To make hydrogen from water and sunlight, you need an efficient catalyst. Here’s a perfect one.
Nature looks at what it takes to make a 100 percent efficient catalyst for getting clean fuel from water: The largest potential source of renewable […]
chemistry
Better bottles.
The Guardian looks forward to a time when our plastic bottles will be replaced with plant-based containers that turn into, essentially, mulch in a year: […]
Medieval Blue is Remade
Science News opens a new book on an old pigment, reconstructing a botanical purple-blue hue that had puzzled medievalists for ages: The pigment, called folium, […]
Learning from the ashes of Notre Dame
Nature takes a look at how the tragic fire at Notre Dame last year created a unique opportunity for researchers to study medieval construction: The […]
Squeezing lead makes it stronger than steel.
Science News proves that there’s always something new to figure out – in this case, with one of the most common and worked-with metals we […]
Microscopic nutrient doses to solve malnutrition. (With Bill Gates as a lab rat.)
Inverse covers an invention that should invisibly make a difference in some of the world’s hungriest communities, beating back malnutrition-based diseases with super-tiny capsules of […]
Bourbons have microscopic signatures. (In a way that scotches don’t.)
Science News takes appreciation of American whiskeys to a whole new level – a teeny-tiny one. Researchers publishing in Physical Review Fluids found that bourbons, […]
Common insectides have lowered songbird populations – they eat a couple seeds and lose weight.
National Geographic reports on a study that has found nicotine-based insecticides – the world’s most widely used pesticides – act like appetite suppressants for songbirds. […]
Microplastics in your tea, from the teabag.
New Scientist has the less-than-cheerful discovery that a plastic-based teabag will release *billions* of microplastic particles as it steeps: A Canadian team found that steeping […]
I don’t know, how *do* you make Saturn Yellow?
LA Times plunges into a chemical and artistic riddle – how can we restore fading Day-Glo paintings when the formula for Saturn Yellow remains a […]
Irish kid wins big for plan to get rid of microplastics using magnets.
Business Insider lauds Fionn Ferreira, an 18-year-old who won the Google Science Fair (and a $50,000 pot) with a plan to use ferrofluid – magnetic […]
“Diamond-based security” low-tech foil for high-tech counterfeiters
Fortune reports on a new company that aims to keep supply chains secure in the era of 3D printing by using unique patterns of diamond […]
China is going back to fighting the ozone hole.
Nature reports on Chinese officials having a redo on one of our past environmental successes, seeking out the source of massive plumes of ozone-destroying CFCs […]
You are your own threat to your air quality. (Well, one of the threats, anyway.)
Science Daily reports on the discovery that human skin oils react with ozone in the atmosphere inside your office or house to create “the Pig-Pen […]
We’re running out of… sand?
Nature says that our need for silicon – the main substance in computer chips, as well as glass windows, bottles, and things like bricks and […]