What happens when you bring DNA strands, gold nanoparticles, conformation-induced color changes, and a highly-intrusive bacterium together? A field-portable, inexpensive test for the world’s greatest bacterial threats.
Category: Analytical
New Materials to Recover Gold from Recycled Electronics
Gold is one of the most important metals since it’s used in electronics. Let’s learn from Charlie about a new material than can help recycle gold from discarded devices!
Skeletons tell Stories– Chemistry of the burned bones!
Happy Halloween Everyone! In this article, we are going to honor the dead and discuss their stories and also learn to communicate with them using analytical chemistry techniques. Explore with me the power of infrared spectroscopy and walk down the memory lane with the skeletons!
What can you do with a glucose meter?
More than you might think! Researchers have “hacked” glucose meters to detect enzymes, bacteria, and viruses using a device millions of people already use every day.
Chemistry, archaeology and the ergot fungi: solving the mystery of the past
During thousands of years of burial, cereals from ancient artifacts are degraded and consumed, but ergot fungi produce a fingerprint of lipids that we can use to trace them.
Proteomics Aids a Cheesy Discovery in Ancient Egypt
What can we learn when anthropology and chemistry join forces? Analytical chemists used proteomics to study the world’s oldest cheese sample discovered in an ancient Egyptian tomb.
Monitoring Glucose Levels in Sweat with a Wearable Sensor
Measuring blood sugar levels by pricking your finger is painful and inconvenient. Learn about a new wearable device that measures your glucose levels with just your sweat!
Organic Molecules on Mars: The Possibility of Life Sparks Curiosity
Researchers collaborating on the Curiosity Mars Rover mission have discovered organic matter on Mars – a crucial ingredient to life as we know it. Let’s take a deep dive into what they found, how they did it, and what the data really mean.
Using Erasable Codes to Stop Fake Medical Tests
Fake medical tests are a huge problem in many poorer countries. Let’s learn about a way to print erasable codes on these devices so they can’t be counterfeited!
Deep Neural Networks Are Identifying the Next Generation of Materials
Machine learning? Deep neural networks? Find out how advances in artificial intelligence could help scientists discover new materials.
Chemistry and the cannon balls preservation
How can chemistry help preserve our cultural heritage?
Photocages: Using Light to Deliver Medicine
What will medicine look like 10 years from now? Well, your doctor might be shining a light on you to help target drug delivery in your body. Read more about drug delivery using molecules called photocages inside!
Looking Deeper into the Chemistry of Flames
Researchers discover new formation pathways for oxygenated hydrocarbons in combustion.
Algal Blooms Impact Air Quality in Great Lake Regions
Algal blooms aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing plant in a lake region, but did you know their emissions can impact air quality and human health?
Seeing the unseen – the first aromatic molecule identified in space!
Outer space has lots of radiation. But there’s one kind, a faint infrared glow, that has appeared as a mystery to many scientists.
By following this mysterious light, scientists have now made a great discovery – seeing an aromatic molecule for the first time in the galaxies!
Sniffing Sensors to Save Entrapped Humans
Human odors and skin oils can be detected by hand-held sensors in order to aid in urban search and rescue efforts.
Why are swaths of trees dying out across Western North America?
Mountain Pine beetles in western North American forests have killed many trees and these researchers have uncovered a new chemical signature of their spreading impact.
Household Chemical Products Contribute to Poor Air Quality
Is your deodorant contributing to air pollution and human health risks? Find out here!
Wine or Wine Not? An Examination of What Makes a Wine Smell
Have you ever wondered what you’re smelling when you stick your nose into a glass of wine? Read this chembite to find out!
Trap and Release the acetone in your breath: Portable Spectroscopy for Diabetes Diagnosis?
Ask someone what gases they would expect to find in our breath and oxygen, carbon dioxide and water may well be high on the list. But did you realize that acetone could be in there too? A npvel portable device for detecting acetone in breath has been reported.
X-Rays and Art: What are colors made of?
What does 15th century art and 21st century X-rays have in common? Find out here!
What wristbands could tell you, not just fashion, but your chemical safety!
Wristbands may make you think about fashion. But now, it could link to your health! Let’s see how it can depict your chemical safety in daily life!
Eavesdropping On Intercellular Communication
For complexity to emerge in multi-cellular organisms, extensive intercelluar communication must occur.
Scratching the Surface: Subsurface Hydrogen Aids CO Hydrogenation to Methanol With Nickel
In today’s Chembite we appreciate and explore some remarkable mechanistic aspects of the hydrogenation of CO at a nickel surface. The paper covered gives the first account of catalytic methanol and formaldehyde production from CO by Ni. But to explain why we need to go deeper than the surface…
3D Mass Spectrometry to Discover Novel ANTibiotics
Researchers have developed a novel technique to perform mass spectrometry “imaging” of 3D objects. This method is used to identify novel natural products on whole ants when exposed to a pathogen.