Chemistry news

• What a Phosphine Signal in a Brown Dwarf’s Clouds Means for the Search for Life

  02-10-2025 20:30 via nytimes.com
  The detection of the molecule phosphine in a brown dwarf’s atmosphere may help astronomers in their search for life elsewhere in the Milky Way.
  
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• Rudolph Marcus, Who Illuminated Electrochemical Processes, Dies at 102

  17-07-2026 19:56 via nytimes.com
  He received a 1992 Nobel Prize for developing a theory that explained fundamental processes behind photosynthesis, respiration, oxidation and even how fireflies produce light.
  
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• Nobel-Winning U.S. Chemist Omar Yaghi Will Move to China to Lead A.I. Institute

  09-07-2026 23:17 via nytimes.com
  Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley, will head an initiative to apply artificial intelligence to the discovery of new materials.
  
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• The Fast-Changing Chemistry of New, Dangerous Drugs

  08-04-2026 22:34 via nytimes.com
  Today’s illicit chemists can quickly cook up drugs far more dangerous than fentanyl.
  
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• Inside a One-Man Workshop for Ultrapotent Drugs

  08-04-2026 22:33 via nytimes.com
  Times reporters were given access to a small operation on the frontier of illicit drugs.
  
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• Uncovering the World’s Newest and Deadliest Drugs

  31-03-2026 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Overdose rates in the United States have surged with the emergence of new synthetic drugs. Matt Richtel reports from a lab in Pennsylvania where scientists are identifying new drug molecules that toxicology reports can’t detect.
  
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• How the Internet Became the ‘Cookbook’ of the Drug Trade

  31-03-2026 11:00 via nytimes.com
  A baffling overdose death took investigators to the frontier of ultra-potent synthetic drugs. The clues were hauntingly familiar.
  
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• Edith Flanigen, Award-Winning Research Chemist, Dies at 96

  24-01-2026 18:25 via nytimes.com
  She and her staff at Union Carbide created synthetic materials that improved various industrial processes, including purifying water. She also developed a way to make emeralds.
  
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• Louis E. Brus, Nobel Laureate Who Illuminated the Nanoworld, Dies at 82

  23-01-2026 20:42 via nytimes.com
  He accidentally created some of the first quantum dots, tiny semiconductors that now power many electronics.
  
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• Ron Robinson, Chemist For BeautyStat and Rhode, Knows Skin

  02-11-2025 11:00 via nytimes.com
  Ron Robinson, founder of the BeautyStat brand and a cosmetic chemist behind Hailey Bieber’s Rhode line, has been formulating products for 35 years.
  
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• Nobel Prizes This Year Offer Three Cheers for Slow Science

  10-10-2025 00:35 via nytimes.com
  The scientific Nobels announced this week — in Physiology or Medicine, Physics and Chemistry — honored achievements rooted in fundamental research from decades ago.
  
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• Darleane Hoffman, Innovator in Nuclear Chemistry, Dies at 98

  09-10-2025 21:25 via nytimes.com
  Hailed as one of the 50 most important women in science, she found ways to study rare radioactive isotopes and advanced the understanding of nuclear fission.
  
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• Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Architects of Metal-Organic Frameworks

  08-10-2025 19:25 via nytimes.com
  The prize was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi for the development of an architecture that some chemists compare with a molecular sponge.
  
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• El Premio Nobel de Química es otorgado a los creadores de las estructuras metalorgánicas

  08-10-2025 16:56 via nytimes.com
  El galardón fue otorgado el miércoles a Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson y Omar Yaghi por el desarrollo de un nuevo tipo de arquitectura molecular.
  
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• Una explosión espacial en capas podría ser un nuevo tipo de supernova

  21-08-2025 02:33 via nytimes.com
  La inusual explosión desprendió las capas internas de una estrella moribunda y ofreció pistas sobre cómo se forjaron los elementos que componen la vida en la Tierra.
  
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• Onionlike Space Explosion May Be a New Type of Supernova

  20-08-2025 17:00 via nytimes.com
  The rare blast peeled back the inner layers of a dying star, offering clues to how the elements that make up life on Earth were forged.
  
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• Edward Anders, Who Duped Nazis and Illuminated the Cosmos, Dies at 98

  21-06-2025 01:45 via nytimes.com
  His research unraveled mysteries about the solar system and the demise of the dinosaurs. In retirement, he turned his attention to the Holocaust.
  
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• Book Review: ‘The Maverick’s Museum,‘ by Blake Gopnik

  12-05-2025 18:06 via nytimes.com
  In “The Maverick’s Museum,” Blake Gopnik presents the contradictory, intriguing, infuriating man behind the Barnes Collection.
  
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• A Decade-Long Search for a Battery That Can End the Gasoline Era

  09-05-2025 15:00 via nytimes.com
  Can a small Massachusetts start-up perfect a battery that would make electric vehicles cheaper and more convenient than conventional cars?
  
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• The Return of the Great American Stomachache

  09-04-2025 11:01 via nytimes.com
  
  If Trump removes too many precautions, there’s a real chance that we’ll rediscover how dangerous a less regulated food system can be.
  
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• Los Angeles Wildfires Leave Residents Worried About Contaminated Soil

  10-03-2025 10:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Federal agencies have removed topsoil from burned areas but will not test it for contaminants. So scientists and residents are testing fire-affected properties themselves.
  
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• Las hojas de té pueden eliminar el plomo del agua, según un estudio

  05-03-2025 17:56 via nytimes.com
  
  Los investigadores descubrieron que los compuestos de las hojas de té negro y verde actuaban como “velcro” en las moléculas de plomo.
  
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• Tea Leaves Can Steep Away Lead, Study Finds

  28-02-2025 19:03 via nytimes.com
  
  Researchers found that compounds in black and green tea leaves acted like “little Velcro” hooks on lead molecules.
  
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• Una misión para curar a los ‘monstruos’ que nos dieron el Ozempic

  22-02-2025 11:02 via nytimes.com
  
  Tras años en la industria farmacéutica, un químico cambió de rumbo para ayudar a salvar a los monstruos de Gila, la especie que hizo posible el popular fármaco para adelgazar.
  
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• On a Mission to Heal Gila Monsters

  16-02-2025 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  After years in Big Pharma, a chemist pivoted to help save the species that made Ozempic possible.
  
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• At Hillmantok, a Digital H.B.C.U., Class Is in Session

  05-02-2025 11:01 via nytimes.com
  
  A video welcoming students to Leah Barlow’s African American studies course inspired a virtual university of free TikTok lectures from Black academics and experts.
  
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• La receta perfecta de ‘cacio e pepe’, según la ciencia

  27-01-2025 11:02 via nytimes.com
  
  En un nuevo estudio, un grupo de científicos italianos afirma haber “optimizado científicamente” este plato italiano añadiendo un ingrediente.
  
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• The Perfect Cacio e Pepe Recipe, According to Science

  24-01-2025 16:59 via nytimes.com
  
  Italian scientists have drawn from thermodynamic principles to prevent a famous pasta from turning into a gooey mess.
  
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• Martin Karplus, Chemist Who Made Early Computers a Tool, Dies at 94

  13-01-2025 21:28 via nytimes.com
  
  Proving skeptics wrong, he shared a Nobel Prize in 2013 for using computers to better understand chemical reactions and biological processes.
  
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• J. Fraser Stoddart, Who Developed Microscopic Machines, Dies at 82

  11-01-2025 19:47 via nytimes.com
  
  He grew up playing with model construction sets. As an adult, he tinkered with molecules instead, creating nanomachines and winning a Nobel Prize.
  
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