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When predicting something that science will never do, it’s wise to recall the French philosopher Auguste Comte. In 1835 he asserted that science will never figure out what stars are made of

By Ron Cowen of Nature magazine A chemical analysis of lunar rocks may force scientists to revise the leading theory for the Moon's formation: that the satellite was born when a Mars-sized body smacked into the infant Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. If that were the case, the Moon ought to bear the chemical signature of both Earth and its proposed 'second' parent.

A mouse’s nerve cell has broken open to showcase vibrantly colored sacs, which house its neuro transmitters, the chemical messengers neurons use to communicate with one another and with other cells. [More]

(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemical additives that help agricultural pesticides adhere to their targets during spraying can lead to formation of smaller "satellite" droplets that cause those pesticides to drift into unwanted areas, Purdue University researchers have found.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Chemical Engineering are the first to show that mechanical property changes in cells may be responsible for cancer progression — a discovery that could pave the way for new approaches to predict, treat and prevent cancer.

Fritz Haber I’m haunted by one of the stories in the latest episode of Radiolab , can’t get it out of my head. Like everyone else, I love Radiolab and often sprinkle stories I learned from the show into cocktail party conversation (do I go to nerdy cocktail parties or do I make cocktail parties nerdy?), but the Bad Show was especially gripping, in particular the story of Fritz Haber . Haber was a German chemist working in the early 20th century, but his name is well known in Chemical Engineering departments (he is, after all, one of The Most Popular Chemical Engineers Ever .) I’ve even looked him up in wikipedia recently, focusing on the details of the chemical process he invented and never scrolling down to learn more about his life

NIMS and the University of Queensland Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, the Dalian Polytechnic University, and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, clarified for the first time the cluster structure which has an extremely large effect on the long-term stability of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) for independent distributed power generation.

Time slowed to a crawl as my little Nissan Sentra approached the BMW in front of me. With a pronounced crunch, one bumper smashed into another

In 2007 Nobel laureate James Watson eyed his genome for the very first time. Through more than 50 years of scientific and technological advancement, Watson saw the chemical structure he once helped to unravel now pieced into a personal genetic landscape that lay before him. There was one small stretch of DNA on chromosome 19, however, that he chose to leave under wraps

The sweet smell of benzene gave birth to the term ‘aromatic’ molecules, but it is the chemical bonds within these compounds that have fascinated researchers for almost 200 years. Encasing alternating double- and single-bonded carbon atoms inside a flat ring allows so-called ‘pi’-electrons to delocalize and move around the cyclic framework. And thanks to the curious rules of quantum mechanics, this pi-electron sharing has radical consequences for differently sized rings.

If you have to ask... Companies are required to submit to the EPA all studies about substantial risk that their chemicals pose to humans

The search for the genetic roots of psychiatric illnesses and behavioral disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and ADHD has a long history, but until recently, it was one marked by frustration and skepticism. In the past few years, new techniques have begun to reveal strong evidence for the role of specific genes in some cases of these conditions but in a way few people expected. To understand what makes the new discoveries so novel, it’s necessary to appreciate how our genes can go wrong.