Imagine being stuffed into a crowded train car and noticing a less crowded one just down the platform. You’d probably want to move over as soon as possible. Particles that follow this balancing act—known as osmosis—spontaneously move from an area of high concentration to one of low concentration. Now, scientists have used this tendency to create a power-producing membrane that can harvest electric current from nothing but salty water.

A chemical reaction he suggested can now be done, and it makes a great membrane.

Thermochemical solar fuel manufacturing would be an energy industry with a life of centuries, rather than decades. The feedstock of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water is essentially unlimited. Scientists with the SOLAR-JET Project have demonstrated the first-ever entire process to make kerosene, the jet fuel used by commercial airlines, using a high-temperature thermal solar reactor...

With the aid of a particle accelerator, scientists are bringing back ghosts from the past, revealing portraits hidden underneath the tarnished surface of two roughly 150-year-old silver photographic plates. Researchers used an accelerator called a synchrotron to produce strong, but nondamaging beams of X-rays to scan the damaged photographs, called daguerreotypes, and map their chemical composition.

Blue light from digital devices and the sun transforms vital molecules in the eye's retina into cell killers, according to optical chemistry research at The University of Toledo.

The versatile gas lies at the center of a complex, fragile global market.

In the molecular dance that gave birth to life on Earth, RNA appears to be a central player. But the origins of the molecule, which can store genetic information as DNA does and speed chemical reactions as proteins do, remain a mystery. Now, a team of researchers has shown for the first time that a set of simple starting materials, which were likely present on early Earth, can produce all four of RNA’s chemical building blocks.

This is the kind of tale that you don’t hear every day.  During the installation of a new MRI machine, a technician started getting calls that iPhones weren’t working—but Androids were just fine.

(Phys.org)—A small team of entrepreneurs affiliated with Skipping Rocks Lab has started a crowdfunding effort to mass-market a consumable water bottling device that produces what they call the Ooho!—a spherical blob of water held in a thin membrane that is small enough to be popped into the mouth.

Batteries that use aluminum and oxygen normally live fast and die young. But a new design could help these high-energy devices endure. Aluminum-air batteries are promising candidates for a new generation of non-rechargeable batteries, because they’re super lightweight and compact. The batteries, however, aren’t widely used because their internal components quickly degrade each other.

Here's how a man got "rotten 'zombie' skin" during a hiking trip in Greenland. By Laura Geggel.

Hydrogels are physical and chemical polymer networks capable of retaining large quantities of liquid in aqueous conditions without losing their dimensional stability. They are used in a whole host of applications, and in combination with other components and they acquire specific properties such as electrical conductivity. The Materials + Technology research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environment...

Chemists have calculated that chains of double or triple-bonded carbon atoms, known as carbyne, should be stronger and stiffer than any known material..

The Acetone is not actually "dissolving" the Styrofoam. Here is what is happing. When styrofoam is placed in acetone, the long polymer strands are dissolved, releasing the trapped air and causing the structure to disintegrate.

Ocean warming will negatively impact plankton colonies, resulting in a rough climate change cycle.

Whiskey drinkers know that the moment they swirl a bit of the smoky spirit in their mouth, they’re bound to find a world of flavors: some oak, some smoke, a little vanilla, maybe a slight bite from tannin. Brown liquors — from scotch to bourbon and all the whiskeys in between — are complex spirits that lend themselves to purposeful tasting, creating connoisseurs willing to shell out top dollar for the most peaty scotch or their favorite spicy bourbon.

Having studied brain toxicity for 30 years, a professor of environmental medicine declares that enough is enough when it comes to dangerous compounds and our brains.

The framework for ridding the world of Syria's chemical weapons may be tactical, but the challenge it poses is technological. 

Cave exploration could help fight a major medical problem.

The Cassini probe has detected propene, or propylene, on Saturn's moon Titan. On Earth, this molecule, which comprises three carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, is a constituent of many plastics.

Hormone-disrupting chemicals may be far more prevalent in lakes and rivers than previously thought. Environmental scientists have discovered that although these compounds are often broken down by sunlight, they can regenerate at night, returning to life like zombies.

Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy.

Recently, there’s been a bunch of research indicating marijuana isn’t the worst drug in the world—long-term use of it might not harm IQ, and it can serve as an effective way to distract people from chronic pain

The short history of an ornery substance that never gets wet, but sure does get some heat.

How life came about from inanimate sets of chemicals is still a mystery. While we may never be certain which chemicals existed on prebiotic Earth, we can study the biomolecules we have today to give us clues about what happened three billion years ago.

Actress Brittany Murphy may have been murdered, a new toxicology report suggests. Murphy, 32, of Clueless fame, was found dead by her mother in her home in California on December 20, 2009. The Los Angeles Coroner originally attributed her death to pneumonia and anaemia.

There’s flame retardant in your Mountain Dew. That soda with the lime-green hue (and other citrus-flavored bubbly pops) won’t keep your insides fireproof, but it does contain brominated vegetable oil, a patented flame retardant for plastics that has been banned in foods throughout Europe and in Japan.

Chemistry is everywhere in the world around us - so why are we so scared of it, asks Dr Mark Lorch.

Scientists from Harvard and MIT have jointly demonstrated that, in specific conditions, photons can be made to interact with each other and form molecules. Such groupings of photons, dubbed “Photonic molecules”, constitute an entirely new form of matter, which until recently was purely theoretical. Combining the properties of light and those of solids, in terms of physics this new form of matter is not unlike a certain material that millions of Star Wars fans are already well familiar with..

Mercury is the quixotic bad boy of the periodic table - exquisitely beautiful, but deadly. The ancients believed it was the "first matter" from which all other metals were formed. Yet it is now in such disfavour that an international treaty exists to curb its use.

A few weeks ago, the FDA announced a bold new position on antibacterial soap: Manufacturers have to show that it’s both safe and more effective than simply washing with conventional soap and water, or they have to take it off the shelves in the next few years.

Glamorized in film and readily available with just a few well placed phone calls and often with devastating long-term effects – drugs have the potential permeate every part of popular culture. But aside from crack pipes, packets of white power and syringes full of fluid what does the chemical composition of drugs look like?

Got some dirty money to launder? Well, Rhode Island scientists say they've devised a method of washing human grease, microbes and motor oil from the world's banknotes using supercritical fluid.

Botulinum toxin type H- the deadliest known toxin- has been discovered in the feces of a child suffering from botulism. The toxin's DNA hasn't been released to the public as it has no antidote.

Scientists finally find the neurons that produce the sensation of itch.