Scientists are normally happy to find regularities and correlations in their data—but only if they can explain them. Otherwise, they worry that those patterns might just be revealing some flaw in the data itself, so-called experimental artifacts ..read more

Near-infrared (NIR) light source, characterized by non-destructive and rapid detection, has a wide range of applications in diverse fields including food testing, safety, sensing, agricultural production and biomedicine. The availability of a compact, highly efficient and low-cost NIR phosphor is a key factor in achieving its wide application ..read more

Using a coffee grinder, a freezer and a furnace, researchers have discovered a chemical synergy between scrap tires and polystyrene can be harnessed to create sulfur-free, light oil ..read more

Scientists and engineers have developed a new coating for plastic particles that are used in 3D printing, which significantly increases their functionality and opens up new possibilities for commercial application ..read more

Zeolites are widely used in many industries, yet their intrinsic catalytic nature is not completely understood, due to the complexity of the hydroxyl-aluminum moieties ..read more

While it may not look like it, the interstellar space between stars is far from empty. Atoms, ions, molecules, and more reside in this ethereal environment known as the Interstellar Medium (ISM). The ISM has fascinated scientists for decades, as at least 200 unique molecules form in its cold, low-pressure environment. It's a subject that ties together the fields of chemistry, physics, and astronomy, as scientists from each field work to determine what types of chemical reactions happen there ..read more

Perovskites are among the most extensively studied materials in modern materials science. Their often unique and exotic properties, which stem from perovskite's peculiar crystal structure, could find revolutionary applications in various cutting-edge fields. One intriguing way of realizing such properties is through the precise ordering of a perovskite's defects, such as vacancies or substitutions ..read more

The demand for sake, a Japanese alcoholic drink, has increased globally. However, the rise in the popularity of sake has the potential for related beverage fraud. To address this issue, researchers from Japan have identified a novel method to authenticate the source of and differentiate between sake breweries. They measured the oxygen and nitrogen stable isotopes in nitrates within sake using denitrifying bacteria first. Their findings could help prevent mislabeling of the sake's brewery of origin ..read more

In the field of organic chemistry, scientists are always looking out for new types of reactions to unlock synthesis routes for challenging compounds. Most of the progress that we have witnessed in pharmaceutics and agrochemicals over the past few decades can be traced back to the discovery of novel practical reaction pathways. Such pathways often involve the selective replacement of a functional group with another, the formation of aromatic rings, or the strategic cleaving of parts of a molecule. But what about the rearrangement of existing functional groups within a molecule ..read more

While it is the fastest growing sector of the wine-packaging market, canned wine faces a few hurdles. It's not considered as elegant as wine in a bottle, and it's not as popular as the formerly maligned "wine bag in a box." There is also the unfortunate fact—and there is no gentle way to put this—that canned wine occasionally smells like rotten eggs ..read more