Bullvalene is a restless molecule. Its bonds ebb and flow in a perpetual series of rearrangements, so that each of its 10 carbon atoms endlessly swaps places with the others. The bizarre consequence ...

Chemists' technique for turning cheap dicarboxylic acids into complex lactones could boost industries from pharmaceuticals to plastics. Chemists at Scripps Research have unveiled a method for turning ...

Feynman diagrams are a powerful tool in condensed matter physics. By turning highly complex equations into sets of simple diagrams, the method has established itself as one of the sharpest tools in a ...

Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary ...

For the origin of life on Earth, ancient puddles or coastlines may have had a major ripple effect. A new study shows that a simple class of molecules called alpha hydroxy acids forms microdroplets ...

MOST chromatographic methods of investigating simple compounds (for example, saccharides and amino-acids) and their distribution in plant tissues have involved preparing extracts either of the whole ...

Over the past five years or so we've seen some important breakthroughs demonstrating how enzymes can be used to break down common plastics, such as the PET used for everything from drink bottles to ...

It's official--there are some 42 million protein molecules in a simple cell, revealed a team of researchers led by Grant Brown, a biochemistry professor in the University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre ...

A rotating cylinder with its side cut away to expose the core, showing patches of purple, blue, green, yellow, and orange that are dense in the middle and more diffuse toward the edges. This rotating ...

A common mineral, α-alumina, found abundantly in Earth's crust, may have played a critical role in initiating the chemical reactions necessary for life to begin. This exciting discovery, detailed in a ...