Innovation puts next-generation solar cells on the horizon

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (30) | comments 12

In a world first, a Monash University-led international research team has developed an innovative way to boost the output of the next generation of solar cells.


New way to break some of the strongest chemical bonds

New way to break some of the strongest chemical bonds

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (24) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Cornell University in the U.S. have found a new way of breaking two of the strongest chemical bonds, at ambient temperature and pressure, and this breakthrough could lead to ...


violin

Secret behind the composition of the varnish on Stradivari violins revealed

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (23) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Antonio Stradivari is the most famous instrument maker of all time. He was especially famous for his violins, which he produced in Cremona from about 1665 until his death in 1737. In particular, ...


Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows

Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (21) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.


Scientists isolate new antifreeze molecule in Alaska beetle

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 4

Scientists have identified a novel antifreeze molecule in a freeze-tolerant Alaska beetle able to survive temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike all previously described biological antifreezes that contain ...


Frederic Scheer, head of the plastics manufacturer Cereplast

Potatoes, algae replace oil in US company's plastics

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (17) | comments 5

Frederic Scheer is biding his time, convinced that by 2013 the price of oil will be so high that his bio-plastics, made from vegetables and plants, will be highly marketable.


Researchers develop cheap, easy 'kitchen chemistry' to perform formerly complex synthesis

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (12) | comments 0

A team at The Scripps Research Institute has made major strides in solving a problem that has been plaguing chemists for many years: how best to break carbon-hydrogen bonds and then to create new bonds to join molecules together. ...


Researchers Identify Key Molecules in Photosynthesis

Researchers Identify Key Molecules in Photosynthesis

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemistry professor Harry Frank led an international group of researchers that identified the molecules in algae which direct the organisms to convert sunlight into oxygen. The findings may ...


Study shows how gene action may lead to diabetes prevention, cure

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 2

A gene commonly studied by cancer researchers has been linked to the metabolic inflammation that leads to diabetes.


New platinum compound shows promise in tumor cells

New platinum compound shows promise in tumor cells

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used anticancer drug cisplatin but better able to destroy tumor cells.


Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes

Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Much like a tightly wound drum, red blood cells are in perpetual vibration. Those vibrations help the cells maintain their characteristic flattened oval or disc shape, which is critical to ...


Prussian blue linked to the origin of life

Prussian blue linked to the origin of life

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

A team of researchers from the Astrobiology Centre (INTA-CSIC) has shown that hydrogen cyanide, urea and other substances considered essential to the formation of the most basic biological molecules can be ...


Method makes refineries more efficient

Chemistry / Other

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Refineries could trim millions of dollars in energy costs annually by using a new method developed at Purdue University to rearrange the distillation sequence needed to separate crude petroleum into products.


Chemists get custom-designed microscopic particles to self-assemble in liquid crystal

Chemists get custom-designed microscopic particles to self-assemble in liquid crystal

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The scientists anticipate their "LithoParticles" will have significant applications in photonics, optical communications and other areas.


Carbonic anhydrase

Blood Enzyme Could Help Realize Clean Coal

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- An enzyme in our blood that enables our lungs to exhale carbon dioxide could be the key to isolating carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants in order to store them safely underground. A ...