Chemistry
Sign up for our newsletter
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Switch Hitters: Antibacterial compounds target new mechanism to kill microbes
Recently discovered ribonucleic acid segments, called riboswitches, may become prime targets for new antibacterial drugs.
- Chemistry
For sweat’s sake
Soldiers and emergency crews may one day find comfort as well as safety in their chemical-protection gear, now that researchers have created a breathable, chemical-blocking composite material.
- Chemistry
Happy fish?
Researchers have detected antidepressant drugs in the brains of fish captured downstream of sewage-treatment plants.
By Janet Raloff - Chemistry
Together and apart
Chemists report the first chemical reaction that can split apart and recombine the two atoms in molecular hydrogen without using an expensive metal catalyst.
- Chemistry
Chemical Pop-Up Books
Chemists and engineers have designed two-dimensional structures that self-fold into functional, three-dimensional objects, such as miniature chemistry laboratories and drug-delivery devices.
- Chemistry
Were Viking landers blind to life?
The Viking landers may have missed potential signs of life when they explored Mars in 1976.
- Chemistry
Unnatural success
Chemists report the first synthesis of a promising antibiotic that other researchers recently discovered in nature.
- Chemistry
Back on the Table? Element 118 is served up again
A team of nuclear chemists from the United States and Russia have announced the brief reappearance of element 118.
- Chemistry
Pretty in Pictures: Details of molecular machinery gain Nobel
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to a researcher who determined the structure, in atomic detail, of RNA polymerase taken from yeast cells.
- Chemistry
Cell-Surface Stories
The latest generation of microelectrodes is reaching into biological realms to detect the ebbs and flows of chemicals at the surfaces of cells.
- Chemistry
Catalyst cleans up
A new chemical catalyst can remove the pollutant perchlorate from water.
- Chemistry
Altering ant uniforms
The chemical coat that an invasive ant species relies upon to recognize its kin may someday serve to turn family into foe.