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Never Mind All That: Solar on the upswing

I’m going to have to start posting more frequently. My last post was about solar firms going bankrupt in China and now my cleantech news is about how solar is set to rebound. Seems like something should have happened in between that post and this one. Actually, a few biobased chemical deals were announced. Thanks BASF and Evonik! Making a better solar cell. Credit: University of Stuttgart Institute of Photovoltaics Anyway – back to solar. Earlier this week, Lux Research (a rather ske...

Fluoride Loosens Bacterial Enamel Grip

Fluoride helps fight cavities. That’s why it’s in our drinking water and toothpaste. But how this mineral works its dental magic is still somewhat mysterious. Now, researchers offer an incisive solution. They find that fluoride treatment can loosen bacteria’s grip on tooth enamel. The study is in the journal Langmuir . [Peter Loskill et al, Reduced Adhesion of Oral Bacteria on Hydroxyapatite by Fluoride Treatment ] [More]...

SIDS, cot death absolute risks

The tabloids were screaming at new parents this week desperately yelling at them not to share a bed with their newborn because it could be lethal, causing sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death. The research said so. SIDS is tragic, of course, but a little composure, please. As NHS Choices explains: “The researchers estimate that the absolute risk of SIDS for room-sharing infants was 0.00008 (eight per 100,000) when neither parent smoked and the baby was less than three months old, bre...

10 ul microsyringes

A list of small, useful things (links):John has a great explainer on how to drill a well the right way.Lisa Balbes talks about how most people don't know what to expect in their first job.Andre the Chemist thinks you should move for your first job.Ken Hanson posts on proposals in his great series on how to get a faculty position. This Dow Lab Safety Academy is interesting; I think it deserves a closer, more critical look than it's gotten so far. Andrew Bisette's 9th #chemclub roundup.I...

Summer Blockbuster: A Black Hole Swallows a Cloud

Astronomers have seen it coming. Starting this summer--possibly this month--a large cloud of gas and dust and perhaps a star will begin to ricochet through the dead center of the Milky Way galaxy, the home of a supermassive black hole. The ensuing celestial fireworks should reveal much about the mysterious central core of the galaxy, a region kept shrouded in darkness by dust and distance. [More]...

Translating teenage grunts

Linguistics of adolescent phonetics If you don’t get it, then I just have one thing to say and it’s: “A voiced alveolar stop and breathy-voiced low-back unrounded vowel, with advanced tongue root” – duuuuh… (That latter words is described by James Harbeck in his accompanying article as aiming to sound as stupid as possible. Of course, the stupidity being communicated is not that of the articulator but of you, dear listener, or did you not get that either? Meh...

The most interesting paragraph I read today

My sincere apologies with the relatively quiet posting recently. I do indeed have a Process Wednesday post in the works, but I found this to be such an interesting framing of the issue by Alyssa Rosenberg, commenting on Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In and her approach to looking at childcare costs that I had to post it:Similarly, Sandberg suggests a different way to look at the cost of child care. Rather than considering nannying or preschool costs as a dilemma, something that wipes out a woman’s ea...

Deceived wisdom about pruney fingers

I discuss the myths about why our fingers go “pruney” in the bath or swimming pool in my book Deceived Wisdom, the truth seems to lie in the work of Mark Changizi. In this cartoon, we see the explanation and get to hear his theory in his own words. Deceived wisdom about pruney fingers is a post from the science blog of David Bradley, author of Deceived Wisdom Subscribe to our Email Newsletter...

In Print: Toys Will Be Toys

McDonald’s website leaves it up to interpretation what divides these two types of toys. The Newscripts blog would like to be closer Internet buddies with our glossy print Newscripts column, so here we highlight what’s going on in the current issue of C&EN. As the cashier at the fast-food restaurant is finishing our order, she grabs a small plastic doll and tosses it in my kids’ meal. “Excuse me,” my mom says testily. “You didn’t give my daughter a c...

Can We Protect Against the Next Moore Tornado?

The scenes of devastation in Moore, Okla., after a possibly 2-mile-wide tornado tore apart schools and homes on Monday (May 20) led to an inevitable question: Could anything have been done to save buildings and lives?...

What the smallest infectious agents reveal about evolution

Radically different viruses share genes and are likely to share ancestry, according to new research. The comprehensive phylogenomic analysis compares giant viruses that infect amoeba with tiny viruses known as virophages and to several groups of transposable elements. The complex network of evolutionary relationships the authors describe suggests that viruses evolved from non-viral mobile genetic elements and vice versa, on more than one occasion....

Cell Investigating Breakthrough Stem Cell Paper

Journal evaluating possible image duplication...

Normal or Not? When Collecting Becomes Hoarding

Perhaps the piles of newspapers, almost-working appliances, or old Barbie dolls start out as part of a harmless, if eccentric, collection. Or perhaps they are items on a languishing to-do list. But as the clutter builds, it can become pathological....

VIDEO: 'Worrying declines' for UK species

A major new report from 25 wildlife organisations, assessing the state of Britain's Nature, is warning that many species of wildlife are facing extinction in the UK unless urgent action is taken....

Depression linked to telomere enzyme, aging, chronic disease

The first symptoms of major depression may be behavioral, but the common mental illness is based in biology — and not limited to the brain, new research suggests....

Not a surprise for some reason

Imagine reading an article on private spaceflight in New York magazine and coming across this interesting tidbit (emphasis mine):Virgin Galactic’s CEO is a 39-year-old American named George Whitesides, who I met one evening after ISPCS. The son of a legendary chemist, he is himself a nonscientist who decided to devote his life to space one night in Tunisia, while studying women’s rights in the Islamic world on a Fulbright scholarship, when he found himself walking on the shore of the Me...

Brain's Glial Cells Spark Seizures

When neurons fire together uncontrollably, epileptic seizures ensue. Yet what sparks the cells to go haywire in the first place? In January scientists found an unexpected answer. When glial cells in the cortex of fruit flies cannot properly control their calcium levels, they leave neighboring neurons vulnerable to seizures. [More]...

Tornado Recovery: What Moore Can Learn from Joplin

Monday's monster tornado in Moore, Okla., was a terrible reminder of nature's tremendous wrath for people in Joplin, Mo., a town also hit by one of the country's worst twisters....

Trans-US solar plane sets new record

The Solar Impulse plane sets a new record for distance flown by a solar-powered craft as it completes the second leg of a bid to cross the US....

Italian Parliament Orders Clinical Trial of Controversial Stem Cell Treatment

Senate vote puts an end—for now—to national debate over disputed injections...

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