Posts Tagged ‘chemistry’
Science & Technology - Oct 5, 2009 12:01 - 0 Comments
Model suggests it’s raining rocks on exoplanet
WASHINGTON-ST. LOUIS (US)—An exoplanet discovered last February by the COROT space telescope is close enough to its star that its “day-face” is hot enough to melt rock. Theoretical models suggest the planet has a gaseous-rock atmosphere and boiling oceans on its surface. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 2, 2009 12:55 - 0 Comments
Map helps quantum dots go ‘designer’
U. MICHIGAN (US)—The creation of the first atomic-scale maps of quantum dots may speed progress toward the goal of producing “designer dots” that can be tailored for specific applications. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 17, 2009 19:27 - 7 Comments
Nanotubes may yield greener solar cells
In a carbon nanotube-based photodiode, electrons (blue) and holes (red) release their excess energy to efficiently create more electron-hole pairs when light is shined on the device. (Credit: Nathan Gabor)
Science & Technology - Sep 11, 2009 17:00 - 1 Comment
DNA crystals—now showing in 3D
Three-dimensional DNA structures were created by using single-stranded “sticky ends” that link double helices in DNA triangles that point in different directions.
Science & Technology - Aug 31, 2009 13:19 - 1 Comment
Candid camera at the nanoscale
“This is engineering at the ultimate atomistic limit,” says V. Ara Apkarian, who is leading a team attempting to record the first time-lapse images of single molecules. “There’s no question the tools that enable the observation and manipulation of one molecule at a time will be the pillars on which the field of nanotechnology will be built.”
Earth & Environment - Aug 31, 2009 11:52 - 1 Comment
Move over trees. Here comes the sun
Scientists are exploring new ways to tap the sun’s energy directly, without the help of plants, to create potential fuel sources. “The main problem with current solar power technology is that if the sun’s not shining, you’re out of luck,” says Tom Meyer. “Solar fuels give us the ability to collect and stockpile that energy.”
Science & Technology - Aug 28, 2009 16:59 - 0 Comments
Fruit flies killed by nanoparticles
Microscopy shows a clean foot and leg of a fruit fly (top), and a foot and leg covered with carbon nanostructures (bottom). Adhering nanostructures may have impeded movement, respiration and vision in adult flies but did not appear toxic to fly larvae that ingested it.
Science & Technology - Aug 27, 2009 16:42 - 2 Comments
Nanoscale, Lego by Lego
A tiny white ball is released into a Lego board with peg pieces, immersed in a tank filled with glycerol, to help researchers visualize what happens at nanoscale in microfluidic arrays. (Credit: Will Kirk/ Johns Hopkins University)
Science & Technology - Aug 18, 2009 11:19 - 0 Comments
To get a reaction, molecules do the twist
A folded molecule is a new type of catalyst, and can selectively speed chemical reactions. A chain-like molecule (grey, lower right) was designed to fold in a helical pattern, mimicking the folding of peptides found in nature. This arrangement allows it to selectively interact with a pair of mirror-image chemical compounds (in green). The trajectory depicts how the folded molecule interacts with only one member of the pair, and selectively accelerates its conversion to a new chemical form.
Science & Technology - Aug 14, 2009 4:00 - 0 Comments
‘Kissing’ tetrahedra break world record
“We wanted to know this: What’s the densest way to pack space?” says Salvatore Torquato. “It’s a notoriously difficult problem to solve, and it involves complex objects that, at the time, we simply did not know how to handle.” (Courtesy: Torquato Laboratory)
Health & Medicine - Aug 6, 2009 4:00 - 0 Comments
Case cracked: Team decodes HIV genome structure
A research team has decoded the secondary structure of a complete HIV-1 RNA genome. According to the report featured on the cover of the August 6 issue of the journal Nature, the team identified numerous highly structured motifs—such as the one pictured above—and can infer functions for many of these motifs. (Credit: Lars Sahl/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Earth & Environment - Aug 5, 2009 13:13 - 0 Comments
Solar cells with perfect mix of plastics
David Ginger, a University of Washington associate professor of chemistry, displays the tiny probe for a conductive atomic force microscope, used to record photocurrents on scales of millionths of an inch in carbon-based solar cells. (Credit: Mary Levin/University of Washington)
Earth & Environment - Jul 31, 2009 15:33 - 0 Comments
Solar energy solution buried in the mud
“We envision producing hydrogen in a photochemically driven process, where the electrons and protons needed to produce the hydrogen are furnished by water,” chemist Brian Dyer explains. “You could then burn the hydrogen as fuel and get water back. It would be a perfectly clean cycle.”
Science & Technology - Jul 31, 2009 14:22 - 0 Comments
Need nanotubes? Go fly a kite
Chemist Bob Hauge and his coauthors say the odako bundles are analogous to the gigantic kites that take many hands to fly, hence the many lines that trail from them. In this case, the lines are nanotubes, hollow cylinders of pure carbon.
Earth & Environment - Jul 29, 2009 17:15 - 1 Comment
Amphibians don’t cozy up to warmer climes
“We could see changes to ecosystem structure and stability if cold-blooded species change their life histories to accommodate warmer temperatures but warm-blooded species do not,” says researcher Santiago Salinas.
Science & Technology - Jul 28, 2009 9:48 - 0 Comments
Tiny electronics via silicon with ‘afterburners’
“This gives the Intels and the Microns and the Samsungs of the world another tool to try, and I guarantee you they’ll be trying this,” says James Tour about a new technique that may improve integrated circuit design. (The microchips above feature an integrated circuit visible through the transparent window. Courtesy: Richard Wheeler/Wikimedia Commons)
Earth & Environment - Jul 22, 2009 10:52 - 0 Comments
In the air, ozone and some nasty chemistry
“We should be monitoring it and incorporating it into atmospheric models,” says Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, the study’s lead author, about a newly discovered, ozone-boosting chemical reaction. “We still don’t really understand important elements of the atmosphere’s chemistry.”
Health & Medicine - Jun 29, 2009 13:39 - 0 Comments
Detector spots respiratory infections much earlier
Vanderbilt University researchers David Wright (right) and Frederick Haselton (left) have developed a new detection method that can catch respiratory infections at a very early stage. The system “could easily be packaged in a disposable device about the size of a ballpoint pen,” says Haselton. (Credit Steve Green/Vanderbilt university)
