Chemistry

Life

Marine creature cooks up chemical defense from food

The sea hare transforms a benign algal pigment into a noxious molecule to help ward off crabs and other predators, new studies show.

Physics

A giant proposal for a new type of molecule

Atoms linked across vast distances, can point in two directions at once

Chemistry

Vodka’s bonds may influence taste

Differences in vodka brands reflect structural variations in cages of water molecules encasing ethanol, new research suggests.

Humans

Teeth as a forensic clock

Here’s something we’re likely to see that endearing techno whiz kid, Abby Sciuto, whip out of her forensic arsenal next season on NCIS. They’re chemical and nuclear technologies to date teeth. When paired up, new research indicates, they’ll identify not only when people were born but also the age at which they clocked out — thereby pointing to the general date of death.

Chemistry

Exposure of moms-to-be to hormone-mimicking chemical may affect kids years later

In mice, BPA can cause pregnancy complications that can also trigger later metabolic effects in both moms and grown male offspring.

Chemistry

A new source of dioxins: Clean hands

Manufacturers have been adding the germ fighter triclosan to soaps, hand washes, and a range of other products for years. But here’s a dirty little secret: Once it washes down the drain, that triclosan can spawn dioxins.

Earth

Gulf spill: BP gets go ahead for full-scale underwater use of dispersants

All week, U.S. federal agencies have been evaluating an unprecedented use of oil dispersants: to break up crude spewing from the seafloor. BP won preliminary approval to try them in limited tests against an ongoing torrent of oil spewing from the base of a devastated exploration rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Late morning on May 15, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard issued their joint approval for a scale-up of the novel subsea application of these chemicals.

Animals

Fight or flee, it’s in the pee

Researchers get a better understanding of how mice smell a rat, or a cat, and maybe even a snake.

Chemistry

EPA issues greenhouse-gas rules for new factories and more

EPA released new rules on greenhouse-gas emissions for new power plants, factories and oil refineries — any big new facility, really that emits huge amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, or any of several other classes of chemicals. Existing facilities can continue to spew greenhouse gases at current levels.

Chemistry

Chinese would turn cigarette butts into steel’s guardian

People smoke a lot of cigarettes, which leads to a lot of trash. Tom Novotny has done the math: An estimated 5.6 trillion butts each year end up littering the global environment. But Chinese researchers have a solution: recycling. Their new data indicate that an aqueous extract of stinky butts makes a great corrosion inhibitor for steel.

Chemistry

Another plastics ingredient raises safety concerns

Bisphenol A’s ‘twin’ may be more potent at perturbing estrogen signals.

Chemistry

Decon Green can clean up the most toxic messes, developers claim

A new decontaminant could be a more benign alternative for cleaning up after chemical and biological accidents.