Plastics of the future may be made from sulfur, not oil, putting waste to good use

Jan 05, 2016 15:02 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science

What has chemistry ever done for me, you might ask? Just as Dustin Hoffman was told by one of his would-be mentors in The Graduate, one answer is plastics one of the greatest chemical innovations of the 20th...

The race to find even more new elements to add to the periodic table

Jan 05, 2016 07:25 am UTC| Science

In an event likely never to be repeated, four new superheavy elements were last week simultaneously added to the periodic table. To add four in one go is quite an achievement but the race to find more is ongoing. Back...

Space in 2015 was out of this world

Dec 24, 2015 23:55 pm UTC| Science

This was a golden year for planetary exploration thanks to all of the NASA and European Space Agency missions that were planned and implemented decades ago. Not since Apollo and the epic space race of the Cold War has...

What can science tell us about the Star of Bethlehem?

Dec 23, 2015 21:55 pm UTC| Science

During winter it can sometimes feel that the whole day passes in the blink of an eye and that evening darkness comes far too quickly. While more daylight would be a lovely thing, the early darkness has one big advantage:...

Plant viruses: from crop pathogens to key players in bio-nanotechnology

Dec 23, 2015 03:54 am UTC| Science

Plant viruses are sub-microscopic parasites that have been studied primarily because they cause devastating diseases in crop plants. But in recent years, scientists have discovered theyre not just bad news; they also form...

After eight years, NASA's Dawn probe brings dwarf planet Ceres into closest focus

Dec 23, 2015 01:23 am UTC| Science

More than a thousand times farther from Earth than the moon, farther even than the sun, an extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition is taking place. NASAs Dawn spacecraft is exploring dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits the...

A purported new mathematics proof is impenetrable – now what?

Dec 22, 2015 00:37 am UTC| Science

What happens when someone claims to have proved a famous conjecture? Well, it depends. When a paper is submitted, the journal editor will pass it off to a respected expert for examination. That referee will then scan the...