Chemistry

It's Silk Versus Ants For Your Chemical Warfare Future

Researchers have discovered how Golden orb web spiders (Nephila antipodiana) add a chemical to their web silk to repel invading ants, which means spider silk is even more awesome than it was before; it was already strong, elastic and adhesive, and now it c ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 23 2011 - 1:30pm

For New Year's Eve, Toast The Chemistry Of Champagne

Champagne, unlike other wines, undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle to trap carbon dioxide gas, which dissolves into the wine and forms the fabled bubbles in the bubbly. More than 600 different chemical compounds join carbon dioxide in champagne, ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 28 2011 - 3:43pm

Perfluorinated Polar Bears?

Perfluorinated Polar Bears!   No, this is not an exasperated exclamation by Captain Haddock, but might well be a shout of surprise at learning that Canadians have been searching for compounds of that nature in these snowy animals.  But why should Scott Ma ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Feb 8 2012 - 11:24am

Experiments at Home #1- "The Skillet Mystery"

In my ever-continuing quest to become an actual adult, I have recently begun to cook. I use a real oven and everything! In my usual encounter with the oven it takes just a few minutes of pre-heating before I realize that I have yet again left the big skill ...

Blog Post - Lee Bishop - Feb 18 2012 - 7:15pm

Synthetic Caffeine? A New Marketing Gimmick For Organic Food

If you're an anti-science hippie obsessed with the notion that 'natural' is always superior to whatever 'inorganic' means to people who know nothing about science or medicine or food or generally what carbon-based life means, I hav ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 5 2012 - 10:09am

Maybe Volcanoes Are A Girl's Best Friend

What do diamonds and chocolate have in common?  Well, urban legend says girls love them both.  Maybe we can add volcanoes if we are using correlational woo. A previously unrecognized volcanic process similar to one used in chocolate manufacturing is import ...

Article - News Staff - May 17 2012 - 2:30am

Ursolic Acid: Apple Peel Compound Reduces Obesity In Mice

A new study shows that ursolic acid, a natural substance found in apple peel, can partially protect mice from obesity and some of its harmful effects.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2012 - 6:29pm

All Hail...Arsenic?

Even though arsenic is toxic for many organs in the human body, it is used in therapeutic medicine and the treatment of some forms of cancer, and is an active component of drugs against parasitic diseases. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2012 - 6:00am

Arrhenius: Viscous Materials Fought The Laws Of Physics- And Won

Viscous materials do not follow standard laws- below a sub-melting point threshold, anyway.  Glass-formers are a class of highly viscous liquid materials that have the consistency of honey and turn into brittle glass once cooled to sufficiently low tempera ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 5 2012 - 12:09pm

Photosynthesis and organic food

Organisms can be divided into autotrophs, which can synthesize their own food using inorganic minerals, and heterotrophs which require organic food.  Plants produce organic compounds from simple compounds but cannot produce so-called “organic food” from “ ...

Blog Post - Ashwani Kumar - Aug 6 2012 - 4:25pm