, allowing new cellular views.
- Chemistry
Helium’s inertness defied by high-pressure compound
At pressures over a million atmospheres, helium reacts with sodium.
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
Readers respond to antibiotics, carbon bonds and more
Allergic overreactions, the possibility of silicon-based life and more in reader feedback.
- 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.
- Chemistry
LSD’s grip on brain protein could explain drug’s long-lasting effects
The newly discovered structure of a human serotonin receptor linked to LSD could reveal why the drug’s hallucinogenic effects last so long.
- Physics
Chemists strike gold, solve mystery about precious metal’s properties
A longstanding puzzle about gold’s properties has been solved with more complex theoretical calculations.
