Chemistry Nexus
by WebElements: the periodic table on the web
Cyborg bacteria convert CO2 into acetic acid
A BBC report on the August 2017 American Chemical Society meeting states ‘Cyborg’ bacteria deliver green fuel source from sunlight. To summarise, some bacteria deal with heavy metals such as cadmium by converting it to cadmium sulphide semiconductor crystals on their surfaces. These bacteria are then able to convert carbon dioxide + water + light into acetic acid with high efficiency.
WebElements August 22nd, 2017
Posted In: Bioinorganic chemistry, Environmental chemistry, Photochemistry
Tags: Cadmium, Carbon dioxide, sulfur
Huge new helium resource
A huge find of #helium gas in Tanzania may alleviate critical helium gas resources for some time. Helium is required for cooling NMR magnets and associated imaging instruments in medicine (MRI)
WebElements June 28th, 2016
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Geological chemistry, Group 18 elements
Tags: Helium
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
For those of you with access to Channel 4 in the UK, here is information about the The Royal Institution (RI) Christmas Lectures. See here for details of the 2015 lectures: how to survive in space.
Dr Kevin Fong opens a window onto today’s most exciting space missions, explores the future of space travel, and offers a unique insight into the challenges of protecting human life in the hostile environment of space in the 2015 Christmas lectures.
WebElements December 10th, 2015
Posted In: Chemical education, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Tags: Christmas
Illegal uranium mining?
The BBC report possible illegal mining of uranium at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government states the mine was shut but a BBC correspondent cliams 6,000 illegal miners work the Shinkolobwe mine. The International Atomic Energy Agency is said to be very concerned. The BBC state the uranium is processed nearby and delivered illegally to the world market via Zambia.
WebElements December 14th, 2009
Posted In: Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Why is there so much methane on Titan?
This Cassini-Huygens article addresses the abundance of methane on Titan. Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there are also methane and many other organic compounds. On Earth, life refreshes the methane supply as it is a by-product of metabolism. This is not likely to be the source of methane on Titan but if, as on Earth, sunlight is continuously destroying methane, how is methane getting into Titan’s atmosphere?
WebElements December 9th, 2009
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry
Soot major culprit of global warming?
The observation that soot makes global warming “worse” is well covered today. The BBC covers this – largely because it appears that soot is more important for global warming than realised earlier. Dr James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko, (Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA, and Columbia University Earth Institute) suggest that trying to reduce the amount of soot produced would be easier than cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
WebElements December 9th, 2009
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Tags: Carbon dioxide, Global warming, soot
Oxygen and Carbon Found in Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet
The Hubble telescope has identified oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet for the first time. The oxygen and carbon are evaporating from a “hot jupiter” planet HD 209458b, orbiting a star lying 150 light-years from Earth. HD 209458b is only 4.3 million miles from its Sun-like star, completing an orbit in less than 4 days.
This is not a sign of life!
WebElements December 9th, 2009
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry
Does ET have the street lights on?
Scientists crossed a new frontier in exo-planet research just last year when, using the Hubble Space Telescope, they detected sodium by its characteristic orange colour in the atmosphere of a large alien world orbiting the star HD 209458. Perhaps we are seeing ETs street lighting from a distance?
Beginning in 2006, a new telescope, Kepler (approved recently by NASA) will monitor about 100,000 nearby stars, searching for the slight dimming that occurs when an orbiting planet blocks some of the parent star’s light.
WebElements December 8th, 2009
Posted In: Analytical chemistry, Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry
Tags: Sodium
Titan’s methane springs
Lands, rivers and methane springs: latest images of Titan. Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there is also methane and many other organic compounds.
This mosaic of three frames provides unprecedented detail of the high ridge area including the flow down into a major river channel from different sources.
Mosaic of river channel and ridge area on Titan. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
WebElements December 8th, 2009
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
The Great Global Warming Swindle
Here in the UK, Channel 4 just screened an interesting documentary. Good viewing and challenges what seems to have become the accepted view that global warming is caused by man-made CO2 emissions. Instead, the programme points out that climate change has always been with us (including a medieval warm period, even balmier than today, and a mini ice-age in the seventeenth century when the River Thames froze so solid that fairs were regularly held on the ice).
WebElements March 12th, 2007
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Tags: CO2, Global warming