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Now we know how fireflies get their glow going. Researchers at Yale, Connecticut College, and the University of Buffalo have determined the chemical processes at play when a firefly converts the chemicals in its body into a backyard light show. It's a scientific riddle that has taken some 60 years to explain.

"Remarkable progress in cooling and trapping molecules in recent years has opened up an entirely new energy regime for studying chemical reactivity at temperatures below one micro-Kelvin," said Brian Kendrick. Discovery has important technological applications LOS ALAMOS, N.M. July 31, 2015-Researchers have discovered a new interference mechanism in ultracold chemical reactions, one which has important technological applications in precision measurements, sensing and quantum computing.

Whether you're a human, a mouse, or even a fruitfly, losing sleep is a bad thing, leading to physiological effects and behavioral changes. One example that has been studied for many years is a link between sleep loss and aggression. But it can be difficult to distinguish sleep loss effects from stress responses, especially in rodent or human models.

A single frame from an animation shows how stellar orbits in the Milky Way can change. It shows two pairs of stars (marked as red and blue) in which each pair started in the same orbit, and then one star in the pair changed orbits. The star marked as red has completed its move into a new orbit, while the star marked in blue is still moving.

Two key physical phenomena take place at the surfaces of materials: catalysis and wetting. A catalyst enhances the rate of chemical reactions; wetting refers to how liquids spread across a surface. Now researchers at MIT and other institutions have found that these two processes, which had been considered unrelated, are in fact closely linked.

UCLA scientists have discovered an experimental therapy capable of suppressing the development of ulcerative colitis, a disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract. Ulcerative colitis patients have an increased risk of developing colon cancer, but doctors still are unsure why. The treatment uses a chemical to block an RNA molecule that's involved in the transmission of genetic information and is typically found in high levels in people with ulcerative colitis.

Estimates of how much nitrous oxide, a significant greenhouse gas and stratospheric ozone-depleting substance, is being emitted in the central United States have been too low by as much as 40 percent, a new study led by University of Minnesota scientists shows. The study measured how much nitrous oxide is emitted from streams in an agriculturally dense area in southern Minnesota.

Biologists have discovered how the rice plant's immune system is triggered by disease, in a discovery that could boost crop yields and lead to more disease-resistant types of rice. Rice is central to the food security of more than half the world's population in many of the poorest countries. But bacterial leaf blight can destroy up to 80 per cent of a crop in some countries if it develops early.

Treatment with an ascaroside protects Arabidopsis plants against infection with turnip crinkle virus. The plants on the left were untreated, while the plants on the right were pretreated with the pheromone. Plants can sense parasitic roundworms in the soil by picking up on their chemical signals, a team of researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI), on the Cornell University campus, has found.

Both prescription and illegal drugs such as morphine, cocaine and oxycodone have been found in surface waters in Canadian rivers. New research from McGill shows that wastewater discharged from wastewater treatment plants in the Grand River watershed of southern Ontario has the potential to contaminate sources of drinking water with these drugs.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. Natural mineral could improve health of brownfield land Franklin D. Roosevelt once said 'A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself'.

Nobody knows what our skies looked like before fossil fuel burning began; today, about half the cloud droplets in Northern Hemisphere skies formed around particles of pollution. Cloudy skies help regulate our planet's climate and yet the answers to many fundamental questions about cloud formation remain hazy.

Over the last decade, advances in the technology of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, have helped to improve the performance of devices ranging from television and computer screens to flashlights. As the uses for LEDs expand, scientists continue to look for ways to increase their efficiency while simplifying how they are manufactured.

Researchers have developed a new method for growing 'hybrid' crystals at the nanoscale, in which quantum dots - essentially nanoscale semiconductors - of different materials can be sequentially incorporated into a host nanowire with perfect junctions between the components.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. Durham scientists showcase research to Parliament Super-thin nanocoatings that protect millions of mobile devices from water damage have been showcased to Parliament in London by their Durham University inventor, as part of a national campaign run by the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics.

In the course of basic research in membrane biochemistry scientists at Heidelberg University have gained new insight into the cytotoxic effect of the Ebola virus. Employing biochemical and cell biological methods they have shed light on the molecular relationships between the Ebola glycoprotein and its role in mediating cytotoxicity.

Plants and bacteria make use of sunlight with remarkably high efficiency: nine out of ten absorbed light particles are being put to use in an ordinary bacterium. For years it has been a pressing question of modern research whether or not effects from quantum physics are responsible for this outstanding performance of natural light harvesters.

Plants and bacteria make use of sunlight with remarkably high efficiency: nine out of ten absorbed light particles are being put to use in an ordinary bacterium. For years, it has been a pressing question of modern research whether or not effects from quantum physics are responsible for this outstanding performance of natural light harvesters.

Researchers have developed a new approach for better integrating medical devices with biological systems. The researchers, led by Bozhi Tian, assistant professor in chemistry at the University of Chicago, have developed the first skeleton-like silicon spicules ever prepared via chemical processes. "Using bone formation as a guide, the Tian group has developed a synthetic material from silicon that shows potential for improving interaction between soft tissue and hard materials," said Joe Akkara, a program director in "This is the power of basic scientific research.

Berkeley Lab researchers' novel diffraction spectroscopy technique will provide insight to chemical processes at important battery interface. One of the most important things to understand in battery technology is the precise physical and chemical processes that occur at the electrode/electrolyte interface.