Chemistry

The Science of Why Toothpaste Makes Food Taste Funny

Blame toothpaste's foaming action

A fragmented painting of a pig-deer or babirusa (Babyrousa sp.) and hand stencil from one of the caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Rock (Art) of Ages: Indonesian Cave Paintings Are 40,000 Years Old

Cave paintings of animals and hand stencils in Sulawesi, Indonesia, seem to be as old as similar cave art in Europe

Researchers have developed a coating that could one day make cashmere sweaters that never have to be cleaned.

Good-bye, Dry Cleaning. Hello, Self-Cleaning Cashmere

Researchers in Hong Kong have developed a nano-coating that cleans fabric when exposed to light

Geckos Can Control the Movement of Their Toe Hairs

Geckos take advantage of van der Waals forces to run across ceilings, but a simple shift allows them to drop to the ground

Scientists observed the view down the borehole via a computer at the surface as they drilled into the Antarctic ice to reach Lake Whillans.

Thousands of Microbe Species Live in This Buried Antarctic Lake

Drilling through half a mile of ice let scientists uncover the first solid evidence of life in a subglacial lake

Flax yarn recovered from late Neolithic graves, heavily laden with resin.

The First Ancient Egyptian Mummies Might Have Appeared 1,500 Years Earlier Than Egyptologists Thought

Egyptians were embalming their dead as far back as 4,100 B.C.

Another Horribly Botched Execution Reveals Ongoing Flaws in Lethal Drug Cocktails

The execution of Arizona inmate Joseph Wood took nearly two hours

"Watermarks" earned first place in the contest. “The way water in this picture found its way back to the ocean reminded me of a peacock's tail spreading under the sun or a woman's hair blowing in the wind,” Sadri writes.

Who Knew Fungi and Fruit Fly Ovaries Could Be So Beautiful?

Princeton University’s annual science art contest shines a light on the research world, adding a video element this year

14 Fun Facts About Fireworks

Number three: Fireworks are just chemical reactions

Rabbits around old military facilities on Okunoshima.

This Once-Secret Island Now Hosts Hordes of Adorable Bunnies

Now home to hundreds of semi-tame bunnies, the island once housed poison gas facilities

You Have Carbon Monoxide in Your Blood—But Not As Much As an Elephant Seal Does

Elephant seals have so much carbon monoxide in their blood, it's as if they're smoking 40 cigarettes a day

The planet Kepler-22b, shown in this artwork, is the right size and distance from its star to support liquid water, and perhaps life.

The Search for Life Across the Universe

Smithsonian astrophysicist Jeremy Drake explains how the question changed from "if" life will be found elsewhere to "when" and "where"

Washing Old Money Could Save Billions of Dollars

A simple carbon dioxide wash could clean human "sebum" off old money, making those bills good as new

What Happens to All the Salt We Dump On the Roads?

In the U.S., road crews scatter about 137 pounds of salt per person annually to melt ice. Where does it go after that?

Five Reasons Why You Should Probably Stop Using Antibacterial Soap

As the FDA recently noted, antibacterial products are no more effective than soap and water, and could be dangerous

Earthquake lights seen Tagish Lake, in the Yukon Territory, in 1972. Large orbs are visible in the foreground, while smaller ones (highlighted by arrows) are seen higher up.

Why Do Lights Sometimes Appear in the Sky During An Earthquake?

Scientists have a new hypothesis to explain the mysterious phenomenon—one that could allow the lights to serve as warning for an impeding quake

A tobacco hornworm caterpillar chowing down on a wild tobacco plant in the Great Basin Desert, Utah

Caterpillars Repel Predators With Second-Hand Nicotine Puffs

As far as spiders are concerned, caterpillars have a case of very bad breath

Sewage Water Reveals Community’s Illegal Drug Habits

Sewage analyses in the US found the highest levels of methamphetamines to date, but revealed that cocaine use in the US seems on par with that in Europe

Using interpretive dance, Cedric Tan, a biologist at the University of Oxford, explains his PhD thesis, "Sperm competition between brothers and female choice.

This is What Happens When You Ask Scientists to Explain Their PhDs in Dance

Watch this year's winners of the "Dance Your Ph.D" contest animate sperm competition, cell division and sleep deprivation

If the concentration of PFTBA is the same everywhere as it is in Toronto, which the researchers think it is, then that would be a bad thing.

There’s a New Greenhouse Gas to Worry About, And It’s 7,100 Times Stronger Than Carbon Dioxide

PFTBA is the most efficient greenhouse gas found, on a molecule-by-molecule basis

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