Free Republic

Scientists Create Terminator 2-Like Material That Heals Itself ... (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Technological Singularity) In Terminator 2, the T-1000 android was blown nearly in two, only to mend itself by pulling its mercury-like substance back together. Scientists have long been working on creating a polymer to do the same thing, but previous research always required an external factor (like temperature or pressure) to work. Scientists at the CIDETEC Center for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain succeeded where other scientists have failed: they've invented a plastic polymer that will heal itself all on its own....

It's detonation vs deflagration. More slow motion at http://bit.ly/chemslomo More chemistry at http://www.periodicvideos.com/Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/periodicvideosAnd on Twitter at http://twitter.com/periodicvideosFrom the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/chemistry... Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: http://www.bradyharan.com/ Brady's other channels include:http://www.youtube.com/sixtysymbols (Physics and astronomy)http://www.youtube.com/numberphile (Numbers and maths)http://www.youtube.com/DeepSkyVideos (Space stuff)http://www.youtube.com/nottinghamscience (Science and behind the scenes)http://www.youtube.com/foodskey (Food science)http://www.youtube.com/BackstageScience (Big science facilities)http://www.youtube.com/favscientist (Favourite scientists)http://www.youtube.com/bibledex (Academic look at the Bible)http://www.youtube.com/wordsoftheworld (Modern language and culture)http://www.youtube.com/PhilosophyFile (Philosophy stuff) Thanks to Destin from smartereveryday for helping us out!!!

US researchers have developed a new way to create glowing orbs of plasma similar to ball lightning in the lab, allowing them to study their chemical and physical properties. The work could help scientists unravel the mysteries of this very rare natural phenomenon.Ball lightning has been known for millennia, but its rarity and short lived nature – typically lasting between 1 and 10 seconds – has prevented it from being studied and understood. In recent years, however, lab experiments that mimic ball lightning have been developed.One method involves a glowing discharge produced above an aqueous electrolyte solution. However, high...

Enlarge Credit: Simon Ydhag, Uppsala University Credit: Simon Ydhag, Uppsala UniversityResearchers in Uppsala, Sweden accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up resolving a century-old chemistry problem. Their work has led to the development of a new material, dubbed Upsalite, with remarkable water-binding properties. Upsalite promises to find applications in everything from humidity control at home to chemical manufacturing in industry.Maria Strømme and colleagues at Uppsala University, whose work appears in the journal PLOS ONE, have modified a procedure dating back to 1908 to make a powdered and dry form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3). The reaction...

Leica DM4000M microscopySuper sucker. Copper needles could help remove oil from the ocean. Researchers looking for a better way to clean up oil spills are taking a cue from the humble cactus. A new study shows that synthetic needles based on those of the desert plant can take up oil droplets from the ocean much as the cactus takes up water from the air.Cactus needles have a curious effect on water. When tiny water droplets in the air land on them, the needlesÂ’ conical shape distorts them, nudging them into a clamlike shape. Because water droplets like to be circular,...

The use of 3D printers to create lab equipment, deliver reagents and even build biomaterials is on the rise. Katharine Sanderson installs drivers and prints away © Frank WojciechowskiThe latest piece of cool technology at the top of every self-confessed geek’s wish list is quite likely to be a 3D printer. Who wouldn’t want the wherewithal to print a range of gadgets on a whim, from plastic toys to a spare pair of glasses or even pizza? And now seems like the perfect time to splash out on your own 3D printer: companies like MakerBot are selling 3D printers...

Two-photon microscopy: New research may help drastically reduce cost of powerful microscope technique Enlarge The same section of a mouse brain imaged with a femtosecond laser (above) and a much weaker laser but the new dye (below). (Phys.org) —A dye-based imaging technique known as two-photon microscopy can produce pictures of active neural structures in much finer detail than functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, but it requires powerful and expensive lasers. Now, a research team at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new kind of dye that could reduce the cost of the technique by several orders of magnitude....

Scientists in Poland and the US have reformulated the herbicide dicamba to reduce its environmental impact.© Shutterstock The use of chemicals in agriculture is widespread, however, there are increasing concerns about their other environmental effects. Dicamba, used to control broadleaf weeds in grain fields and grasslands, is known to enter the environment via water runoff and evaporation following its application.In an attempt to reduce its volatility, a team led by Robin Rogers, from the University of Alabama, and Juliusz Pernak, from Poznan University of Technology, has formulated dicamba as an ionic liquid. Ionic liquids are liquid salts, consisting of a...

'Superatoms' can be used to make ionic-esque lattices using C60 (black) and metal chalcogenides © Science/AAASCould a new periodic table be on the horizon, populated not by conventional elements but by new ‘superatoms’ designed in the lab? This is the intriguing implication of new work by US chemists, who have made structural analogues of simple ionic compounds such as sodium chloride and cadmium iodide by interacting large molecular clusters instead of individual atoms.The new compounds have unexpected electronic and magnetic properties, opening the prospect for the design of bespoke solid state materials whose properties can be tuned by the...

The supramolecule mimics the structure of haemoglobin (below) with iron(III) at it's centre © Wiley-VCHJapanese researchers have created a supramolecule that binds to cyanide ions in a similar way to the blood protein haemoglobin. This could pave the way for faster, more effective cyanide antidotes.The effects of cyanide poisoning are well known to fans of spy stories and murder mysteries. It rapidly shuts down respiration, and high doses can kill in a matter of minutes. Every year, industrial accidents result in several cases of cyanide poisoning, and there is growing concern that it could be used in a terrorist...

The specific self-assembly between α-cyclodextrin and KAuBr4 leads to the precipitation of nanowires © Dennis CaoUS researchers have discovered a way to selectively isolate and recover gold from raw materials, including alloys, using a simple sugar derived from corn starch. The work could offer a greener and cheaper alternative to conventional processes, which use cyanide and often result in environmental contamination.Gold is typically recovered from mined ore and waste materials, including electronic waste, using highly poisonous cyanide to convert gold into a water-soluble coordination complex through a process known as leaching. But while effective, this process poses a risk...

Scientists flew a plane into high up cirrus clouds and used a sampler that resembled a hair dryer to examine cloud formation © Karl FroydMineral dust that swirls up into the atmosphere from Earth’s surface plays a far more important role in both cloud formation and cloud chemistry than was previously realised. The findings will feed into models of cloud formation and chemistry to help produce more accurate assessments of the role of clouds in climate change.Relatively little is understood about the formation of cirrus clouds, wispy ‘horsetails’ that are made of ice crystals and form at extremely high altitudes...

The products of thermally exfoliating graphite oxide to make graphene are much more complex than previously thought, new research shows. The volatile compounds formed vary with reaction conditions, and may influence the graphene’s structure.The most common way to prepare graphene is by thermally reducing – or ‘exfoliating’ – graphite oxide. But the graphene produced often contains defects and lacks the perfect honeycomb structure. One explanation is that these defects may be the result of organic by-products forming and escaping as gases during the reaction.‘It has been commonly believed that the only gaseous products of graphite oxide exfoliation are water, carbon...

Enlarge Image Deadly powder. New technology could help bomb-sniffing devices spot black powder. Credit: Lord Mountbatten/Wikimedia Commons The Boston marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly purchased several pounds of black powder explosive before the bombing. Used in fireworks and bullets, the explosive substance is both deadly and widely available. It's also very hard to detect. Now, researchers have modified one bomb-sniffing device to accurately spot very small amounts of black powder, an advance that could make us safer from future attacks. Invented in China as early as the 7th century, black powder is a mixture of charcoal, sulfur,...

Sixteen-year-old Kiera Wilmot’s curiosity was apparently piqued when a friend told her that if you mixed hydrochloric acid and aluminum, an exciting reaction happened. So she did what countless amateur chemists before her have done: She went ahead and tried it. She mixed toilet bowl cleaner—essentially colored hydrochloric acid—and balls of aluminum foil in a small water bottle. The top of the bottle blew off with a satisfying bang, and there was even a puff of smoke. Unfortunately, Kiera got more excitement than she bargained for. When a teenage Oliver Sacks experimented with explosive reactions of aluminum in his basement...

Science experiments don't always go the way they are intended. This, a 16-year-old Florida teenager knows all too well. This week, Kiera Wilmot went to school and mixed some household chemicals in a tiny 8-ounce water bottle. It looked like a simple chemistry project but then the top popped off when a small explosion occurred. Wilmot, who is in good standing as a student, said it was an accident. The Bartow High School principal told a local television station that the teen made a “bad choice” and called her a a good kid who has never previously been in trouble....

Cuttlefishes' camouflage skills have many admirersInspired by the camouflage abilities of marine organisms, such as the cuttlefish, US researchers have created striped ellipsoid particles using controlled self-assembly of diblock copolymers. By swelling and rotating the particles their colour can be changed, which could lead to a variety of optical applications including computer displays and better camouflage.Cuttlefish blend into their environment because their skin has cells containing striped structures. These structures have a layer of pigmented sacs called chromatophores and a layer of reflecting plates called iridophores. By contracting and relaxing muscles attached to chromatophores they can control the amount of...

A UK court has found a man guilty of illegally altering pre-clinical trial data. Steven Eaton, a former employee at drug discovery and development firm Aptuit’s Riccarton site in Scotland, produced flawed data over six years. This is the first case of someone being successfully prosecuted under current Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) Regulations. A spokesman for the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) underlines how unusual this is. ‘This type of activity is very rare and, based on the results of a significant number of inspections, we have no evidence to indicate the problem is widespread,’ he tells...

Companies have put biofuels on the back burner to aim for higher margin chemicals, as Emma Davies finds out Tom Welton gives the wooden desk in his office a sharp rap with his knuckles. ‘That’s the sound of lignin,’ he says, grinning. ‘Have you seen its structure? It’s beautiful, full of aromatics, lovely compounds that make you think: I could make something useful from this.’Welton, who is head of chemistry at Imperial College London, UK, views lignin – the ‘really hard stuff’ that protects plants from biological attack – as a valuable source of renewable speciality chemicals. His group has...

Can you tell the difference between a tasty paddy straw mushroom and a toxic death cap? Emma Shiells talks to the experts about the potentially deadly chemistry hidden in those gills Death cap mushrooms are, as the name suggests, deadly © Science Photo LibraryOn a damp and drizzly autumnal morning you may think there are better places to be than foraging in the undergrowth of an orchard, but amateur mushroom hunters are sure to disagree with you. Martin Newcombe, an ecologist and fungi enthusiast, is one of those hooked.‘The fact that fungi can grow so quickly makes them fascinating,’ says...