Earth

In 1996, a trio of scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discovery of Buckminsterfullerene - soccer-ball-shaped spheres of 60 joined carbon atoms that exhibit special physical properties.

Now, 20 years later, scientists have figured out how to turn them into Buckybombs. These nanoscale explosives show potential for use in fighting cancer, with the hope that they could one day target and eliminate cancer at the cellular level - triggering tiny explosions that kill cancer cells without affecting surrounding tissue.

New research shows that courtship rituals evolve very fast in cichlid fish in Lake Malawi. Whenever species evolve to feed at different depths, their courtship evolves as well. In the shallows where the light is good, males build sand castles to attract females. Males of deep-dwelling species dig less elaborate pits and compensate with longer swimming displays. The results are published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Submarine groundwater discharge, a mixture of continental freshwater and seawater, recirculates through the coastal aquifer, and is important in the water cycle but is a potentially exploitable water resource and a source of water for brackish coastal environments such as marshes and coastal lagoons. It also can serve as an important source of dissolved chemical compounds such as nutrients and trace and toxic metals.

Parasites can play an important role in driving cannibalism, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Leeds, Queen's University Belfast and Stellenbosch University in South Africa looked at cannibalism among freshwater shrimp in Northern Ireland.

They found a tiny parasite, Pleistophora mulleri, not only significantly increased cannibalism among the indigenous shrimp Gammarus duebeni celticus but made infected shrimp more voracious, taking much less time to consume their victims.

Bicarbonate (baking soda) makes sparkling water sparkle, causes bread to rise, absorbs odors and can be used for cleaning all sorts of stuff, including your teeth. In the body, it plays essential roles in buffering pH, aiding in digestion and neutralizing lactic acid produced during physical exertion. Much of the bicarbonate in our bodies comes from carbon dioxide, which is produced as a waste product in all cells, although some is ingested with carbonated beverages and certain types of foods.

While many recent studies have documented that agricultural producers must significantly increase yields in order to meet the food, feed, and fuel demands of a growing population, few have given practical solutions on how to do this. Crop science researchers at the University of Illinois interested in determining and reducing corn yield gaps are addressing this important issue by taking a systematic approach to the problem.

Credit: The American Chemical SocietyIt's been around for centuries but it seems like beer has never been more popular.

Microbreweries are cranking out special stouts, IPAs, lagers and pilsners. And the flavors and aromas of each of those brews all come down to chemistry.

This week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, ACS Reactions takes on craft beer chemistry. Sip on the video here:

To increase the biomass of fish, contemporary ecological theory predicts that either the amount of food or the quality of the food has to increase. In a recent experiment, researchers at Umeå University doubled the fish biomass under identical food supply and food quality by only controlling how much of total food supply that was channelled to juvenile and adult fish, respectively. The results have major implications for the exploitation (harvest) of fish populations and the coexistence of predatory fish and their prey.

Whether you're baking bread or building an organism, the key to success is consistently adding ingredients in the correct order and in the right amounts, according to a new genetic study by University of Michigan researchers.

Using the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Patricia Wittkopp and her colleagues developed a novel way to disentangle the effects of random genetic mutations and natural selection on the evolution of gene expression. Their findings are scheduled for online publication in the journal Nature on March 16.

Millennials are anything but "newsless," passive, or uninterested in civic issues, according to a new comprehensive study of the information habits of people age 18-34. The research looks closely at how members of the Millennial generation learn about the world on different devices and platforms.

Researchers from the University of Hawai'i - M?noa (UHM) and colleagues found that microbial communities in different regions of the Pacific Ocean displayed strikingly similar daily rhythms in their metabolism despite inhabiting extremely different habitats - the nutrient-rich waters off California and the nutrient-poor waters north of Hawai'i.

A rare and threatened Caribbean coral species has for the first time been successfully bred and raised in the lab, the study provides the first photos and documentation of juveniles of this species, and could provide information to help bolster local coral reef conservation. The team also plans to 'out-plant' these lab-grown juveniles in the wild which could help populations become more resilient to climate change.

After many years of speculation, it has finally been established that hydrazine is not a prevalent contaminant in contemporary smokeless tobacco products (STPs).

The presence of hydrazine has only been reported once in a limited sample of cigarette tobacco and tobacco smoke some 40 years ago. But this study has been cited many times as evidence that hydrazine is present in smokeless tobacco products. To date, no one has examined STPs for its presence.

Artificial night time light from sources such as street lamps affects the growth and flowering of plants and even the number of insects that depend on those plants for food, a study published today confirms.

The research shows that light pollution can impact the natural environment in complex ways that may be hard to predict. Due to the global extent of artificial light at night, there are concerns that these ecological impacts may be widespread.

Researchers should not have to rely on mere trial and error to create materials for energy applications. To accelerate discoveries that underpin economically important innovations, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory institute takes a new approach by bringing together atomic-scale imaging and computation to find a needle of new knowledge in a haystack of data.