Chemistry

Conventional touchscreens often use coatings made of indium tin oxide (ITO) which are  brittle, may shatter and increasingly costly to manufacture but polymer scientists have developed a transparent electrode that could make displays shatterproof. In a recent paper, they demonstrated how a transparent layer of electrodes on a polymer surface could be extraordinarily tough and flexible, withstanding repeated scotch tape peeling and bending tests.   "These two pronounced factors drive the need to substitute ITO with a cost-effective and flexible conductive transparent film," says Yu…

The nation's sewer system is aging and that means it is also wearing out with the risk of broken pipes leaking raw sewage into streets and living rooms.  Mark T. Hernandez and colleagues writing in Environmental Science&Technology note that the maintenance of U.S. wastewater collection systems costs an estimated $4.5 billion every year, much of which goes toward fixing or replacing 8,000 miles of sewers, and project that n the future, these annual costs could top $12 billion. Part of the problem is corrosion caused by sewer gases that feed acid-generating microbes, which grown in…

Essential oils have boomed in popularity as alternatives for synthetic cleaning products, anti-mosquito sprays and even medicines. Why not use them to preserve food in a way that will appeal to the natural medicine crowd?  Essential oils have been used therapeutically for centuries, mostly for mood altering and also for preservation. Today, they are being studied by tobacco companies, the cosmetics industry and, of course, food chemists. A study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports the development of new edible films containing oils from clove and oregano…

If you visit the best noodle houses in Asia, they will happily tell you their secret: The amino acid glutamate, boiled from dried seaweed or fermented soy, or gotten from a can, where it has been stabilized with salt and given the name monosodium glutamate (MSG).  MSG is safe but some epidemiological and animal model studies have linked it to obesity and disorders associated with metabolic syndrome, including progressive liver disease. Other studies have disputed that. Metabolic syndrome has become a common health problem throughout the world, and a major factor in cardiovascular…

Melanin — and specifically, the form called eumelanin — is the primary pigment that gives humans the coloring of their skin, hair, and eyes. It protects the body from the hazards of ultraviolet and other radiation that can damage cells and lead to skin cancer, but the exact reason why the compound is so effective at blocking such a broad spectrum of sunlight has remained something of a mystery. Now researchers at MIT and other institutions have solved that mystery, potentially opening the way for the development of synthetic materials that could have similar light-blocking properties. The…

A new analysis of ancient Jian wares reveals that the distinctive pottery contains an unexpected and highly unusual form of iron oxide - a rare compound called epsilon-phase iron oxide which was only recently discovered and characterized by scientists and so far has been extremely difficult to create with modern techniques. Understanding 1,000 year old synthesis conditions used by Chinese potters could lead to an easier, more reliable synthesis of epsilon-phase iron oxide, enabling better, cheaper magnetic materials - including those used for data storage. Jian wares, such as tea bowls, are…

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that certain enzymes responsible for desaturating fatty acids, the building blocks of oils, can link up to efficiently pass intermediate products from one enzyme to another. Getting plants to accumulate high levels of more healthful polyunsaturated fatty acids, or unusual fatty acids that could be used as raw materials in place of petroleum-derived chemicals in industrial processes, are a few possible outcomes. Metabolic channeling The idea would be to take advantage of a process called metabolic channeling, wherein enzymes that…

University of Illinois researchers have developed materials that not only heal, but regenerate - and not just tiny microscopic cracks, large cracks and holes. All by regrowing material. The regenerating capabilities build on the team's previous work in developing vascular materials. Using specially formulated fibers that disintegrate, the researchers can create materials with networks of capillaries inspired by biological circulatory systems. Such self-repair capabilities would be a boon not only for commercial goods – imagine a mangled car bumper that repairs itself within minutes of an…

If wine leaves a bitter, cotton-like coating on the tongue, don't blame your nose or even your sense of smell, say the authors of a paper in Chemical Senses. Instead, blame your nerves. The traditional oak barrel character, also called barrique character, is perceived via the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for, among other things, pain and temperature perception.  In an experiment, patients with severed taste nerves who were unable to taste the five flavors sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami could feel the barrique flavor, also called astringency, on their tongue. The…

The periodic table of the elements is about to get crowded on the heavy side. Evidence for the artificial creation of element 117 was recentlyobtained at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an accelerator laboratory located in Darm-stadt, Germany. Elements beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as superheavy elements. The most long-lived ones are expected to be situated on a so-called 'island of stability', where nuclei with extremely long half-lives should be found. Although superheavy elements have not been found in nature, they can be produced by accelerating beams of…