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In his August 1954, Scientific American article, "The Origin of Life," Nobel Prize winning Harvard Biologist George Wald stated, "One only has to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation." What is "the magnitude of this task" that reasonably renders a natural origin of life "impossible?" Dr. Wald states, "In the vast majority of processes in which we are interested the point of equilibrium lies far over toward the side of dissolution. That is to say, spontaneous...

A city councilwoman is asking homeowners in an Oklahoma college town to rename a street honoring a prominent former university professor and Ku Klux Klan member. Norman Councilwoman Breea Clark has posted an online petition asking residents to help change the name of DeBarr Avenue. If at least three-fourths of Norman homeowners agree, the city — home to the University of Oklahoma — would be among several cities nationwide renaming monuments and streets named after prominent KKK members. […] The block-long street honors Edwin DeBarr, one of the university’s first professors and founder of its chemistry department. DeBarr became a...

The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named "tennessine" in recognition of Tennessee’s contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its Tennessee collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee. "The presence of tennessine on the Periodic Table is an affirmation of our state's standing in the international scientific community, including the facilities ORNL provides to that community as well as the knowledge and expertise of the laboratory's scientists and technicians," ORNL Director Thom Mason said.

Did you know there is an International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry? Neither did I, but of course it exists, for there really is no crazy identity politics “intersection” that doesn’t have its own journal read by dozens. The IJPC recently offered up a two-part article on “Gender in the Substance of Chemistry,” by Agnes Kovacs, who you will be unsurprised to learn is a professor of gender studies at Central European University in Hungary. Part 1 considers “the ideal gas,” which will certainly prompt a number of obvious suggestions from our regular commenters:

I know never to mix cleaners and to certainly never mix ammonia and chlorine but many cleaners contain ammonium chloride. Is this not essentially ammonia and chlorine? If not, how does it differ? If it is similar, what is done to it so it doesn't kill the user? I am obviously not a chemist and have merely an nodding acquaintance with the periodic table, so I would ask that your explanations be simplified as much as possible, as Einstein said, "As simple as possible but no simpler." Thanks

I see that a new type of hydrogen bond has been discovered.  Series HHNo, not a Wall Street instrument, some kind of new-fangled chemistry discovery: An entirely new class of hydrogen bond that forms between a boron–hydrogen group and the aromatic, π-electron system of a benzene ring has been discovered. – Chemistry World I can’t even pretend to know what that means. Maybe Janice the Elder can help us out.So what’s up in the world of science anyway? First we had to deal with the detection of gravitational waves a few weeks ago and now…new hydrogen bonds! I’m confused by all these...

Chemistry teachers recently had to update their classroom decor, with the announcement that scientists have confirmed the discovery of four new elements on the periodic table. The as-yet unnamed elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 filled in the remaining gaps at the bottom of the famous chart-a roadmap of matter's building blocks that has successfully guided chemists for nearly a century and a half. The official confirmation, granted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), was years in the making, as these superheavy elements are highly unstable and tough to create. But scientists had strong reason to...

Where can you get a REAL chemistry set like we did in the 60s and earlier?

I have a water feature I care for at work. This feature has an algae problem. I have put in ridiculous quantities of chlorine and acid with little effect. I believe the problem is due to a compost in the landscaping that is blowing into the feature. I think the compost is high in phosphate and is causing the resistant algae. The chemical store recommends a product that has lanthanum chloride hydrate. I need to know if this is harmful to animals as the owner's dog drinks and goes into this feature. Also, the feature drains into a cow pasture....

What will 3D printers ultimately evolve into? No one has a functioning crystal ball in front of them I assume, but a good guess would be a machine which can practically build anything its user desire, all on the molecular, and eventually atomic levels. Sure we are likely multiple decades away from widespread molecular manufacturing, but a group of chemists led by medical doctor Martin D. Burke at the University of Illinois may have already taken a major step in that direction. Burke, who joined the Department of Chemistry at the university in 2005, heads up Burke Laboratories where he...

Need an obscure medicinal compound found only in a jungle plant? Just print it.Say you're a medical researcher interested in a rare chemical produced in the roots of a little-known Peruvian flower. It's called ratanhine, and it's valuable because it has some fascinating anti-fungal properties that might make for great medicines. Getting your hands on the rare plant is hard, and no chemical supplier is or has ever sold it. But maybe, thanks to the work of University of Illinois chemist Martin Burke, you could print it right in the lab. In a new study published in the journal Science...

Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the galaxy. Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-years from Earth. Its branched carbon structure is closer to the complex organic molecules of life than any previous finding from interstellar space.

I home school a young girl. In years past, we have gone to the local air show and done such things as measure the tops and bottom of wings and rotos and figure the ratio or difference between the area of the top of the wing versus the bottom and estimated which wings had more lift than others. We measure how much area the wheels occupied on the ground and consulted with the crew chief what the tire pressure was and calculated the weight of the plane. In years past we were able to see F18s form a vapor cone...

The race is on to build a machine that can synthesize any organic compound. It could transform chemistry.In faded photographs from the 1960s, organic-chemistry laboratories look like an alchemist's paradise. Bottles of reagents line the shelves; glassware blooms from racks of wooden pegs; and scientists stoop over the bench as they busily build molecules. Fast-forward 50 years, and the scene has changed substantially. A lab in 2014 boasts a battery of fume cupboards and analytical instruments — and no one is smoking a pipe. But the essence of what researchers are doing is the same. Organic chemists typically plan their...

As one of the few pioneering female chemists in the 1960s, Stephanie Kwolek invented the flexible, tougher than steel fibers that were used to create life-saving body armor for law enforcement and soldiers. Kwolek died this week at the age of 90, her co-workers at DuPont, the chemical company where Kwolek worked, confirmed to ABC News. "She leaves a wonderful legacy of thousands of lives saved and countless injuries prevented by products made possible by her discovery," DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman said in a statement.

New type of microengine using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen Vitaly B. Svetovoy*1,2, Remco G. P. Sanders1, Kechun Ma1 & Miko C. Elwenspoek1,3 MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, PO 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands (v.svetovoy@utwente.nl) 2Institute of Physics and Technology, Yaroslavl Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 150007,Yaroslavl, Russia 3FRIAS, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion. For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down because combustion reactions are quenched in a small...

The Mini S analyser may look like something out of Ghostbusters but it is designed for use in hazardous locations © ACSThe latest gadget to come out of the labs of Purdue University in the US may look like the fictional ‘proton pack’ from Ghostbusters, but it’s actually a portable mass spectrometer that can be carried around on the user’s back. While it can’t capture an unruly poltergeist, the team who developed it say it could be a useful tool for environmental and forensic monitoring, and have shown it can identify chemical weapons, drugs and explosives.Most mass spectrometry happens in...

The platinum nanoframes have 22 times the sepcific catalytic activity of standard electrodes © Science/AAASUS scientists have created an exceptional fuel cell catalyst that contains far less platinum – conventional catalysts need 36 times more platinum to hit the same levels of activity. The manufacturing process, which was discovered by accident, uses simple techniques that the researchers believe can be easily scaled-up. The work could help to make fuel cells economically viable for applications such as cars as the precious metal makes up much of the cost of the cell.Fuel cells react hydrogen with oxygen to produce water, using the...

Despite growing controversy over the use of anonymous pharmacies for lethal injections, the U.S. Supreme Court has thus far declined to block any executions based on 11th-hour appeals challenging the drug connections. That includes the case of Michael Taylor, a convicted rapist and murderer who was put to death at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday in Missouri after a furious legal battle that stretched well into the night. It's worth nothing, however, that three high court justices wanted to block Taylor's execution and cited the words of an appeals judge who said so little was known about the source of the deadly...

The phrase “chemistry set” is embedded in the collective unconscious, but try to actually call one to mind. What does a chemistry set look like? What does it include? What can you do with it? If you’re anything close to being a millennial, you probably have only vague answers to these questions. If you’re a little older, however, you probably remember one of the classic sets that is responsible for our powerful (if nonspecific) connection to the concept of a chemistry set. Chief among these, in many people’s eyes, is the Gilbert Chemistry Set, which inspired untold numbers of young...