Chemistry

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.

Curcumin dupes assays and leads some drug hunters astray

Deer and opossums on an Oklahoma highway harbor microbes with helpful chemicals

It stands just under three micrometers tall, carved with a scanning electron microscope

“G-putty” is so sensitive that it can track even the steps of a small spider

A gassy science project

A method for designing novel compounds could help defeat drug-resistant bacteria

A way to design new molecules and materials that the periodic table does not allow

Nanoporous fabric would cool its wearers, reducing the need for air-conditioning

An orange–avocado material that could keep crops hydrated during droughts places first at the Google Science Fair

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

The field, now called low-energy nuclear reactions, may have legit results—or be stubborn junk science