Topic: Chemistry

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6 men alleged to be LulzSec hackers

Tuesday saw the news that the FBI had identified and charged six men allegedly behind the hacktivist group LulzSec. Who are the men that the FBI says are behind LulzSec's mayhem?
In Pictures: Top ten highest paid American CEOs
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 05/16
What's new with Titan? Five intriguing findings about Saturn's moon

This year the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn has performed eight flybys of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Here are some of this year's eye-popping discoveries associated with Cassini's observations of Titan.
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day 06/24

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Change Agent
World Water Day 2012: Two innovations for purifying water

Harnessing the bacteria naturally occurring in water and using solar energy are just two innovations that may help bring clean drinking water to the world's poor.
6 men alleged to be LulzSec hackers

Tuesday saw the news that the FBI had identified and charged six men allegedly behind the hacktivist group LulzSec. Who are the men that the FBI says are behind LulzSec's mayhem?
Thin layer of oxygen found on Dione may change search for alien life

After the Cassini probe's flyby over Saturn's frozen moon, Dione, scientists saw evidence of ionized oxygen molecules in its atmosphere. This could have interesting implications for astrobiology.
Periodic table to welcome two new elements

Livermorium and flerovium could soon occupy the 114 and 116 spots on the periodic table of the elements. The names for the elements, which were synthesized a decade ago, were announced Thursday by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Why does Mars Curiosity rover have a laser raygun?

NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, is armed with a laser to zap rocks, not Martians. The laser can vaporize rocks at a distance of 23 feet.
Mars science lab 'Curiosity' to launch 'extraterrestrial real-estate appraisal'

After a decade of "following the water," planetary scientists want to see if water co-existed with other critical environmental conditions that could have allowed simple forms of life to emerge.
In Pictures: Top ten highest paid American CEOs
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 05/16
Robert Bunsen: The man behind today's Google Doodle

Robert Bunsen honored with an animated Google Doodle. But who was Mr. Bunsen?
What's new with Titan? Five intriguing findings about Saturn's moon

This year the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn has performed eight flybys of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Here are some of this year's eye-popping discoveries associated with Cassini's observations of Titan.
How does an arsenic-based life-form work, exactly?

Scientists have apparently discovered a type of bacteria that, unlike every other known form of life, uses arsenic instead of phosphorus as one of the basic components of its DNA molecules.
How Titan might be making DNA building blocks

Saturn's moon Titan has many of the components for life – but no liquid water. A new study shows how the moon's atmosphere might be producing the molecules that make up DNA anyway.
Richard Heck, a retired University of Delaware chemist, among Nobel Prize winners

Richard Heck worked in the 1960s to find a new way to bond carbon atoms. Now, some two decades after he retired, he has been honored with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for palladium work

The three winners of the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry found new ways to use the metal palladium as a chemical matchmaker.
Fracking for natural gas: EPA hearings bring protests

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a controversial process for extracting natural gas from shale. Critics of fracking question the environmental and health effects of pumping thousands of gallons of water and chemicals underground.
Perseid meteor shower: August 2010 marks more than just a show

Researchers will be gathering data during the Perseid meteor shower. August 2010 is part of a renaissance for meteor science in the US after nearly two decades of neglect.
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day 06/24
Cool Astronomy
Ingredients for life detected in deep space

Astronomers using the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas have detected anthracene, a complex organic molecule that can produce the building blocks of life.
Jupiter's other moon, the volcanic Io, could be a target for life

Io is the innermost of Jupiter's large satellites and the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
Discovery on Saturn's moon fuels speculation of alien life

Chemical data from Titan returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft has led scientists to speculate that there are organic processes happening on the Saturnian moon's surface. But, if the data are correct, there are a lot of non-biological explanations that need to be ruled out first.
Ancient Chinese secret? Yes. Masons used sticky rice as mortar

According to a new study by the American Chemical Society, the world's first composite mortar was sticky rice, used in China some 1,500 years ago.
Artificial life could offer clues about how life began

Last Thursday, the J. Craig Venter genomics research institute announced that it has created the first organism with a manmade genome, offering a potential breakthrough in our understanding how complex life first emerged.
Ancient meteorites in Antarctica could reveal origins of Solar System

Uncovered in the central part of Antarctica, the two tiny meteorites appear to have come from ancient comets.
NASA: Some of moon's craters may be electrified

New NASA calculations suggest that solar wind blowing across the moon's surface may electrically charge polar craters.
'Life as we don't know it' in the universe? Start with Titan.

Saturn's frigid moon Titan is not a candidate for Earth-like life. But its methane seas are forcing some scientists to wonder if life in the universe might develop in other ways, too.