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Category: chemistry

How the Red Sea went completely dry before being flooded by the Indian Ocean over 6 million years ago

Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have provided conclusive evidence that the Red Sea completely dried out about 6.2 million years ago, before being suddenly refilled by a catastrophic flood from the Indian Ocean. The findings put a definitive time on a dramatic event that changed the Red Sea.

Using , microfossil evidence, and geochemical dating techniques, the KAUST researchers showed that a massive change happened in about 100,000 years—a blink of an eye for a major geological event. The Red Sea went from connecting with the Mediterranean Sea to an empty, salt-filled basin. Then, a massive flood burst through volcanic barriers to open the Bab el-Mandab strait and reconnect the Red Sea with the world’s oceans.

The work is published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Forensic test recovers fingerprints from fired ammunition casings despite intense heat

A pioneering new test that can recover fingerprints from ammunition casing, once thought nearly impossible, has been developed by two Irish scientists.

Dr. Eithne Dempsey, and her recent Ph.D. student Dr. Colm McKeever, of the Department of Chemistry in Ireland’s Maynooth University have developed a unique electrochemical method which can visualize fingerprints on brass casings, even after they have been exposed to the high temperature conditions experienced during gunfire. The study is published in the journal Forensic Chemistry.

For decades, investigators have struggled to recover fingerprints from weapons because any biological trace is usually destroyed by the , friction and gas released after a gun is fired. As a result, criminals often abandon their weapons or casings at , confident that they leave no fingerprint evidence behind.

Core electron bonding may not always require extreme pressure, study finds

You probably learned in high school chemistry class that core electrons don’t participate in chemical bonding.

They’re thought to be too deep inside an atom and close to the nucleus to meaningfully interact with the of other atoms, leaving the outer valence electrons to get all the glory in textbooks.

The actual science is more complicated, as some elements’ core electrons are theorized to activate when squeezed hard enough, like at the pressure levels found deep inside Earth.

Quantum error correction codes enable efficient scaling to hundreds of thousands of qubits

A new class of highly efficient and scalable quantum low-density parity-check error correction codes, capable of performance approaching the theoretical hashing bound, has been developed by scientists at the Institute of Science, Tokyo, Japan. These novel error correction codes can handle quantum codes with hundreds of thousands of qubits, potentially enabling large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing, with applications in diverse fields, including quantum chemistry and optimization problems.

Steel production could get a makeover: Study captures real-time iron formation at the nanoscale

A research team at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has investigated a new method to produce iron, the main component of steel. For the first time, the researchers were able to observe chemical reactions and iron formation in real-time at the nanometer scale.

Webb Spots Cosmic Light Show on Rogue Planet

Brilliant aurora-like displays, much like Earth’s Northern Lights, are the highlight of an unusual weather forecast. Instead of coming from a television studio, this report originates from a distant world beyond our solar system.

Astronomers at Trinity College Dublin used the NASA /ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the turbulent atmosphere of a nearby free-floating planet known as SIMP-0136.

With the telescope’s highly sensitive instruments, researchers were able to measure tiny variations in the planet’s brightness as it spun. These subtle shifts revealed information about its temperature, cloud cover, and chemical makeup.

Time-released gel packs a one-two punch against aggressive brain tumors

High-grade gliomas are aggressive brain tumors with poor prognosis, largely because even after surgical removal, infiltrative residual tumor cells often regrow during the latency before radiotherapy, leading to recurrence. The standard chemoradiotherapy only modestly improves survival. A crucial window of vulnerability arises post-surgery, before radiotherapy begins, where residual tumor cells are not well addressed by systemic chemotherapy.

Prof. Feng-Huei Lin and Dr. Jason Lin from National Taiwan University have designed a local post-surgical gel packing with sequential delivery of platinum agents that could maintain therapeutic drug concentrations intracranially and synergize with subsequent radiotherapy to eliminate tissue. Their study is published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

The cutting-edge drug-delivery gel can be directly injected into the surgical cavity following tumor resection. This gel provides sustained local delivery of platinum-based anticancer agents, ensuring effective eradication for residual glioma tissue that remain after surgery. The gel is designed to maximize the therapeutic impact while minimizing systemic exposure.

Cambridge scientists created a gel that could end arthritis pain

Cambridge scientists have created a breakthrough material that can sense tiny chemical changes in the body, such as the increased acidity during an arthritis flare-up, and release drugs exactly when and where they’re needed. By mimicking cartilage while delivering medication, this smart gel could ease pain, reduce side effects, and provide continuous treatment for millions of arthritis sufferers.

Icy planetesimal with high nitrogen and water content discovered in white dwarf’s atmosphere

University of Warwick astronomers have uncovered the chemical fingerprint of a frozen, water-rich planetary fragment being consumed by a white dwarf star outside our solar system.

In our solar system, it is thought that comets and icy planetesimals (small solid objects in space) were responsible for delivering water to Earth. The existence of these icy objects is a requirement for the development of life on other worlds, but it is incredibly difficult to identify them outside our solar system as icy objects are small, faint and require .

In a study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers from Warwick, Europe and the US have found strong evidence that icy, volatile-rich bodies—capable of delivering water and the ingredients for life—exist in planetary systems beyond our own.

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