Chemistry

The discovery of a gene involved in determining the melting point of cocoa butter should lead to new varieties of the cocoa plant that could extend the climate and soil-nutrient range for growing the crop Why does that matter? It's widely used in foods and pharmaceuticals and increasing the value of its yield also provides a boost to farmers' incomes in the cocoa-growing regions of the world.   Cacao, Theobroma cacao L., is an understory tropical tree domesticated in the Amazon basin and today widely cultivated in West Africa, Central and South America and Southeast Asia. Around the…

Karin Heineman, Inside Science TV –  Beer! Most Americans choose it over all other alcoholic beverages. It's also one of the world's oldest beverages. In fact the first evidence of beer production dates back to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in the fifth millennium BC. People have been brewing beer for a very long time, even before anyone really understood what turns its ingredients into alcohol. So what's the science behind beer? Cynthia McKelvey, a science journalist at the University of California Santa Cruz and beer enthusiast, breaks down the brewing process for us in a few simple…

While mandatory labels for organic or genetically modified foods have been regarded by the public as unnecessary bureaucracy, a group of analysts are calling for just that when it comes to wine. Production methods and added chemicals can affect the color and taste and should be noted, the authors of a new study write. Dr. Heli Sirén and colleagues from the University of Helsinki analyzed the chemical profiles of eight Pinot Noir wines from different regions in the USA, France, New Zealand and Chile and they found that each wine had a different profile, affected by the processes used to make…

Carbon capture could play a central role in keeping greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere so many materials are being tested for the purpose of capturing CO2. New results show that ordinary clay can work just as effectively as more advanced materials. Clay offers many benefits compared to other materials, particularly because other potential materials can be expensive, difficult to produce, toxic and not particularly environmentally friendly. A possible practical future use of this discovery could be to include clays in CO2 filters for industrial-scale CO2 emissions…

Thermochromic nano-coatings can help reduce energy usage and generate savings by absorbing heat or permitting its reflection, depending on temperature. The reasn is because minute dimensions can still have major effects - nanoparticles have an especially large surface-area-to-volume ratio, making them them extremely efficient and reactive. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe are utilizing this characteristic to create novel coatings and incorporating active nano-materials into polymer systems. These coatings can be applied easily…

Rubber is natural and the main ingredient for many everyday products, from boots to condoms to surgical gloves. Roughly 70 percent of the global supply of rubber is used in tires.  During World War II, the supply of rubber from Southeast Asia was cut off and so the race was on to produce enough general purpose synthetic rubber, GR-S (Government Rubber-Styrene) to meet the needs of the U.S. and its allies during World War II. Though synthetic versions of many other natural products had been made prior to that, rubber had been a renewable commodity so in 1941 only 231 tons of synthetic…

All plants store solar energy in the form of carbohydrates with the help of a metallic compound. Chemically storing sunlight would also be ideal for society's energy needs but developing this requires a better understanding of exactly what happens when photons strike molecules. The primary processes run on timescales of only a few hundred femtoseconds (one femtosecond = 10-15s). An international collaboration has been able to map the evolution of the chemical bonds in these kinds of ultrafast processes on the level of orbitals.  Using quantum chemical calculations, they were successful…

A new nanotechnology lubricant will be suitable for extreme conditions. Shuttles and equipment used in space consist of numerous elements that have several friction-prone components so the surfaces must be greased to ensure smooth operation. Conventional oils and greases cannot be used in space due to extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions so solid substances such as molybdenum disulfide and graphite are preferred for space usage. PhD student Triinu Taaber working in the laboratory of physics of nanostructures. Credit: Andres Tennus Researchers involved in the activities of…

A new class of dopamine receptor antagonists (DARs) could provide a safer means of controlling mosquitoes that transmit key infectious diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and elephantiasis. The new chemicals work by manipulating the neurotransmitter dopamine to lock into protein receptors that span the mosquito cell membrane. Disrupting the mechanics of dopamine, which plays important roles in cell signaling, development and behavior, eventually leads to the insect's death. It sounds perfect to people in the developing world but environmentalists in the first world are sure to object to…

Urine is commonly believed to be sterile until it reaches the urethra but that has led to numerous misconceptions about what can and should or should not be done with it. Drinking urine is a bad idea, for example, because even though it is sterile it contains urea and other substances that can still be toxic. Obviously a bladder infection has always been the qualifier in sterile urine but another study has found bacteria in the bladders of healthy women, which forces a rethink of bladder health and disease. Researchers evaluated urine specimens collected directly from the bladder through…