Archimedes steps in again.  The MacTutor tells us that “Archimedes considered his most significant accomplishments were those concerning a cylinder circumscribing a sphere, and he asked for…

When I was a lad, we were taught that carbon had two allotropes, graphite and diamond.  Although they’re both covalently connected, in neither of these is there anything that one would regard as…

A new study accepted for publication in Chemical Geology says deep saline groundwaters in South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin may have remained isolated for perhaps millions of years. The…

I love separation science, since it amuses me no end. As the coffee stain still lurks at my desk, reading through this article, the stain will be a mainstay at my laboratory. Okay, the hygiene…

Being a follower of IYC 2011, I was completely aware of the goals and purpose of the events taking place and getting the coveted IYC tag and grants too. However, this one email made me rethink.…

2011 is Chemistry's year, sharing its limelight with another international celebration - forests. The International Year of Chemistry (popularly abbreviated as IYC 2011) is an excellent window of…

Scientists are reporting the development of a new, ultra-light form of 'frozen smoke',  the world's lightest solid material, and the new kind has amazing strength and an incredibly large surface…

Will your new year start with a BANG? Well, it might, if you bring it in with this molecule.  This is trinitramide, a compound newly synthesized at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in…

Because of environmental problems with huge piles of plastic garbage, biodegradable plastics are still widely studied. Personally,  I thought this was a relatively easy problem to solve…

[note: I struggled with what category to put this in, perhaps there should be a new one called Complexity?] One of the paradigms in complex adaptive systems thinking that has great explanatory power…