Chemistry

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Chemistry

    Aerosols cloud the climate picture

    A NASA model incorporates how atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases interact, yielding better estimates of the gases' warming and cooling effects.

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  2. Chemistry

    How leaves could monitor pollution

    Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.

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  3. Chemistry

    Tongue’s sour-sensing cells taste carbonation

    A protein splits carbon dioxide to give fizz its unique flavor.

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  4. Life

    Fly pheromones can say yes and no

    A new study begins to decode pheromone messages and finds that the same chemicals that attract can also maintain the species barrier.

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  5. Life

    Paralyzed, then unparalyzed, by the light

    Different types of light freeze and then reinvigorate roundworms fed a shape-changing molecule.

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  6. Chemistry

    Bad perfume: Cardboard’s intense scents

    Wet cardboard and food should not share the same air space.

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  7. Chemistry

    New view reveals how DNA fits into cell

    A new technique allows scientists to map the 3-D structure of the entire human genome.

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  8. Chemistry

    Nobel Prize in chemistry commends finding and use of green fluorescent protein

    One researcher is awarded for discovering the protein that helps jellyfish glow and two for making the protein into a crucial tool for biologists.

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  9. Chemistry

    Concerned about BPA: Check your receipts

    Some cash register receipts offer the potential for relatively large exposures to an estrogen mimic.

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  10. Chemistry

    Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for ribosome research

    Ada Yonath, Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan will share the prize for unmasking the structure of the ribosome.

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  11. Chemistry

    Flowerless plants make fancy amber

    A new analysis suggests that ancient seed plants made a version of the fossilized resin credited to more modern relatives

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  12. Chemistry

    Earth’s ‘boring billion’ years blamed on sulfur-loving microbes

    A new study suggests these organisms could have kept oxygen levels low and waters toxic, stalling the evolution of complex life.

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