Birds have a unique way of creating color in their wings and this is how they have become so colorful.
Author: Kristopher Benke
Kristopher is currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign studying ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy. He enjoys comedy, exploring the outdoors, and spending time with his two cats Lumo and Somo.
What captures carbon?
What technology is currently in use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? What technologies lie ahead to help us catch up to our emissions?
Want more fertile crops this harvest? Add animal bones to your cauldron
Sustaining the world’s population requires finding creative new ways to boost food production
Bug to bug on a bubble
How do pheromones travel from one insect to another? Humidity may change the answer to this question.
Melanin nanoparticles to better protect our cells
How does melanin protect cells from damaging radiation? How can this ability be improved?
Harnessing an enzyme’s full potential by locking it in a protein cage
Researchers use a naturally crystalline protein to act as a cage to hold another enzyme. This assembly can then be used to turn waste cooking oil into biodiesel.
Hopping from liquid to liquid or entering a sea of nanocrystals?
For some molecules, it’s not just gas, liquid, and solid. In these cases, careful characterization is required to determine if a liquid-liquid phase transition is occurring or nanocrystals are forming.
Expansion under pressure
Some materials expand when pressure is applied. A new member of this class of materials does so to an unprecedented extent, taking advantage of 3D rather than 2D design.
Nanoparticles when you need them and where you want them
Nanocomposites bring together the fields of polymers and nanoparticles. A new technique to synthesize them gives researchers more control over their formation
A fifty-year-old question about molecular structure answered with a picture
What does a ring of 18 carbon atoms look like? An atomic scale image settles the debate.