Chemistry
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Toxic playgrounds
No kid should ever play in arsenic. Especially at school. Yet many probably do, according to findings of a study presented today.
- Chemistry
PCBs: When green paint isn’t ‘green’
It seems we're literally painting the air -- from the Great Lakes to Antarctica -- with persistent pollutants. Including at least one whose safety has never been studied.
- Chemistry
Case of the toxic gingerbread man
Featured blog: A search for the source of some indoor-air anomalies turns up a surprising culprit.
- Life
Hormones give lantern sharks the glow
In a first, a study shows that bioluminescence can be controlled by slow-acting hormones, not rapid-fire nerve cells.
- Earth
Nanoparticles’ indirect threat to DNA
Tiny metal nanoparticles can damage DNA, essentially by triggering toxic gossip.
- 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.
- Chemistry
How leaves could monitor pollution
Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.
- Chemistry
Tongue’s sour-sensing cells taste carbonation
A protein splits carbon dioxide to give fizz its unique flavor.
- 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.
- Life
Paralyzed, then unparalyzed, by the light
Different types of light freeze and then reinvigorate roundworms fed a shape-changing molecule.
- Chemistry
Bad perfume: Cardboard’s intense scents
Wet cardboard and food should not share the same air space.
- 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.
