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It seems like a basic fact of nature: solids melt into liquids as they get warmer. But a few materials melt as they cool down - and that fact could help us make better solar cells and computer chips. More »
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What do you get when you combine some xenon, some fluoride, and pressures similar to those found at the center of the Earth? You get an ultra-battery, capable of storing more condensed energy than any other battery ever built. More »
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Rydberg atoms are giant, excited atoms in which an electron travels far away from the nucleus. Scientists now believe these atoms can form molecules so huge that a virus could fit completely inside - and exist in two configurations simultaneously! More »
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Dutch bacteria have a previously unknown method to produce oxygen. The process uses methane and nitric oxide, it might predate the development of photosynthesis by hundreds of millions of years, and it could allow life to survive on other planets. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5502298&view=rss&microfeed=true Last week a group of scientists reported in Science that they had created the tinest droplet of acid ever produced on Earth. It was created within a superfluid helium cluster at 0.37 kelvin. Observing this ultra-small acid drop allowed researchers to study how such droplets interact with water in our atmosphere to create chlorine which eats up ozone. Until this experiment, nobody had understood how chlorine could be created in the cold wastes of our upper atmosphere. Now we know it's via the interactions between acid and water ice, which then erode holes in our ozone layer. Which leads to more ultraviolet spectrum hitting the planet, which leads to genetic mutations in many life forms. More »
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It could be the perfect nuclear fuel. It generates energy via laser-enabled fusion. It has no radioactive byproducts. Has a group of Swedish researchers found the ultimate form of renewable energy for the 21st century? More »
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Click to viewWithin about 10 years, you might be drinking anti-aging enzymes with your bottled water. California biochemists have a plan to keep the world younger and healthier by using nanotech to deliver an enzyme called CoQ10 to our drinking water. This coenzyme is naturally produced by the body, but in smaller and smaller amounts as we age. And yet it's vital for the body's basic functioning, as it helps our cells convert sugars to energy. Perhaps if we boost its presence in our bodies as we age, our organs will remain productive and healthy for much longer. More »
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What do you get when you mix a frizzy-haired, grandfatherly chemist with his younger, cackling, explosion-loving sidekick? The Periodic Table of Videos! Put together by a team at the University of Nottingham in the UK, this gargantuan effort of 118 short vids chronicled everything from Hydrogen (very explosive) to Oxygen (also very explosive) to Sodium (not explosive...until you add water!) on down the list all the way to Ununoctium, element 118, of which only three atoms have ever been observed. Check out the oxygen pyrotechnics below. More »
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If you're worried about the environment but still need to blow people up, a new class of nitrogen-based bomb materials is for you. Popular explosives like TNT and HMX react to form nitrogen oxides when detonated, the major culprits behind smog and acid rain. This is a big no-no if you're the type of warmonger who drives a hybrid tank, obviously, so weapons experts at the University of Munich devised an alternatives that are cleaner, more stable, and even more powerful than those other explosives. More »
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