Chemistry

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Tech

    Seeing red: Next installment in BPA-paper saga

    Consumers now have a way to identify cash register tape that is free of endocrine-disrupting chemical.

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  2. Humans

    Building a better bomb sniffer

    A new handheld device detects TATP, an explosive that is easy to make but hard to detect.

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  3. Tech

    Plenty of foods harbor BPA, study finds

    Some communities have banned the sale of plastic baby bottles and sippy cups that are manufactured using bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking chemical. In a few grocery stores, cashiers have already begun donning gloves to avoid handling thermal receipt paper whose BPA-based surface coating may rub off on the fingers. But how’s a family to avoid exposure to this contaminant when it taints the food supply?

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  4. Chemistry

    Skin is no barrier to BPA, study shows

    The new finding suggests handling store receipts could be a significant source of internal exposure to the hormone-mimicking chemical.

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  5. Chemistry

    Breathe better with bitter

    Taste receptors in the lungs open airways in response to acrid gases.

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  6. Chemistry

    Guards of the blood-brain barrier identified

    Specialized cells called pericytes are crucial to protecting the central nervous system, two new studies demonstrate.

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  7. Chemistry

    Bacteria go electric

    Microbes that wire themselves up could turn waste into power.

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  8. Chemistry

    Basic tool for making organic molecules wins chemistry Nobel

    Three researchers get prize for developing methods that use the metal palladium to catalyze the synthesis of complex carbon carbon-containing molecules for drugs, electronics and other applications.

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  9. Physics

    Physics Nobel goes to graphene

    Discovered only six years ago, the 2-D carbon sheets have spun off a new field of research.

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  10. Chemistry

    BP oil: Gulf sediment at risk, oceanographer claims

    Most of BP’s spilled oil remains in the Gulf — with little sign of degrading, according to Ian MacDonald of Florida State University. And much of this surviving oil could be in sediment or on its way there, the scientist reported at a September 27 meeting in Washington, D.C.

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  11. Tech

    Tiny tools aren’t toys

    Enzyme-based machinery could have medical applications.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Life’s cold start

    Primordial molecules could have replicated themselves in a slushy place, new experiments suggest.

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