In the late 19th century the Czech scientist Franz Hofmeister found that some salts (ionic compounds) aided the solution of proteins in egg white, some caused the proteins to destabilize and precipitate, and others ranged in activity between these poles. Hofmeister proceeded to rank "salt-out" (destabilizing) ions versus "salt-in" ions as per the magnitude of their effects. The resulting "Hofmeister series" governs the strengths of ions in inducing protein unfolding, bubble coalescence, and a number of other phenomena, and remains vital to protein chemistry and other biological and chemical studies to this day. But its mechanism has never been properly understood........

Designer labels have a lot of cachet, a principle that's equally true in fashion and physics. The future of nuclear physics is in designer isotopes--the relatively new power researchers have to make specific rare isotopes to solve scientific problems and open doors to new technologies, as per Bradley Sherrill, a University distinguished professor of physics and associate director for research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU)........

Age seems to be no obstacle when it comes to starting a business. Thats the case with 14-year-old Anshul Samar, CEO of Alchemist Empire, Inc., who invented a trading card game, Elementeo, that aims to teach chemistry to students in a fun, unusual way. At the 235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Samar will present his inventive card game. While other 14-year olds play on their Xbox, this precocious CEO hopes to secure $500,000 in funding so his Silicon Valley-based startup can begin mass producing the game........

Researchers in Texas are reporting development of an highly dependable, rapid, and inexpensive new method for identifying the presence of gunshot residue (GSR). The test fills a GSR-detection gap that results from wider use of green lead free ammunition. It requires only a single speck of GSR smaller than the period at the end of this sentence and could boost the accuracy of one of the most widely used tests employed at crime scenes involving gunplay........

A number of top-selling drugs used to treat cancer and lower cholesterol are made from organic compounds called polyketides, which are found in nature but historically difficult for chemists to alter and reproduce in large quantities. For the first time, researchers at UC Irvine have discovered how polyketides form their ringlike shape, making it easier for chemists to manipulate them into new drugs........

The « Large Molecule Heimat » is a very dense, hot gas clump within the star forming region Sagittarius B2. In this source of only 0,3 light-year diameter, which is heated by a deeply embedded newly formed star, most of the interstellar molecules known to date have been found, including the most complex ones such as ethyl alcohol, formaldehyde, formic acid, acetic acid, glycol aldehyde (a basic sugar), and ethylene glycol........

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational concept, called Green Freedom-, for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water. Currently, the principal market for the Green Freedom production concept is fuel for vehicles and aircraft........

An innovation called Carbon Hero may help reduce global warming by making people more aware of their carbon footprint. Regional prize winner in the 2007 European Satellite Navigation Competition, sponsored by ESA's Technology Transfer Programme, the device uses satellite navigation technology to track journeys........

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT physicists have taken a step toward understanding the puzzling nature of high-temperature superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures well above absolute zero. If superconductors could be made to work at temperatures as high as room temperature, they could have potentially limitless applications. But first, researchers need to learn much more about how such materials work........

Even though the lightest known metals in the universe, lithium (Li) and beryllium (Be), do not bind to one another under normal atmospheric or ambient pressure, an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers predicts in the Jan. 24 issue of Nature that Li and Be will bond under higher levels of pressure and form stable Li-Be alloys that may be capable of superconductivity. Superconductivity is the flow of electricity with zero resistance........

Washington, D.C. Researchers have discovered that the magnetic strength of magnetitethe most abundant magnetic mineral on Earthdeclines drastically when put under pressure. Scientists from the Carnegie Institutions Geophysical Laboratory, together with colleagues at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory, have observed that when magnetite is subjected to pressures between 120,000 and 160,000 times atmospheric pressure its magnetic strength declines by half. They discovered that the change is due to what is called electron spin pairing........

Like bank accounts, the nutrient cycles that influence the natural world are regulated by inputs and outputs. If a routine withdrawal is overlooked, balance sheets become inaccurate. Over time, overlooked deductions can undermine our ability to understand and manage ecological systems. Recent research by the Universite de Montreal (Canada) and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, New York) has revealed an important, but seldom accounted for, withdrawal in the global nitrogen cycle: commercial fisheries. Results, published as the cover story in the recent issue of Nature Geoscience, highlight the role that fisheries play in removing nitrogen from coastal oceans........

COX-2 inhibitors like Celecoxib have come under scrutiny lately due to adverse cardiovascular side-effects stemming from COX-2 reduction. In both fruit fly and rat models, scientists reveal another adverse effect of Celecoxib; this drug can induce arrhythmia. More interestingly, this effect is independent of the COX-2 enzyme........

Scientists at the University of Illinois have found a simple solution to a problem that has plagued researchers for decades: the tendency of chemical buffers used to maintain the pH of laboratory samples to lose their efficacy as the samples are cooled. The research team, headed by chemistry professor Yi Lu, developed a method to formulate a buffer that maintains a desired pH at a range of low temperatures........

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved methane remains uncertain. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that only one percent of this dissolved methane escapes into the air -- good news for the Earth's atmosphere........

Bypassing decades-old conventions in making computer chips, Princeton engineers developed a novel way to replace silicon with carbon on large surfaces, clearing the way for new generations of faster, more powerful cell phones, computers and other electronics. The electronics industry has pushed the capabilities of silicon -- the material at the heart of all computer chips -- to its limit, and one intriguing replacement has been carbon, said Stephen Chou, professor of electrical engineering. A material called graphene -- a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice -- could allow electronics to process information and produce radio transmissions 10 times better than silicon-based devices........

Physicists at the University of Rochester have combined an atom-chiller with a molecule trap, creating for the first time a device that can generate and trap huge numbers of elusive-yet-valuable ultracold polar molecules. Researchers believe ultracold polar molecules will allow them to create exotic artificial crystals and stable quantum computers........

Carbon dioxide increasing in the atmosphere may affect the microbial life in the sea, which could have an impact on a major food source, warned Dr Ian Joint at a Science Media Centre press briefing today. Dr Joint is sequencing the DNA of different ocean bacteria to find out how they will respond to an increase in carbon dioxide. So far from one experiment we have sequenced 300 million bases of DNA, about one tenth the size of the human genome. We are analyzing this ocean genome to see if changes might affect the productivity of the sea........

Research on hydrogen-fueled cars may be one step closer to application thanks to a new form of hydride discovered by researchers at the ESRF. The material, lithium borohydride, is a promising energy storage system: it contains 18 weight percents of hydrogen, which makes it attractive for use in hydrogen-fueled cars. Its drawback is that it only releases hydrogen at quite high temperatures (above 300 degrees C). The team at the ESRF has found a new form of the compound that could possibly release hydrogen in mild conditions. This discovery, completely unexpected from the point of view of theoretical predictions, is published recently as a Very Important Paper in Angewandte Chemie........