An analysis of the spectral emissions from distant stars suggests that compounds of unexpected complexity – some resembling coal and petroleum – exist throughout the universe and are being made by stars. The proponents of this controversial idea, Professors Sun Kwok and Yong Zhang of the University of Hong Kong, argue their case in the […]
Organic farming is perceived as wildlife friendly, but the benefits to birds, bees and butterflies don’t compensate for the lower yields produced, according to a new study from the University of Leeds. In the most detailed comparison of organic and conventional farming to date, researchers from Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Science found that the benefits […]
A research team from Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science and Michigan Technological University has replicated the problem-solving actions of neurons in an organic molecular layer that they say is massively parallel and self-healing – the first time such a brain-like circuit has been created. Writing about his work in Nature Physics, lead researcher Anirban […]
Like life on Earth, extraterrestrial life should create an environment with a large amount of molecules that favor one kind of handedness, and now, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) believe we may be able to identify life-harboring planets by looking for left- (or right-) handed reflected light from these planets. […]
A classic 50s experiment (known as the Miller-Urey Synthesis) that showed how amino acids could be created from inorganic molecules and an electrical spark isn’t the whole story, it turns out. There were two related experiments, neither of which was reported at the time, which under modern analysis yield very interesting findings. One of these […]
With the cost of fossil fuels rising, attention is once again turning to organic solar cells, which can produce electricity much more cheaply than conventional silicon based solar cells. However, organic polymer solar cells have to date been plagued by low efficiency, typically converting the sun’s energy to electricity at levels of around 1 or […]
