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On a blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b, a team of astronomers including researchers from the University of Cambridge has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of Earth's atmosphere. Understanding the links between stratospheres and chemical compositions is critical to studying atmospheric processes in exoplanets Nikku Madhusudhan The presence of a stratosphere can provide clues about the composition of a planet and how it formed.

Catalysts created by Carnegie Mellon University chemist Terrence J. Collins effectively and safely remove a potent and dangerous endocrine disruptor from wastewater. In a paper published in Scientific Reports , Collins' research team and collaborators led by Brunel University London's Susan Jobling and Rak Kanda demonstrate that the catalysts could be a viable option for large-scale water treatment.

Carnegie Mellon University chemists, led by Mark Bier , have separated and weighed virus particles using mass spectrometry (MS). This is the first time that researchers successfully used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization MS to analyze a mixture of intact virus particles.

Most of the world's electricity-producing power plants - whether powered by coal, natural gas, or nuclear fission - make electricity by generating steam that turns a turbine. That steam then is condensed back to water, and the cycle begins again. But the condensers that collect the steam are quite inefficient, and improving them could make a big difference in overall power plant efficiency.

In 1999, UCLA professor John Miao pioneered a technique called coherent diffractive imaging, or CDI, which allows scientists to re-create the 3D structure of noncrystalline samples or nanocrystals. The achievement was extremely significant because although X-ray crystallography had long allowed scientists to determine the atomic structure of a wide variety of molecules, including DNA, it does not work for noncrystalline materials used in a variety of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, materials science, nanoscience, geology and biology.

An international team, including researchers from the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University (ZAH), has discovered three "cosmic Methusalems" from the earliest years of the universe. These unusual stars are about 13 billion years old and experts assign them to the first generations of stars after the "dark ages".

Imperial researchers have determined how oxygen and light degrade promising new solar cells and have proposed an innovative solution. Solar cells harness energy from the Sun and provide an alternative to non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. However, they face challenges from costly manufacturing processes and poor efficiency - the amount of sunlight converted to useable energy.

How is the mind formed, and what does it mean to be human? These are the questions that intrigue Edward Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. To answer them, we will need a much deeper understanding of how the brain works, according to Boyden, who leads the synthetic neurobiology research group at the MIT Media Laboratory and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.

Light-emitting electrochemical cells, LEC, is a newly invented lighting technology. In his thesis, physicist Amir Asadpoordarvish, Umeå University, shows how a LEC can be produced through spraying three layers of ink on a substrate and emit light by the current from an ordinary battery. LEC components can be sprayed onto complicated surfaces, for example to make a light-emitting fork.

Cornell faculty members Hening Lin and Olga Boudker have been named 2015 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators, the institute announced May 19. Lin, professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Boudker, associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medical College, are among the nation's top biomedical researchers named HHMI investigators this year, with their appointments to begin in September.

Reactions caused by light, such as photosynthesis, can now be captured in greater detail thanks to a technique developed by Imperial researchers. Using extremely short-lived pulses of light allows researchers to capture the quickest movements of electrons and understand precisely what happens during a reaction between light and molecules.

New findings by Stanford engineering Professor Alfred Spormann and colleagues could pave the way for microbial "factories" that produce renewable biofuels and chemicals. Stanford University scientists have solved a long-standing mystery about methanogens, unique microorganisms that transform electricity and carbon dioxide into methane.

Photosynthesis leaves behind a unique calling card in the form of a chemical signature that is spelled out with stable oxygen isotopes, UCLA geochemists reported April 24 . The findings suggest that similar isotopic signatures could exist for many biological processes, including some that are difficult to observe with current tools.

A pair of Carnegie Mellon researchers have made a key discovery about amino acids, the most basic building blocks of life. For centuries, scientists have been perplexed by the fact that amino acids in living organisms exist exclusively in only one of two possible forms, or "enantiomers. The researchers' findings on how this may have come about in nature could also lead to the production of better pharmaceuticals, and were published in this week's edition of Nature Chemistry.

New research suggests it may be possible to predict an infant's progress following surgery for congenital heart disease with a blood test. The study, published in the journal Critical Care Medicine and carried out at Royal Brompton Hospital , followed children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease, and found that by analysing metabolites in the blood - molecules created as a result of metabolism - it was possible to predict a child's clinical outcome.

All cells contain complex molecular components that fulfil functions necessary for the cell to live These components require motion in a very particular order to function almost like an intricate set of dance steps Different motions are acquired as the temperature increases Each component gains motion at different temperatures The order in which this takes place was previously unknown New research provides first unified understanding of how each

New research suggests it may be possible to predict an infant's progress following surgery for congenital heart disease by analysing a number of important small molecules in the blood.

Scientists at the University of Chicago, Harvard University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have described the surprising discovery and function of a new DNA modification in insects, worms and algae. Common DNA modifications occur through methylation, a chemical process that can dramatically change gene expression, which regulates the eventual production of proteins that carry out the functions of an organism.

Researchers from Berkeley Lab & University of Hawaii at Manoa map the first chemical bonds that eventually give rise to DNA. DNA is synonymous with life, but where did it originate? One way to answer this question is to try to recreate the conditions that formed DNA's molecular precursors. These precursors are carbon ring structures with embedded nitrogen atoms, key components of nucleobases, which themselves are building blocks of the double helix.