Chemistry news, research and opinions | Chemistry World
WEBFrom tipsy worms to pigeon missiles: the quirky triumphs of the 2024 Ig Nobel awards. Water-splitting reaction reversal could extract lithium more sustainably and cheaply. Teaching enzymes new reactions through genetic code expansion and directed evolution. Peptide bond interactions explain collagen’s ‘impossible’ longevity in dinosaur bones.
Hydrothermal vents and the origins of life - Chemistry World
WEBApr 16, 2017 · In 1977, the first deep sea hydrothermal vent was discovered in the East Pacific Rise mid-oceanic ridge. Named ‘black smokers’, the vents emit geothermally heated water up to 400°C, with high levels of sulfides that precipitate on contact with the cold ocean to form the black smoke. This was followed in 2000 by the discovery of a new type ...
Explainer: The chemistry of farts | News | Chemistry World
WEBDec 21, 2016 · The men farted between two and 53 times a day, with an average of 12.7, while women farted between once and 32 times a day, with an average of 7.1 times. The number of farts was higher when people ate more fibre. The study shows farting is normal, Stanton says. ‘I hope that has translated to people …
The father of the periodic table | Feature | Chemistry World
WEBJan 2, 2019 · A century and a half ago, Dmitri Mendeleev took a crucial step in this search for order among the elements, by publishing the first draft of his periodic table. In 2019 the world-wide community of chemists is celebrating this anniversary, and rightly so. Like Stonehenge, the table reflects regularities in nature which were due to causes that ...
Explainer: The science of alkyl nitrites aka poppers
WEBSep 16, 2021 · Inhaling alkyl nitrites feels like becoming instantly drunk according to some users, although the effect lasts for only a few minutes. Also known as poppers, these chemicals have been taken recreationally since the 1960s. Although they are sold openly, usually in small brown bottles with enticing brand names such as ‘liquid gold’, their ...
Explainer: Why is mixing cleaning chemicals such a bad idea?
WEBApr 23, 2020 · Chlorine gas is toxic, forms acids on contact with wet surfaces, such as home plumbing but also living tissue, such as the lungs. Heating or contact with metals can also cause bleach to decompose via a different route. 2NaOCl → O 2 + 2NaCl. Mixing hypochlorite with ammonia would see the breakdown of the hypochlorite to generate hypochlorous ...
The chemists’ war | Feature | Chemistry World
WEBAug 10, 2015 · The first world war, fought from late July 1914 to November 1918, pitted the industrial might and armies of the Central Powers, notably Germany, against the industrial might and armies of Britain, France and other Allied Powers. It was the first industrial world war and has been called the Chemists’ War.
What it takes to make a new element | Feature | Chemistry World
WEBNov 30, 2016 · Results of fusion reactions were decreasing sharply as the atomic number grew higher. The cause was the high excitation energy (40–50MeV), which increased the chance of the element breaking up. To create new elements, the excitation energy needed to be minimal, or ‘cold’.
What is an element? | Feature | Chemistry World
WEBJan 10, 2019 · Iupac currently gives a double definition of ‘element’ in its ‘Gold Book’ of chemical terminology, which says that the word can refer either to a ‘species of atom’ (which Ghibaudi sees as akin to Paneth’s ‘basic substance’) or, rather tautologically, to a ‘pure elementary substance’. This double meaning is uncomfortable.
Dorothy Hodgkin: Cracking crystal codes - Chemistry World
WEBJun 25, 2010 · After being accepted by Somerville College (at the University of Oxford) to read chemistry in 1928, Dorothy spent the summer vacation on her parents’ archaeological dig at Jerash, in what is now Jordan. Recording the geometrical designs of a Byzantine mosaic floor there prepared her for analysing more complex patterns in the future.
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