Chemistry

55 articles with this tag

How Cyclic Peptides Work—and Why They Make Better Drugs Science

How Cyclic Peptides Work—and Why They Make Better Drugs

Cyclic peptides occupy a unique niche between small-molecule pills and large biologics. By locking amino acid chains into ring shapes, scientists crea...

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How Soft Tissue Survives Inside Dinosaur Fossils Science

How Soft Tissue Survives Inside Dinosaur Fossils

Scientists have found blood vessels, proteins, and flexible tissue inside bones millions of years old. Here is how iron chemistry, mineral sealing, an...

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How Uranium Enrichment Works—From Ore to Bomb Science

How Uranium Enrichment Works—From Ore to Bomb

Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of uranium-235 in natural uranium, enabling both nuclear power and nuclear weapons....

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How Rovers Detect Organic Molecules on Mars Science

How Rovers Detect Organic Molecules on Mars

Mars rovers use miniature chemistry labs to heat, dissolve, and analyze Martian rocks, searching for the carbon-based molecules that could hint at anc...

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How Graphene Oxide Kills Bacteria—and Spares You Science

How Graphene Oxide Kills Bacteria—and Spares You

Graphene oxide selectively destroys bacterial cells, including drug-resistant superbugs, while leaving human cells unharmed. Scientists have now pinpo...

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How Hydrogen Sulfide Kills—and Why You Can't Smell It Science

How Hydrogen Sulfide Kills—and Why You Can't Smell It

Hydrogen sulfide is one of the deadliest gases in industrial workplaces. It smells like rotten eggs at low levels but destroys your sense of smell at...

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What Is the Dolomite Problem—Geology's 200-Year Puzzle Science

What Is the Dolomite Problem—Geology's 200-Year Puzzle

Dolomite is one of Earth's most common minerals, yet for two centuries no one could grow it in a lab. Here's how the 'dolomite problem' stumped scient...

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How Bioluminescence Works—Nature's Cold Light Science

How Bioluminescence Works—Nature's Cold Light

Bioluminescence lets organisms produce their own light through a chemical reaction between luciferin and luciferase. From deep-sea creatures to firefl...

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How Synchrotrons Work—the World's Brightest Light Science

How Synchrotrons Work—the World's Brightest Light

Synchrotron light sources accelerate electrons to near light speed, producing X-rays billions of times brighter than the sun. These massive machines p...

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How Lithium Mining Works—From Brine to Battery Technology

How Lithium Mining Works—From Brine to Battery

Lithium powers every rechargeable device and electric vehicle on the planet, yet most people have no idea how it reaches a battery. This explainer bre...

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How the Montreal Protocol Works—and Why It Saved the Ozone Science

How the Montreal Protocol Works—and Why It Saved the Ozone

The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 and ratified by every UN member, phased out over 98 percent of ozone-depleting chemicals. Here is how the treaty...

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What Is the Ocean Methane Paradox—and Why It Matters Science

What Is the Ocean Methane Paradox—and Why It Matters

Scientists have long puzzled over why oxygen-rich ocean surface waters produce methane, a gas normally made only in oxygen-free environments. The answ...

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