http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The chemical reaction that darkens a batch of roasting peanuts also boosts the amount of antioxidants they contain, according to a new study in the journal Food Chemistry. http://www.physorg.com/news180726182.html Chemistry Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:20:01 EST news180726182 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops into a protective layer that shields other water and organic molecules from harmful stellar radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news180297449.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:38:05 EST news180297449 In some ways a cell in your body or an organelle in that cell is like an ancient walled town. Life inside either depends critically on the intelligence of the gatekeepers. http://www.physorg.com/news180288888.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:00:17 EST news180288888 (PhysOrg.com) -- Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have shown that increasing roast color intensity steadily ramps up the antioxidant capacities of peanuts, peanut flour and peanut skins. http://www.physorg.com/news179595724.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:00:10 EST news179595724 Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published tomorrow in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news179499648.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:02:06 EST news179499648 Researchers led by Conway Fellow, Professor Pat Guiry have solved a chemistry problem that has stumped researchers worldwide for more than a decade. The results have earned the group the cover story of the leading scientific journal, Angewandte Chemie. http://www.physorg.com/news178450551.html Chemistry Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:10:01 EST news178450551 Sewer overflows are a nasty business, posing dangers to human health and the environment. North Carolina State University is launching a new project with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that targets the fat and grease that contribute to millions of overflows every year, and will give urban planners new tools to further reduce the risk of sewage spills. http://www.physorg.com/news178198955.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:02 EST news178198955 Bacteria possess an ingenious mechanism for preventing oxygen from harming the building blocks of the cell. This is the new finding of a team of biologists that includes Joris Messens of VIB, a life sciences research institute in Flanders, Belgium, connected to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The scientists made this discovery by modifying the DNA of the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli. http://www.physorg.com/news177944623.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:01 EST news177944623 Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics to sunscreen to paint to vitamins, caused systemic genetic damage in mice, according to a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. http://www.physorg.com/news177608158.html Nanotechnology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:36:25 EST news177608158 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at University College Dublin have solved a chemistry problem which has stumped researchers worldwide for more than a decade. The results have earned the group the cover story of the leading scientific journal, Angewandte Chemie. http://www.physorg.com/news177271522.html Chemistry Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:20:02 EST news177271522 Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by Leiden theoretical chemist Geert-Jan Kroes, published on this subject this week in the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news176726540.html Chemistry Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:43:37 EST news176726540 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Utah chemists demonstrated the first conclusive link between the size of catalyst particles on a solid surface, their electronic properties and their ability to speed chemical reactions. The study is a step toward the goal of designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts to increase energy production, reduce Earth-warming gases and manufacture a wide variety of goods from medicines to gasoline. http://www.physorg.com/news176373205.html Nanotechnology Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:03 EST news176373205 (PhysOrg.com) -- For decades, climate scientists have worked to identify and measure key substances -- notably greenhouse gases and aerosol particles -- that affect Earth`s climate. And they`ve been aided by ever more sophisticated computer models that make estimating the relative impact of each type of pollutant more reliable. http://www.physorg.com/news176058147.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:03:19 EST news176058147 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, a trio from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Louisiana Tech University showed that strontium ions congregate on water's surface. Their computer simulation and careful calculations finally demonstrated why experiments and conventional wisdom clashed about the behavior of this type of ion, a divalent cation or one with two electrons missing. http://www.physorg.com/news175891519.html Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:46:35 EST news175891519 Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have created in the laboratory a class of carbenes, highly reactive molecules, used to make catalysts - substances that facilitate chemical reactions. Until now, chemists believed these carbenes, called "abnormal N-heterocyclic carbenes" or aNHCs, were impossible to make. http://www.physorg.com/news175440301.html Chemistry Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:25:41 EST news175440301 (PhysOrg.com) -- For people fed up with their mobile telephone or iPod batteries running out, Japan's Toshiba Corp. announced Thursday the launch of a portable fuel-cell that can power up digital gadgets on the move. http://www.physorg.com/news175412573.html Technology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:44:51 EST news175412573 (PhysOrg.com) -- Amid calls for transformative change in the world`s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies -- photosynthesis -- for clues to how nature runs a power plant. http://www.physorg.com/news173541038.html Chemistry Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:51:20 EST news173541038 (PhysOrg.com) -- New work by chemists at UC Davis shows that ethylene, a gas that is important both as a hormone that controls fruit ripening and as a raw material in industrial chemistry, can bind reversibly to tin atoms. The research, published Sept. 25 in the journal Science, could have implications for understanding catalytic processes. http://www.physorg.com/news173464165.html Chemistry Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:29:46 EST news173464165 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have overcome one of the significant research challenges facing electrochemists. For the first time they have found a way of probing right into the heart of an electrochemical reaction. http://www.physorg.com/news173363726.html Chemistry Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:50:01 EST news173363726 Flasks, beakers, and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in medicinal chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a benchtop, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results -- literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail. http://www.physorg.com/news173281486.html Chemistry Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:55:55 EST news173281486 An international team of scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany and Japan have developed a new method for improving the properties of enzymes. The method has potential for wide application in the chemical, medicinal and food industries. The research has been published in Nature Chemical Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news173006012.html Chemistry Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:14:09 EST news173006012 (PhysOrg.com) -- Inventing a useful new tool for creating chemical reactions between single molecules, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have employed microfluidics -- the manipulation of fluids at the microscopic scale -- to make microdroplets that contain single molecules of interest. By combining this new microfluidic "droplet-on-demand" method with "optical tweezers" that could merge multiple droplets and cause their molecular contents to react, the research may ultimately lead to a compact, integrated setup for obtaining single-molecule information on the structure and function of important organic materials, such as proteins, enzymes, and DNA. http://www.physorg.com/news172862506.html Nanotechnology Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:22:11 EST news172862506 Rush University Medical Center is participating in a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada to determine whether a vitamin-like substance, in high doses, can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million people in the United States. http://www.physorg.com/news172762049.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:40:03 EST news172762049 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nanoparticles combining platinum and gold act as superefficient catalysts, but chemists have struggled to create them in an industrially useful form. Rice University chemists have answered the call this week with a polymer-coated version of gold-platinum nanorods, the first catalysts of their kind that can be used in the organic solvents favored by chemical and drug manufacturers. http://www.physorg.com/news170946874.html Nanotechnology Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:15:04 EST news170946874 (Aug. 6, 2009) -- Rice University physicists have written the next chapter in an innovative approach for studying the forces that shape proteins -- the biochemical workhorses of all living things. http://www.physorg.com/news168791338.html Chemistry Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:40:01 EST news168791338 (PhysOrg.com) -- Flasks, beakers and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results -- literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail. http://www.physorg.com/news168522738.html Chemistry Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:53:14 EST news168522738 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle and its response to climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news166795373.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:03:31 EST news166795373 Researchers at the University of Illinois report that a toxic molecule known to damage cells and cause disease may also play a pivotal role in bird migration. The molecule, superoxide, is proposed as a key player in the mysterious process that allows birds to "see" Earth's magnetic field. http://www.physorg.com/news164892904.html Biology Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:35:51 EST news164892904 (PhysOrg.com) -- While information technology is generally thought to require electrons or photons for transmitting information, scientists have recently demonstrated a third method of transmission: chemical reactions. Based on a flammable `infofuse,` the new system combines information technology and chemistry into a new area the researchers call "infochemistry." http://www.physorg.com/news164629201.html Chemistry Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:20:30 EST news164629201 A soil microbe that uses chemical warfare to fight off competitors employs an unusual chemical pathway in the manufacture of its arsenal, researchers report, making use of an enzyme that can do what no other enzyme is known to do: break a non-activated carbon-carbon bond in a single step. http://www.physorg.com/news163859483.html Biology Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:31:48 EST news163859483