
Knot Not Easy to Knot
Chemists have synthesized the most complex molecular knot ever, using a strand just 192 atoms long. The advance could lead to new tougher materials. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Knot Not Easy to Knot
Chemists have synthesized the most complex molecular knot ever, using a strand just 192 atoms long. The advance could lead to new tougher materials. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Deceptive Spice Extract Offers Cautionary Tale for Chemists
Curcumin dupes assays and leads some drug hunters astray


Roadkill Animals Are Surprising Sources of Drug Discovery
Deer and opossums on an Oklahoma highway harbor microbes with helpful chemicals

World's Smallest Snowman: Scientist Claims New Record
It stands just under three micrometers tall, carved with a scanning electron microscope

Graphene-Spiked Silly Putty Picks up Human Pulse
“G-putty” is so sensitive that it can track even the steps of a small spider

Battling Gas Bubbles
A gassy science project

How to Make Novel Antibiotics from Scratch
A method for designing novel compounds could help defeat drug-resistant bacteria

“Supermolecules” Could Yield Materials the Periodic Table Won’t Allow
A way to design new molecules and materials that the periodic table does not allow

Fabric Made from Battery Material Cools Its Wearers
Nanoporous fabric would cool its wearers, reducing the need for air-conditioning

Teen Wins Big for a Homemade Polymer
An orange–avocado material that could keep crops hydrated during droughts places first at the Google Science Fair

We Now Live in the Unnatural World
David Biello's new book is The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age.

Cold Fusion Lives: Experiments Create Energy When None Should Exist
The field, now called low-energy nuclear reactions, may have legit results—or be stubborn junk science