News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Understanding how plants respond to microgravity is critical to providing fresh food during space exploration initiatives. Researchers at the University of Florida Space Plants Lab compared two methods - RNA-Seq and microarray -- of analyzing which genes are expressed (the 'transcriptome') in plant tissue, specifically in the root tip. The results reveal how plants adapt to the microgravity space environment and can help guide research needed for the successful utilization of plants in future exploration initiatives.

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have created a powder that can capture CO2 from factories and power plants. The powder, created in the lab of Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, can filter and remove CO2 at facilities powered by fossil fuels before it is released into the atmosphere and is twice as efficient as conventional methods.

Tiny, disordered particles of magnesium chromium oxide may hold the key to new magnesium battery energy storage technology, which could possess increased capacity compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, find UCL and University of Illinois at Chicago researchers.

Of the known alien (non-native) species found in Antarctica, a non-biting species of midge currently presents one of the highest risks to terrestrial ecosystems, researchers have found.

Nanosized cages may play a big role in reducing energy consumption in science and industry, and machine-learning research aims to accelerate the deployment of these remarkable molecules.

A team of researchers at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering and NYU Center for Neural Science has solved a longstanding puzzle of how to build ultra-sensitive, ultra-small electrochemical sensors with homogenous and predictable properties by discovering how to engineer graphene structure on an atomic level. The researchers detail their study in a paper published today in the journal Advanced Materials.

A new drug could significantly slow the progression of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists. Current treatments slow progression of the degenerative disease by only a few months, and these findings could revolutionize the treatment of patients suffering from ALS, extending and improving quality of life.

A novel way in which the inflammatory response to pain is regulated has been described in the open-access journal eLife.