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Tetragonula carbonaria combs. Image credit: Tobias Smith.

Researchers Solve Mystery of How Stingless Bees Produce Trehalulose-Rich Honey

Aug 26, 2021 by News Staff

Organic chemists at the University of Queensland have found that an unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose, which is a feature of stingless...

The ‘Gould’ violin by Antonio Stradivari.

Stradivari and Guarneri Treated Soundboards with Various Chemicals, Study Shows

Aug 18, 2021 by News Staff

Two renowned violin makers from Cremona, Italy, Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù,’ treated their instruments with various chemicals...

Apis mellifera ligustica. Image credit: Scaccabarozzi et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253838.

Angry Bees Produce Richer, More Protein-Dense Venom, Study Finds

Aug 16, 2021 by News Staff

Chemists have analyzed protein diversity in venom produced by Apis mellifera ligustica in the marri (Corymbia calophylla) ecosystem in southern-western...

A pure NaK drop exposed to water vapor in vacuum. Image credit: Mason et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03646-5.

Scientists Create Metallic Water Solution

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Insulating materials can in principle be made metallic by applying pressure. In the case of pure water, this is estimated to require a pressure of 48 Mbars...

Silicon(IV) with a square-planar configuration represents a transition state. Image credit: Ebner & Greb, doi: 10.1016/j.chempr.2021.05.002.

Researchers Synthesize Square-Planar Silicon-IV

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

A duo of chemists from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg has synthesized and characterized the first species of silicon(IV)...

The structure of the superlattice material Bi4O4SeCl2. Image credit: University of Liverpool.

Newly-Developed Material Has Extremely Low Thermal Conductivity

Jul 16, 2021 by News Staff

The new superlattice material, Bi4O4SeCl2, developed by a team of scientists from the United Kingdom and France, combines two different arrangements of...

Biphenylene network: the upper part of the image shows schematically the linking of the carbon atoms, forming squares, hexagons, and octagons; the lower part is an image of the network obtained with high-resolution microscopy. Image credit: University of Marburg / Aalto University.

Scientists Synthesize New Allotrope of Carbon

May 24, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Marburg and Aalto University has synthesized an ultraflat biphenylene network, which is atomically thin like...

Quartz vial containing 300 micrograms of einsteinium-253. The illumination produced is a result of the intense radiation from einsteinium-253, which alpha decays with a half-life of 20.5 days. Image credit: R.G. Haire, U.S. Department of Energy.

Einsteinium: Scientists Reveal Chemical Secrets of Elusive Transplutonium Element

Feb 4, 2021 by News Staff

Transplutonium elements are a group of metals that lie at the edge of the periodic table. As a result, the patterns and trends used to predict the physics...

Copper represents an effective catalyst in reducing carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons or oxygenates, but it is often plagued by a low product selectivity and limited long-term stability. Choi et al report that copper nanowires with rich surface steps exhibit a remarkably high Faradaic efficiency for ethylene that can be maintained for over 200 hours. Image credit: Choi et al, doi: 10.1038/s41929-020-00504-x.

Scientists Find Efficient Way to Convert Carbon Dioxide into Ethylene

Sep 17, 2020 by News Staff

A team of U.S. researchers has developed copper nanowires with rich surface steps to catalyze a chemical reaction that reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions...

Stable blue whirl observed in an experiment. Image credit: H. Xiao, University of Science and Technology of China.

Structure of Mysterious Blue Whirl Revealed

Aug 14, 2020 by News Staff

The blue whirl consists of three different flame structures that swirl together into one otherworldly blue ring, according to new research. Stable blue...

Tetragonula carbonaria worker bees are observed to spend time clustered at the growing edges of terraces. Image credit: Tim Heard.

Chemists Find Biologically Active Sugar in Honey of Stingless Bees

Aug 3, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose is a major component of stingless bee honeys from Malaysia, Australia and Brazil, according to a new...

Cai et al demonstrate the catalytic activity of Ag and Au clusters physically deposited onto titanium dioxide (TiO2) powders with the MACS in the catalytic ozonation of nitrophenol; compared to traditional catalysts reported in the literature, the catalysts produced by the MACS exhibit at least comparable activities and show excellent reusability without evident degradation after five cycles: (a) photograph and (b) schematic diagram of the MACS system; (c) photograph of the Ag cluster on TiO2 powder catalyst produced (1 g), showing the color change from white to brown. Image credit: Cai et al, doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c05955.

Scientists Develop Environmentally Friendly Method for Removing Chemicals from Water

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

The newly-invented method, named the matrix assembly cluster source (MACS), involves no solvent and is a step change in the approach to water treatment...

Physicists Create New Isotope of Mendelevium

Jun 24, 2020 by News Staff

In an experiment performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron, a team of physicists successfully created a new isotope of the...

Heavy Water Has Sweet Taste, New Study Confirms

Jun 1, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Highly purified heavy water has a distinctly sweeter taste than same-purity normal (light) water, according to a study conducted by researchers from the...

Zhang et al designed a peptide that can bind to part of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein. Image credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT.

Newly-Synthesized Peptide Could Disarm SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus

Mar 31, 2020 by News Staff

Chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have chemically synthesized a new peptide (a short protein fragment) that can bind to part...

Model of the hemolithin molecule: space-filling mode (top), ball and stick (center), enlarged view of iron, oxygen and lithium termination (bottom). White = H; orange = Li; gray = C; blue = N; red = O and green = Fe. Hydrogen bonds are shown by dotted lines. Image credit: McGeoch et al, arXiv: 2002.11688.

Researchers Find Extraterrestrial Protein in Meteorite Acfer 086

Mar 26, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

A research team led by Harvard University scientist Julie McGeoch has found a never-before-seen protein inside a meteorite called Acfer 086. A sample of...

Turner et al estimated a LEGO brick could survive in the ocean for as many as 1,300 years. Image credit: Turner et al, doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114299.

LEGO Bricks Could Survive in Ocean for as Many as 1,300 Years

Mar 17, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Plymouth, Rame Peninsula Beach Care and the Lego Lost at Sea Project examined the extent to which classic...

Durian fruits (Durio zibethinus). Image credit: Truthseeker08.

Researchers Find Rare Amino Acid in Durian

Mar 3, 2020 by News Staff

A rare amino acid called ethionine is present in the pulp of the durian (Durio zibethinus), a fruit called the ‘king of all fruits,’ and plays a key...

The synthetic bioplastic developed by Kainulainen et al. Image credit: University of Oulu.

Novel Synthetic Bioplastic Protects against UV Radiation

Feb 20, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers in Sweden has developed a new bioplastic that, unlike traditional carbon-based plastics or other bioplastics, provides protection...